We are pausing our offer for custom pattern design. Previously we provided a free service to create a custom-fit sewing pattern to anyone who submitted their ideas, designs, or descriptions to us.
We appreciate everyone who requested that we create custom-fit sewing patterns based off their submissions. We had some great successes. There were several take-aways from the last 6 months of our experiment.
We can’t accommodate everyone’s designs
Some of you submitted really crazy off-the-wall stuff that would take us tons of hours to design and we’d probably only sell one of them. Sorry – but that was not something that we could do and stay in business.
We lose money initially on every design that we make. It costs several hundred dollars to create a pattern, and we need to sell many patterns to justify the expense. Therefore we can’t make patterns that are so specific to a customer that no one else would ever want it.
It’s really hard to hire good people
We had hoped that as demand increased, and it did increase as the word spread, that we would be able to ramp up production by hiring more people to help with pattern design and testing. Unfortunately, we went through almost half a dozen new hires and none of them worked out. This is the primary reason why we have to slow things down.
FYI – if you would like to be a pattern tester or help us with pattern creation (taking pictures and videos of the construction process) – then please get in contact with us at sales@MJTrends.com.
The marketplace is hard to gauge
Another reason for us to offer custom design services for free to the community is because we thought your submissions might be a better predictor of demand that MJTrends could do internally. However, in terms of popularity, we are about as good as you at picking patterns that other people want.
Some patterns don’t sell at all, and others sell like hotcakes. We haven’t figured out how to predict which ones will be popular. For now, we are going to return to producing the ones that have been asked for the most after we get caught up with current requests.
We plan to make everything easier
Ultimately, our goal is to make it easier for you to get custom-fit patterns in as short a time as possible. That might mean an easier design option for customers to use on our website as a self-service option, or an improved way for us to turn around designs faster with the staff that we currently have.
Most likely the solution will be a combination of both. Whatever solution we use at MJTrends internally will most likely also be available to customers to use in a self-service way for those of you who want ultimate control over your designs.
Over the next 12-24 months, we hope to dedicate the time and resources to introduce our 3rd version of our pattern design tools. The goal is a 100% visual design application that requires no math or setting of measurements, as everything will be automated, allowing the user the freedom to design quickly and intuitively. (If you were unaware our 2nd version exists currently at www.Modamake.com.)
Regardless, we hope that you’ll understand and continue to be patient with us as we try to improve our custom-fit sewing pattern service. We’d still love to hear from you on new designs that you would like.
Please drop us a line at sales@MJTrends.com and let us know your thoughts. And yes, to those of you who are waiting – we know we owe you a female catsuit pattern, and it is next on the list…
Reading this makes me rethink submitting overly specific designs in the future, since broader appeal clearly matters for keeping things viable.
It’s interesting that customer submissions didn’t predict demand any better than your own instincts, especially with some designs selling like hotcakes while others flop completely.
Hiring struggles seem like the real bottleneck here, not lack of interest, since demand actually increased as word spread about the free custom service.
I respect that you’re pausing instead of delivering slow or inconsistent results, especially with a backlog of existing requests to finish.
Offering opportunities for testers and people to help with photos and videos is a smart way to involve the community without overextending your core team.
It’s helpful to understand that even popular-looking ideas might not sell, which explains why some designs disappear quickly after release.
The plan to combine faster internal workflows with customer-facing tools sounds like the right direction instead of relying on free custom work.
The idea of a 100% visual design tool with no measurements sounds ambitious, but honestly that would remove one of the biggest barriers for beginners like me.
The note about going through half a dozen hires without success really stood out, since scaling creative work like pattern drafting is clearly harder than it looks from the outside.
Totally get why one-off, super specific designs aren’t viable if you might only sell a single copy after investing hours and hundreds of dollars.
It’s refreshing to see you admit that predicting trends is basically a guessing game even for you, not just for customers submitting ideas.
I remember browsing some of those experimental patterns, so hearing they were essentially subsidized explains why the service couldn’t continue in that form.
I can see how some submissions would be wildly impractical, especially if they require tons of development time for something only one person wants.
Going back to the most-requested patterns seems like a practical reset while you figure out staffing and tooling issues.
I’m curious how you’ll balance self-service tools with maintaining pattern quality, since automation can be tricky with complex garment construction.
The 12–24 month timeline for version three feels realistic given everything you described about hiring challenges and development complexity.
I appreciate the transparency about losing several hundred dollars per pattern; it makes sense why ultra-niche requests aren’t sustainable even if they’re fun ideas.
The female catsuit shoutout made me laugh, but it also shows you’re still trying to follow through on existing requests despite the pause.
The mention of Modamake as version two was helpful because I didn’t realize you already had an earlier iteration of the design system running.