RIP Instagram Sewing Pattern #

let's imagine a new future together

I’ve posted about this niche complaint several times on Instagram, and every time I get almost an equal number of responses from three camps. One, agreeing with my forlorn nostalgia for the sewing #s of yesteryear, a second group, unaware that anything has changed or that there was a different # ecosystem and a third group who felt like something changed but aren’t quite sure what, and are slightly annoyed with it but not sure why. So please, allow me the honor of sharing the history and of Instagram sewing pattern #s and how Instagram’s algorithm changes destroyed our best tool for community building and inclusivity.

Back in the late 20teens and early 2020s, Instagram # used to be a straightforward and powerful tool for sewists. Anyone could post their makes and use the pattern # to group posts into a wonderful visual encyclopedia of patterns, fabric, body shapes, fit, and hacks. All public posts with that # were visible to everyone. You had two filters available, one to organize #ed posts by most recent and the second showed the posts according to the current algorithm. The algorithm was never disclosed, but based on toggling between the two, you could tell it factored in most likes, people you follow, people who paid, most engagement, etc. To see a true representation of makes across a wide range of bodies, skill levels, and experiences for a pattern, all you had to do was click “recent” at the top and scroll to your heart’s content. Makes were almost always posted with sizing, body measurements, and details on modifications made or planned for the future. Anecdotally, I think it helped convince some of us shy guys that posting our little me-made fashion served a greater good, and therefore was worthy of digital time and space. I know it gave me the perfect group effort excuse I needed to start posting self-timed full body photos in my makes, which felt equally cringe and exhilarating. It got me out of my own dang head and forced me to live a little, for the sewing community if not for myself, initially.

As a sewist, I used this RELIGIOUSLY before choosing which patterns to purchase, which fabrics to use, and which hacks and modifications would suit my body. I found the majority of my most beloved accounts this way, including a large group of sewists across the world who have similar height, measurements, and fashion interests to me. You could also tell a lot about the patterns from seeing a full representation of the makes in one place, unrelated to or managed by the designer. Personally, if the pattern looked off on the full range of sizes, even if it looked good in my size, I didn’t buy it. To me, that indicated a grade and/or design issues, a poor investment in meaningful fit testing, and inclusivity. If lots of posts mentioned having an issue with the zip fly, I knew to expect barebones instructions. If the pattern claimed to be unisex, but every single make was on a femme-presenting body or looked off on a masc frame, I learned to look elsewhere when sewing for my husband. It also allowed people to post their honest feedback using the #, without tagging the designer, which felt helpful and neutral rather than a callout. The best part was that posting your own make felt like you were meaningfully contributing to a group project and finding community.

As a pattern designer, I used to rely on #s to showcase the versatility of my patterns across a wide variety of bodies, fabrics, and styles. #s did a better job representing my work than I ever could, especially as a single, part-time, self-taught designer. I put a lot of effort into selecting a wide range of testers who would represent the pattern, which would begin to populate the # upon pattern release and soft launch the pattern’s personality into the sewing world. Then, slowly but surely, the # would grow and morph as more benevolent sewists added their photos and make details. It allowed my patterns to take on life beyond my singular taste and sensibilities, which never ceased to delight me. It was a fun and inclusive place to be on the internet!

The sewstagram # is dead and has been for a long while.

For years now, that has all changed. I do not know the exact timeline or details of the coding behind it. What I do know is that now the algorithm dictates which # show up, and there is no way to see all posts or toggle to “recent”. I stumble upon posts I’m tagged in as a designer, but don’t come up when I search very frequently, so I know there is censorship happening. The posts you see are mostly based on popularity, which promotes all the ugly biases we all know too well (racism, fat phobia, ageism, etc.). There are also “suggested” posts you can’t opt out of, which is incredibly annoying and confusing if you are trying to do a pattern, deep dive. Not to mention the steady creep of AI slop into suggested posts, which gets increasingly bizarre and unrelated to the #. Instagram took a group project and turned it into a capitalist popularity contest.

Enter Threadloop.

To you knitters out there, Threadloop is Ravelry for sewing. For the uninitiated, Threadloop is a wonderful sewist-specific platform that can meet some of our digital sewing community's needs. It was created by our very own sewing community member, Guro Flaten. I was a lucky beta tester and continue to be a paying member. If you primarily use sewing Instagram as a digital make log and enjoy inventory/journaling type activities, this platform will fulfill your needs and then some! All the most essential features of the platform are available with a free membership, so everyone can join and contribute. If you can afford it, I highly encourage you to support through a paid subscription, which is $5 or $48 a year. Guro is incredibly engaged with the sewing community, which shows in the thoughtful functionality and frequent updates on the platform. If you are into a hyper-niche sewing space, this is the internet place for you!

Even with this great option, we have still lost a powerful community tool, and most sewists and all designers still rely on Instagram. To be completely candid, I am not active on Threadloop and don’t plan to be. Threadloop is a niche in a very special but also exclusive way. It is a smaller platform for a specific purpose, so its reach and community are smaller.

For example, here are my top two most popular patterns:

Henrietta Skirt: 101 projects on Threadloop and 1000+ on Insta (#SWSHenrietta)

Rue Quilt Coat: 8 projects on Threadloop and 500+ on Insta (#SWSRue)

Threadloop is a sewing place for your sewing self. It is a review-based platform, which has obvious utility, but also gives Yelp in a way that puts me on edge as someone whose work is being reviewed. That’s not to knock the platform, reviews, or how important feedback from the community is to small designers. I only wear one hat on that platform, and it is a pattern designer, which makes me feel like I’m at Work with a capital W.

On single-purpose platforms, there is no opportunity for the fashion, art girl, thrifter, clay, fiber art, social justice, body positive, etc. crossovers that happen so seamlessly on social media like Instagram and Tik Tok. If you’re a dabbler or sewing curious, you probably aren’t on Threadloop, therefore missing a vast and interesting group of people in the conversation. On Instagram, I share parts of my whole self and connect with people about all my art hobbies, but also my career in special education, motherhood, politics/activism, passion for neighborhood public schools, kids’ books, traveling, fostering a bilingual household, gardening, audiobooks, cooking, home renovation, small home living, music, fashion, and whatever the hell else I feel like sharing. I also love learning these things about other pattern designers and sewists. I am rich in meaningful friendships with people I know digitally across the world, thanks to a shared interest in sewing and other coincidental overlapping interests. It is also much easier to evaluate the values businesses and designers hold on a social platform, which helps me make decisions about who I choose to support with my money, energy, and attention. For me, that better fulfills my need for a digital community in this moment. Sharing, connecting with, and consuming people’s whole selves gives sewing and fashion heart and soul for me.

It took me a long time to untangle all these thoughts within myself, and it unfortunately led me to the conclusion that while I hate the tech overlords puppeteering our social media in all the wrong ways, I have also forged a really special sewing community on Instagram that I adore and rely on for creative fulfilment and my business. I could have never dreamed the life I live now before I started a sewing account, and I can’t dream of a life without it now.

Speaking of business, inclusivity has always been a core value of Spaghetti Western Sewing. If you’ve followed me on Instagram for any amount of time, you know this! If you purchase a pattern, you also know this from the intentional choices and explanations on the sizing page. If you stumble across my website or social media presence, it is not as clear as it should be. That’s something I’ve been wanting to update for a long time. I didn’t have a clear idea of how to do it well with limited resources (time, money, and photoshoot experience). I also think a photoshoot wouldn’t represent my patterns or my brand in the way I want them to be seen. I want people to see themselves in SWS patterns and feel excited and included in that process. I like a little DIY, punk, rough around the edges, grassroots vibe, and I don’t think that can be achieved without community involvement. At the same time, SWS patterns have strong personalities, which I take great care to form and telegraph to potential sewists. This requires some curation and direction on my part, and is something I think Spaghetti Western Sewists appreciate about a SWS pattern. Finding a way to coordinate and balance those two things in a way that feels true and sustainable took a long time, but I’m really excited about what I’ve come up with!

Bottom line, as a pattern designer, I need to better represent the wide range of hotties who make & wear SWS patterns.

I finally have most of the plans for how to do this and some capacity to do so! This will be a huge task to undertake, but it’s going to be FUN (god dammit). The goals will be as follows:

1. A series of “pattern cards” on each pattern listing on my website. It will list the maker’s measurements, size sewn, and any mods/hacks, and represent a variety of sizes and stylings. I hope to have 5-10 of these cards per pattern. I worked with Suze Meyers in Summer 2025 on SWS branding, and this was one of the projects we tackled together. The design of these pattern cards is loosely based on vintage pattern envelopes and this French Dispatch Movie poster:

Here is a loose layout of what we came up with, which will likely evolve as I collect images, info, and ideas:

@oh_taytay In Willa Shorts and @whatabbeywore in Ornella Top

I will, of course, be asking permission and compensating folks before sharing their images on my website and Instagram grid. This is where I need a little bit of feedback, though. I think I can safely afford $25 per image, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you start multiplying it by 5-10 people and 5-10 patterns. I thought about how I could make $25 more valuable and settled on a $25 gift certificate to a favorite sewing business. It would be a great excuse to support my fellow small sewing businesses, AND I’m not sure why, but to me, $25 you have to spend on a creative pastime feels a lot more luxurious than a $25 paypal I could and should put towards bills in this economy. So my question is, does this make any sense? Does it sound fair? Would you want to have your image and make used for this purpose? What businesses would you be most excited to get a gift card to?

2. The next tool in this trifecta is styling highlights featuring my patterns! I will start collecting posts I’m tagged in with fun styling ideas and doing some themed styling a la @whatabbeywore and @tartan_tarlatan. Recently, I visited my local fabric store and attempted to keep my cool as I saw an employee walk by wearing a Henrietta skirt and a hoodie, which is a next-level cool girl styling combo I’d never seen before. It made me think about how I can better showcase all the ways to wear my patterns, something I myself need reminders about, too.

3. Lastly, I’m going to start a series called “Out-Spaghettied” which will highlight pattern hacks! Hacks are still my favorite thing to do and see in the sewing world, and they deserve their time to shine if #s won’t be giving it to them. I also write hacks into most of my patterns and make lots of construction decisions while designing, based on which will lend themselves well to hacks. Recently, I realized that a lot of things that seem core Spaghetti Western Sewing people who have been following for a while, and me, probably aren’t at first glance or even just to newer people in this corner of the internet. The on-trend nostalgia for an analog lifestyle and a 90s childhood has reminded me that taste comes from exploration and repetition. New all the time is exhausting, and there is deep value to circling back to the same outfit, ideas, and patterns to discover how they hit. Sometimes you just need a tiny tweak or revisit to breathe new excitement into an old piece.

So let’s talk timeline.

I currently have 8 patterns with 2 more in production. This task is an impossible amount of coordination for one person working one day a week to do for all patterns at once. I actually feel the stress migraine coming on just thinking about it for one pattern. So, I’ve decided to tackle this project slowly and steadily. I’m going to choose one pattern at a time to highlight for a specific amount of time. To make it fun for all of us, I’ll throw in some discounts, style challenges, maybe a collab or giveaway. It’s going to be a good time! I’ll likely start with Henrietta since spring is coming and she’s such a loved and fun sew. It’s taken a while to get here, and there is a lot of work ahead, but I’m really glad I took the time to think through this deeply and find a solution that feels right for SWS and honors the sewing # good ol’ days.

So, not sure exactly when, but keep your eyes peeled for:

SWS Pattern Parties: Sew-a-long style pattern spotlight, styling prompts, and celebration

Out-Spaghettied!: Hack highlights, tutorials, and pattern extensions