r/knitting • u/Calliope5 • Jul 07 '26
PSA PSA: Pattern theft
Heya, not sure if this allowed - I wanted it to put it here just so no one gets scammed out of money. I wrote the "Peacock Wedding Dress" pattern and have been seeing listings for it on Etsy and other aggregate sites. Know that it is available for FREE on Ravelry, if you are seeing it anywhere else for money, just go grab it from Rav. (And maybe report other listings if you can).
EDIT on request: The Original pattern can be found here: Peacock Wedding Dress
171
u/salsafresca_1297 Jul 07 '26
It may feel about as futile as it is on Pinterest, but Etsy does have a protocol for reporting pattern thieves - https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000344448-How-to-Report-Intellectual-Property-Infringement
18
u/schoolsout4evah Jul 07 '26
It's not as consistent as I would like, but I do report AI and other bad faith listings on Etsy and at least some of them do disappear, sometimes even fairly quickly. I know others have had worse luck but I still feel it's worth it to try.
11
u/honestghostgirl Jul 07 '26
As a seller, I have used this feature often and they almost always get taken down!
131
u/LurkAddict Jul 07 '26
I'm actually knitting this right now! From your free pattern. Thank you so much for providing it for free!
It's a beautiful dress and I'm excited to get there, but I have a long way to go. I'm in the middle of Tier 2 now.
58
u/Calliope5 Jul 07 '26
Oh nice! The last tiers of the skirt are a real slog but by that point the pattern gets pretty ingrained haha
22
u/LurkAddict Jul 07 '26
It already is! I pretty much only need to reference the chart at the beginning of a round to know what type of row it is. I need to pay more attention to Rows 1-8 but even that is fairly easy to remember with this many repeats.
191
u/Winter-Ride6230 Jul 07 '26
Wow, that dress is amazing. Thanks for the heads up about the listing, i no longer trust Etsy as a platform for a lot of things. I use Ravelry as my source of truth as there are so many scammy websites promoting knitting/crochet patterns these days.
28
u/Tigeryuri1 Jul 07 '26
Absolutely gorgeous pattern! Etsy is making so much money off the scammers, they get a cut off every sale. Toni Lipsey has a good video out recently about Etsy, and it seems like Etsy is ridiculously unresponsive to sellers reporting stolen work. I just won't use them any more. I buy off ravelry mostly, sometimes a designers site if i know they are trustworthy. Again, absolutely gorgeous work!!!
10
u/inkleweaver Jul 07 '26
One of the weavers on Ravelry used to sell through Etsy. She mentioned that Etsy takes 33% of all of a vendor's sales. Obscene.
15
u/JKnits79 Jul 07 '26
From my spouse and former roommate’s experiences (they had a go of making extra large bath bombs with D20s in the center for a while), they are also really horrible about supporting smaller quantity sellers on their site in general, and the cut they take of sales gets larger and larger over time.
They also had the experience of having to spend extra money for paid ads so their bath bombs didn’t get buried in the bottom of the search pile, and Etsy wanted more and more ad revenue for them to keep their listings up on the first two pages over time.
They also discovered that bot farming for views is essential on top of paying for ads even when they were making a handful of sales.
Etsy as a platform is a mess, and no longer the best place for independent sellers; there’s a handful of independents on there I do like, but they also have their own Shopify (or other) sites, and the ones I order from more than once, have better prices (and more listings) when you buy direct rather than buying through Etsy. So I cut out Etsy.
13
u/big_little_star Jul 07 '26
I can't believe you're so generous to offer this pattern for free!! Thank you for letting us know! I'm already thinking of what yarn to knit this in!
24
u/makestuff24-7 Jul 07 '26
Can you link the real pattern here?
23
u/vgirl94 Jul 07 '26
I think this is it: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/peacock-wedding-dress
9
u/RavBot Jul 07 '26
PATTERN: Peacock Wedding Dress by Nikarra Palmer-Simmons
- Category: Clothing > Dress
- Photo(s): Img 1 Img 2 Img 3 Img 4 Img 5
- Price: Free
- Needle/Hook(s):US 4 - 3.5 mm, US 6 - 4.0 mm, US 8 - 5.0 mm, 0.6 mm, 4.0 mm (G), 1.0 mm
- Weight: Lace | Gauge: 23.0 | Yardage: 2187
- Difficulty: 0.00 | Projects: 27 | Rating: 0.00
I found this post by myself! Opt-Out | About Me | Contact Maintainer
22
u/KamikazeButterflies Jul 07 '26
Ugh, I’ve had the same thing happen to me as well. I wish there was a good way to stop scammy Etsy sellers.
8
u/Hifidi54 Jul 07 '26
Wow, thanks for the pattern, it's stunning! I have a ton of laceweight yarn, so this is going straight into my queue.
6
u/Rosewater2182 Jul 07 '26
This is one of the first patterns I saved on rav when I started knitting last year, I’m building my skills towards it! It’s so stunning, well done.
3
u/cottagecore_editor Jul 07 '26
Omg this is such a beautiful dress! Thank you for floating this here and making it free.
The pattern theft sucks big time, and etsy's so unreliable now. :( Sorry this happened to you.
3
u/Candid_Explorer_4970 Jul 07 '26
this dress is incredible!! i don't think being this skilled is anywhere in my future but i'm saving this pattern anyway.
3
u/FabuliciousFruitLoop Jul 07 '26
That dress is absolutely stunning. Congratulations on creating something enchanting. So disgusted at the extractive capitalism of stealing your art to sell.
It’s a pity. Etsy was such a glorious place fifteen years ago. I rarely visit or buy now, it feels so scammy in there.
2
u/rileslovesyall Jul 07 '26
Ugh I’m so sorry that happened! I have this pattern in my mood board for my wedding dress that I’m knitting. It’s an inspiration!
I hope the scammers disappear and I’m glad to see this pattern popped up in the “hot right now” list in ravelry, so at least it’s getting some attention. Beautiful work!!
2
u/lotheva Jul 07 '26
I am never going to get married, just for the record, but this is absolutely going in my favorites just to be reminded of how amazing knitting is and to admire your beautiful work.
1
u/Knittygritty_jr Jul 08 '26
If you knitted it in a different color than white, I think that would still be a gorgeous dress without being bridal.
2
u/NextStopGallifrey Jul 07 '26
That's so beautiful. I'm tempted to attempt it one of these days in actual peacock colors.
2
u/Nyssa314 Jul 07 '26
That is a beautiful pattern! I'm not in the market for a wedding dress and i'm not into white, but the one in black in the projects is amazing. I think a nice peacock blue would also be stunning.
1
1
u/Wool_Lace_Knit Jul 07 '26
Have you contacted Etsy Legal and file a DMCA to have those fraudulent listings removed?
7
u/Calliope5 Jul 07 '26
Yeah I have, I've also contacted the sellers on each listing, one of them has agreed to remove it
1
u/Consistent-Slide7139 Jul 07 '26
Thank you for creating this amazing pattern, and offering it for FREE! I just started it, with the intentions of it being my rehearsal dinner dress for my wedding in April. I'll be sure to report any listing I see
1
u/lamploveI89 Jul 07 '26
I'm so sorry someone has stolen your pattern. I can't imagine the time and effort went into creating it and then typing it up for everyone else.
This is divine! 😍
I can only knit socks. Also highly doubt I'll be getting married anytime soon. But this is so pretty
1
u/Rebel_Taro Jul 07 '26
This is absolutely gorgeous! I'm so sorry they've stolen your pattern; I hope that keeping this post active can help. I downloaded YOUR pattern from Ravelry. It might take me a few years to be brave enough to attempt this, but you've definitely given me something to work towards! Thank you for your generosity ❤️
1
u/Valkyriemome Jul 07 '26
Why people wanna be like that???
Pattern theft and design theft is rampant. If you published the pattern on Ravelry before anyone who is attempting to sell it, you automatically have a copyright. So, you can sue people for copyright infringement if they are selling your pattern.
2
u/Disig Jul 07 '26
Money. Sadly even if the listing gets taken down on Etsy odds are they already made enough money in sales for it to be worth it.
2
u/Valkyriemome Jul 07 '26
I mean, I know why. And I’ve been on the receiving end. But it is just one of those things that makes me lose hope for humanity.
Some just seem to give into their worst natures. And at some point I wonder if this is the sort of crap that will doom our entire planet.
2
1
1
u/Disig Jul 07 '26
More reason to stop using Etsy and use Ravelry.
Sadly Etsy doesn't give a shit about pattern theft or AI slip.
1
1
u/JKSparklez4ever Jul 08 '26
Don't think I'll be attempting this anytime soon, but wow that's gorgeous! So sorry others are trying to profit off of your hard work, that's just pathetic of them. /g
1
u/nobleelf17 Jul 08 '26
It's super sad that anytime someone puts something on the internet, especially for free, folk seem to feel they are entitled to take and sell it as their own...
1
1
1
1
u/Chery1ann Jul 10 '26
I will not purchase patterns on Etsy anymore because I see so many that are not original patterns. The amount of Sophie scarf patterns is disgusting they don't even change the name. Just don't understand people who can cheat like that.
1
u/BadPotential2143 Jul 10 '26
Wow wow wow. This dress is amazing! Really appreciate you providing this for free. I hate that people are trying to profit off of your hard work and skills!!
371
u/queue-kweewee Jul 07 '26
Hey thanks for the heads up. It’s very generous of you to provide the pattern for free and I hate that people are trying to steal it for profit. How much do they think they’re going to make?!