Diversity and inclusivity

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIVITY POLICY

We set up The Fold Line to create a diverse and inclusive sewing community for us all. One of the most wonderful things about sewing is all the possibilities of what we can make, from the choice of fabric to being able to fit clothes to our unique body shapes. A very important part of this is sewing patterns being accessible to everyone in the sewing community and that we see ourselves reflected in the designs being created. We want everyone to feel represented, included and inspired. We do understand how important this is and we are always striving to be as inclusive as possible. Being inclusive means ensuring we represent the diversity of makers within our sewing community including, but not limited to, size, age, race, gender, sexual orientation and ability diversity. Below we share with you the positive steps we have taken and the work we still want to do.

SIZE RANGES AND MODEL DIVERSITY

We welcome all new pattern designers who are interested in selling their creations in our shop to get in contact. We work with independent designers that are committed to using an inclusive size range. We encourage designers to include a diverse range of models for their designs, reflecting the sewing community we all belong to (including seated photos). We know many designers are already making these changes, if they haven’t already done so, and we offer our support in helping them make these important changes in any way we can.

Whenever a new pattern range is released by a designer, we always stock the full size range. We also send feedback from you to designers we work with regarding all aspects of sewing patterns from fit to inclusivity. We have already approached a number of designers who create more size inclusive patterns to stock their patterns in our shop, for example Style Arc, Itch to Stitch and Paper Theory Patterns to name a few. We will always share these in our newsletter and on social media as soon as they become available. We are limited some weeks to the styles of patterns being released and we are conscious that the content we share isn’t always as diverse as we would like it to be. If there is a designer you would like us to sell in our sewing pattern shop please email us at hello@thefoldline.com.

We have also standardised all the sewing patterns for women on our website using this size chart. When you browse for sewing patterns using our search tool, you can search for patterns from sizes UK 2 / US 00 / EU 30 to UK 44 / US 40 / EU 72. We are all unique and not defined by our size – standardising the size search in this way is simply a practical tool to help us all find patterns we want to make.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE WEBSITE

We are always actively looking to share a diverse range of new sewing pattern releases on our social media and website. We also do this with the sewing pattern reviews we share on our social media, blog and newsletters. We want to encourage everyone to contribute their reviews to our website so we can share as diverse and inclusive a range of makers as possible, so please do share yours! If you visit the sewing pattern reviews page of our website, you can see it isn’t diverse and we would like to hear your thoughts on this. Is there anything stopping you from leaving a review or feeling part of the community?

PROMOTING SEWING COMMUNITY GROUPS AND MINORITY-OWNED BUSINESSES

Another great part of the sewing community is all the amazing challenges we can take part in. We are always looking for sewing challenges and hashtags raising awareness to share and particularly welcome those from minority sewing groups. We have collated a number of these sewing challenges and include hashtags on our website here, so please do take a look and get involved. These groups can be found on social media, where they welcome new members and share advice and inspiration for your sewing projects. If you are organising a sewing challenge or hashtag please do let us know by emailing hello@thefoldline.com so we can share it to get as many makers involved as possible.

We offer free advertising slots in our newsletter for minority-owned pattern designers and sewing businesses. If you would like to be featured or want to recommend a business you love, please let us know at hello@thefoldline.com. To see the businesses we are featuring in our newsletter, you can subscribe on the homepage.

We are currently reviewing the events we are considering attending this year to ensure a diverse range of businesses, makers and judges are participating.

You can discover all the minority-owned pattern designers we stock in our online sewing pattern shop here.

For a list of minority-owned creative businesses and ally vendors, Jacinta Green has complied this comprehensive spreadsheet. There is also a list of Black pattern designers on Nateida’s website (Sew Natural Dane) as part of The Black History Month Pattern Designer Challenge.

ACCESSIBILITY AT EVENTS

Each year we host an event called The Sewing Weekender in Cambridge, UK. This is an inclusive event – the College where we hold the event is accessible to wheelchair users and sewists with disabilities. Accommodation suitable for wheelchair users and sewists with disabilities is available on request along with onsite parking. We also ensure you have our personal contact details available over the weekend should you need any assistance along with 24 hour help from the College porters. Since 2020 we have hosted our the Sewing Weekender online, which makes the event accessible to those who are unable to attend in person. The video content is available to watch after the event, for those who may not be able to join in on the day.

We also attend a limited number of sewing shows throughout the year. We do our best to ensure before committing to these events that they are also accessible.

ACCESSIBILITY ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE WEBSITE

It is important to us that sewing is accessible to all makers. We have made the following changes to our website and social media to make accessing our content as easy as possible. We use black font throughout our website against a white background with Avenir font for the main body of the text (a sans-serif typeface). We include captions on our Instagram stories. We also include image descriptions and capitalised hashtags in the text of our Instagram posts. Our video content is published on YouTube and this platform offers the option of subtitles for all viewers.

We are currently working our way through thousands of pattern images to include alt text descriptions for the cover photos. The digital PDF patterns we sell are available to download as single PDF files, not .zip folders, so that makers who find using a tablet more accessible (rather than a keyboard) can open and view the files more easily.

In the garment filter options we offer for searching patterns, makers can opt for ‘No Zipper’ and ‘Elasticated Waist’ along with many other shapes and styles.

GENDER AND LANGUAGE

We continue to make changes to our website to make our use of gender language more inclusive. We have changed the use of our language for children’s patterns and clothing. You will no longer see us reference girls and boys where styles are split by sex but instead patterns are grouped by garment type and age. We continue to seek new pattern designers who design for gender-free bodies. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive notifications of these new designers.

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION

This is an issue we take very seriously within the sewing industry and we continue to educate ourselves and our team on the appropriate use of imagery and language. The question of what is cultural appropriation vs. appreciation is something the sewing community continues to explore with regards to pattern design, terminology and fabric. We encourage you to read the numerous blog posts on this subject from members of the sewing community.