Campaign Story

Help me launch the Rittenhouse Dress — Sew Busty’s first original pattern!

The Rittenhouse

This not-so-basic sheath dress for busty figures includes:

• > Pockets
• > Optional tummy control panel
• > Sleeveless or elbow-length sleeves
• > Sew Busty’s signature D-L garment cup sizes (4-12″ (10.2-30.5cm) difference between upper and full bust)
• > Base sizes for hips 33-73″ (83.8-185.4 cm)

This will be a PDF pattern with A4/Letter and A0 versions (and hopefully a projector version, too!).

The Rittenhouse is perfect for a day at the office or a chic evening out. The pattern is made for woven fabrics such as tweed, satin, or even velvet or denim. It will include a full sewing guide, including common alterations, to help you get the perfect fit.

(Also, did you catch that D-L cup? Yep — I’ve added two more cup sizes to the chart!)

Fancy Rittenhouse Add-On

Want to fancy it up? The Fancy Rittenhouse Add-On pattern provides even more options that make your Rittenhouse dress perfect for a black tie event. Namely, the Fancy Rittenhouse Add-On features:

• > Illusion sweetheart neckline bodice variation
• > Trumpet skirt add-on — including instructions to make it detachable so you can take your dress from day to night!

The Budget

The goal is to raise $1500 to help me break even on the Rittenhouse Dress. Here’s the breakdown of this budget:

Grading + Development

For grading, I will be working with Jennifer from Porcelynne Patterns and Passionate Patternmaker Podcast. Jennifer is an experienced designer, and has done grading for a bunch of other companies! She also was one of the few folks I talked to who didn’t look at me like I had lost it when I told her I have 16 base sizes and 9 cup sizes in each — a total of 144 bodice sizes. Her response? “Well, my Eve bra pattern has 2000 sizes, so 144 is nothing!”

I’ll also be working with Ruby from Starling Petite Plus Patterns as a consultant. Ruby has been consulting with me throughout the pattern block alpha testing process, and she’s such a great mind, and excellent at helping riddle out fit issues!

Much of the budget for grading and development includes compensating Jennifer and Ruby, and the remainder covers additional development costs, such as materials and copyediting.

Pattern Testers

I aim to compensate pattern testers with a small stipend as well as a copy of the pattern. For alpha testing (4-5 testers), I hope to pay $25 each. For beta testing (5-10 testers), I hope to pay $15. Alpha testers receive more compensation than beta testers because the pattern will be in a rougher draft at the alpha stage, with no instructions, and testers are less likely to get a wearable garment out of their test. At the beta stage, instructions will be complete and test garments are likely to be wearable. Testers also receive a copy of the final pattern.

I know these stipends don’t cover the full commitment testers invest in the pattern, but I hope they can at least cover much of their materials costs. (I also research and provide links to low-cost fabric options in each tester’s locality.)

Testing the Rittenhouse Dress will build upon the testing already completed on the Sew Busty pattern block, which has been tested across the size range and is looking great. Because the block has already passed testing and the pattern was drafted from this block, I’m very confident that testing will be smooth!

Operating Costs

The annual operating costs for Sew Busty Community + Patterns, aside from grading and testing costs related directly to development of each pattern, is about $1600. Read more about Sew Busty’s operating budget here. I plan to release 2 more patterns this year, so we’ll essentially have sales of 3 original patterns and the Jet Set and Constellation Patterns to cover these costs. Covering 1/4 of these operating costs through preorders of the Rittenhouse Dress will help to ensure sustainability.

Unlike with a Kickstarter, this pattern will happen whether or not the goal is reached. Funding the creation and grading of the Rittenhouse Dress, however, will help to ensure the next pattern can also happen!

The Timeline

The Rittenhouse is already drafted in the base size, so the next step is to grade for the rest of the size chart — both base sizes and cup sizes. After that, testing will commence, which I anticipate taking 8-10 weeks for alpha and beta testing. That puts release of the pattern at late April or early May.

Potential Challenges

Of course, there’s a chance testing takes longer than anticipated, or that a sudden illness or other issue prevents me from completing per the above schedule. Worst case, things get delayed a bit. We’ll get the Rittenhouse Dress pattern out there as soon as possible! I believe this timeline is absolutely do-able.

Again, this pattern is already in development, so it will come to market even if we fail to meet the funding goal. The bigger risk is whether the next pattern will also be able to happen.

Why Not Kickstarter?

I decided to self-host this preorder campaign, because Kickstarter takes a large percentage cut from campaigns hosted on their site. I don’t blame them; they’ve gotta make money! But hosting this campaign on my own site means paying only ~3% payment processing fees instead of 5% Kickstarter fees + 3-5% payment processing fees (yes; Kickstarter takes 8-10%!).