Are You a Copycat?

I've been absolutely taken over by top making frenzy.

The first five are all stitched up and hanging waiting to be worn. 

I've been making lots of drawings of different changes I can make to each one. From embellishments, to shapes and fabrics. 

When an idea pops in my head when I'm out and about, I scrabble in my bag for paper and pen. When I get home all these scrappy shopping lists and receipts get added to my book of ideas and things

I've been having a lot of fun stitching these tops. I started off with a basic idea in my head and as I've gone along I've made changes to make the pattern work better.  I feel I've now got the pattern to how it works best and that means I can start to try out all my other ideas for it. 

That means even more tops then.

 I wore this one to work this week. 

There was nothing wrong with it at all, but I got the urge to add a little something more when I got home.

Come Friday I was at my machine as soon as my man drove Little Bun off to school (Miss Rosey has been abed all week with high temperatures). This is my second to last Friday off for a while as I'll be doing five day weeks for a bit so it was even more precious stitching time. 

Within a couple of hours I'd done and dusted the yellow and blue tops I'd cut out last weekend.

 I decided to keep the yellow fairly plain and simple with just a cream trim to the bottom.

 The blue one is made from one of my favourite fabrics. It has all the best shades of blue in it and I just love the bolder print. 

This is cut from a double sheet that I found at last summers Little Vintage Lover Fair in Heydon.

I've not wanted to cut into it as I couldn't decide whether to use it for curtains, a dress or ?????

Then I thought for goodness sake use what you've got and stop being so precious. 

So I cut some of it up.

Then I thought I know I'll add some blue spot binding to the neckline, give it a bit of a break up of pattern.

I squeezed out time this week to finish Little Bun's top too. 

 It fits perfectly (phew) and she loves it too (second phew). 

 

Miss Rosey hasn't asked for one yet, she is more of a Jack Wills, Hollister lover, but will wear things I make for her now and then.

Do you know, with five all hot off the machine, I have one absolute favourite. It's this one made in the most glorious cotton. The print is in perfect shades of pink, mustard and yellow which I love, but even better than that is the softness of the cotton. I found it in a fleamarket and am so glad I chose this one. I only had enough cash on me for one of the two fabrics I'd picked up and I nearly chose the pale lilac floral instead.

 

When I got the idea in my head that I wanted to make a top I knew exactly what I was after. I drew up some shapes and gathered some fabric together. As I'm slowly trying to teach myself how to make my own patterns I searched through my books to find a basic shape to help me out.

In the first Sewing Bee was a basic vest shape that gave me the starting point for the type of shapes I needed to draw. From there I made my own patterns and created tops that are nothing like the original pattern I turned to. 

I've been thinking about this a lot this part week. Does this mean what I've made is my own creation and the idea belongs to me, or is it a copy?

 My man feels that once you take something commonplace such as a vest shape and make it into your own then the design right belongs to you. A friend I chatted about it with thought you only had to make two changes to something for it to become yours. 

Copying and copyright are something that have always been on my mind and is really quite a tricksy area which a lot of other creative blogs have also discussed.

In the end I looked it up to see where I stand. 

If you're interested in this type of thing then here's a bit of what I found out woven up with my own opinions.

Question 1. What do I do if another person copies me? 

Question 2. What do I do if I see someone has copied another person?

Question 3. How do I avoid copying other people?

Question 4. Are there any rules or laws on this?

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There is the view that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". There's another view that imitation or rather downright blatant copying is not done and is in fact stealing.  For something to copyrighted it has to be original, not commonplace Design Right Act of 1949.

It's hard to absoultely avoid appearing to copy another persons creation as we are all prey to similar influences and trends and there are few things are truly original. However, there are certain things that are commonplace such as basic trousers or t-shirt shapes for example, it's what you do with that design that makes it original.

There are also some things we just want to copy for our own use as we love it so much.

If I want to copy something because I love it or I see something that inspires me then I always refer to that source. I would never offer that design for sale as my own as it's just not on (aside from the fact that there are laws about this fair dealings/fair ise rules). 

I checked up on the laws around this and it seems that are two things to consider. First, the designers brand identity. Second, the embodiment of their ideas (what they produce). 

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I've seen two examples of blatant copying over the years where one person not only takes the brand identity, rather than being able to establish one of their own and then they go on to produce exact copies of that other persons work. Both designers that I've noted being copied are very well known and highly thought of in their fields so possibly they aren't bothered by these two smaller fish in the pond. However, copying without consent of the copyright owner is against the law as is copying if you then have a financial impact on their sales. I guess this is where your copy is cheaper and easier to get hold of so people will buy from you. 

In one of these cases I was contacted by another blogger, who happened to be a highly regarded artist and had become a friend of mine (the point of this is that she was struggling with her work being copied). She asked what I thought about this other person who was copying Julie Arkell's work and then selling designs as her own. I agreed I thought it was going on and so I mentioned it to someone I knew who is great friends with Julie. Her response was that Julie was aware of it and really wasn't bothered. She created from passion and I guess at the end of the day this other person knows they're a cheat.

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If I believe someone has copied my ideas then I might challenge them if I have enough proof. 

On the whole, with the amount of places we can post our ideas and work these days, I think uploading images of your work and reminders that it is in fact your work serves as enough of a gentle reminder at times. 

You can take the other option and just ignore it as often what they've created is pretty awful anyways.

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There are so many other aspects to all of this I know. They're just my views on the subject, I'd love to hear what you think.