Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Han Solo Pattern No Longer Available

Some of you may have landed on my blog looking for my Han Solo Cross Stitch pattern. I'm sorry to say that as of today, I am no longer offering it for free on the internet.

This honestly makes me quite sad. However, I discovered yesterday that there are people who have been stitching up this pattern and selling the finished design online.

When I put up the pattern four years ago, I did it in the spirit of crafty sharing. My husband and I had a great time designing and laying out the pattern, and I had fun stitching it up. I wanted to share that fun with other crafty Star Wars fans. It was meant to be a free thing--I even put a polite disclaimer right on the pattern asking folks to please not sell the pattern or the finished product.



Perhaps this is a case of "if you don't want your work stolen, then don't put it on the internet" (which I hate the sentiment behind), or perhaps these stitchers simply didn't understand that "free to use" doesn't mean "free to sell." But, I'll never forget that sick, heartbroken feeling I got seeing my work for sale under someone else's name. Perhaps this is a sign that it's time to take my crafting in a more serious direction, or simply a lesson about sharing online. I have a lot of thinking to do about how I want to proceed, but the clear course of action for now is to simply remove the pattern.

I'm sorry to anyone who came here hoping to stitch one for yourself. Perhaps there'll be a time the pattern is available again, but for now, I feel the need to protect my design and myself from further infringement. I hope you understand.

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