General Questions

What is this all about?

Here at Your Style Rocks! we think that individual, home-sewn fashion is so much more exciting than standard clothes you can buy in highstreet stores - which is why we offer you dress patterns to download and use for free. You have your own design ideas? Awesome! Share them with us in our monthly challenge. The style rated the most by our community will be published as next month's free pattern. It could be your design that's going to rock our fashion world next!

But I cannot sew!

You should learn! It's really not that hard and so much more rewarding than just buying clothes off the peg. There are many websites offering help for beginners. And if you have any questions while sewing one of our patterns, you can always ask for advice in our forum.

What about the monthly challenge? I'm not that good at drawing either...

It doesn't really matter how good or technically advanced your design illustrations are, as long as you manage to bring across the idea for your style. It helps to include a description and sketches of details that are important to you. In the end it's the community that decides which design will make it as next month's free pattern. If you manage to excite your fellow Stylerockers, then it's certainly good enough for us!

What's with the user ranking? What do I have to do to get promoted?

Users get promoted based on their activity in our challenges and the forum. If one of your challenge entries wins and is turned into a pattern, it will instantly earn you the title "Style Rockstar" for life!

Is all this really free?

Absolutely - as long as you use our service and our patterns for private purposes only, everything is completely free of charge.

Anything else I need to know?

We hope that everybody enjoys Your Style Rocks! as much as we do. So please be kind to your fellow stylerockers, don't diss other people's work, if you have to criticise then please be constructive and, most importantly, have fun!

Patterns

How do I download and open the patterns?

Before you download a pattern you must choose which sizing system you prefer (American or European). Then pick your size and save the file to your computer. Our patterns are in PDF format - to open them you need a PDF reader software, such as Adobe Reader, which you can download here for free: http://get.adobe.com/reader/

I'm not sure which size is right for me.

Please consult our size comparison table first:

Is there anything I need to know before I print a pattern?

When printing your pattern, make sure that you have the function "Fit to page" switched off in your PDF reader software. Always print at 100%. After printing, check the 5" by 5" test square on each pattern with a tape measure to make sure that the dimension are correct.

How do I use the patterns?

With a normal office printer you can print the A4 patterns on standard letter-size sheets of paper. The individual pages have marks indicating where to stick them together. Once you've done this you are good to go. If you want to avoid going through the process of printing and assembling a bunch of pages you can also go to your local copyshop or use FedEx Office to have your pattern printed in poster size and ready for use - choose the A0 size download for this.

I just finished a sewing project based on one of your patterns! Wanna see?

Oh yes, definitely! We'd love to see your work - you can show it to everybody in our forum.

Challenge

What should my challenge entry look like?

Just submit whatever you feel is necessary to get your design idea across. You don't have to be a professional illustrator to join the fun - all you need to do is draw a little sketch of the outfit of your dreams and write a brief description. If your piece has interesting details you should draw these individually. Please make sure that your design is really yours and not a copy of somebody else's work.

Can I invite my friends to sign up and vote for my design?

Sure - the more the merrier. Just don't use multlple accounts to push your own entry up the ladder. We will find out and put your votes back to zero.