Wave Goodbye by Nicole (Follow the White Bunny) -
pattern available here until 30th December 2014
Hands up who's addicted to embroidery .pdfs? I am, there's nothing like a spot of instant pleasure, affordable art and anticipation (of the stitching you plan to do with the pattern), that a good embroidery .pdf can bring. So, I'm very sad to hear that some of my favourite designers have been badly affected by a change in European tax law, that comes in force at the beginning of next year, meaning that, if you're an European designer, selling digital products (such as .pdfs) will suddenly become a hell of a lot more complicated. You can read more about the change in law on this excellent post from
What Delilah Did.
Nobody has ever become rich from selling embroidery and craft .pdfs, in fact even before this some embroidery designers were shutting up shop, the new ruling makes it even more questionable whether selling embroidery .pdfs is worth it. Reading the recent crop of blog posts has been sad and frustrating, that bureaucracy meant to tackle tax avoidance in large multinationals, is instead going to stifle fledgling businesses. Nicole from
Follow the White Bunny is no longer going to sell .pdfs from 31st December, however her shop will remain open. Carina from
Polka and Bloom thinks she may have to put up her prices to counter the cost of the extra administration. Sami from
Teasemade will also stop selling .pdf patterns on 31st December. Laura from
Bugs and Fishes will be removing her .pdf patterns from her shop on 22nd December, as well as no longer accepting blog ads (also affected by the new rules), she will be looking for a VAT compliant reseller and selling her .pdfs that way.
So, if you've been eyeing up that Follow the White Bunny .pdf that you never quite got round to buying (Nicole's latest pattern
Wave Goodbye is particularly lovely), want to get in on the action on one of Carina's classes or pattern clubs before prices may rise (I love her new
Stitchy Souvenirs pattern club) or fancy wanting to know how Laura makes one of her
felt creations, or support any of the other talented European designers out there that are selling digital products, now is the time to do it.
If anyone knows of any other European designers whose businesses have been negatively affected by this new ruling and I haven't mentioned them, please do leave a comment below.
