Uh oh. I think a lot of us have been waiting for the other shoe to drop on this one. Design Group Americas, DGA, which owns Simplicity patterns (and the other “big 4” sewing pattern brands), has announced 60% layoffs. This includes 80 NYC staffers, their entire design office. This is… not good.
For those of us who are longtime sewists, we have a lot of sewing patterns in our stashes and a lot of those are from the Big 4 pattern brands (all now owned by Simplicity). And the loss of all of those designs, historically, is a lot. But the loss of the design – and printing – of future designs is a big loss. These companies occupied about 80% of the sewing pattern market, and with the closure of JoAnn, they lost the vast majority of their distribution outlets (99%).
Private equity is a scourge on our society. They buy up companies, squeeze out every bit of money they can and leave the rest to parcel off into little parts. What parts might be available after this? The historical designs and masters, the brands and licenses (if any licenses remain). Who could buy them? If there’s a true fire sale and it was being sold for pennies on the dollar, it’s possible that a group of indie brands could acquire them (it would have to be VERY cheap!)
It does, indeed, look like DGA is going under for good
A small sample of my sewing pattern collection featuring patterns from Simplicity, New Look, McCalls and Butterick, collectively known as “The Big Four” – owned by Design Group Americas (DGA) which was recently acquired by Hilco, a liquidator that most recently liquidated JoAnn stores.
The implications for the indie pattern industry are big. On the positive side, there will be no more competition from the Big 4 – those $1.99 pattern sales will be a thing of the past for sure. But on the other side, those indie brands utilized the printing services (tissue printing) from the DGA group, and that won’t be easily replicable. They were being printed partly in Mexico and partly in Kansas, but always through DGA. And as indie brands aren’t able to access this specialized printing, they will have to pivot to considerably more expensive printing services (or not offer it at all.)
In short, here’s what I believe will happen:
Someone may acquire the brand assets of those companies (the masters and other assets) at a very low cost, but may or may not be able to act on them in the way we’ve come to expect. The printing services will likely close for good. Here are the players I think most likely: BurdaStyle might buy them. They are likely the largest and best-funded company to buy the DGA brands and assets. They won’t likely offer printed patterns. Simplicity UK might buy them. Anything shipped to you in either case would be subject to tariffs (under the current administration in 2025) or you’d get downloadable PDF patterns.
There will be no more collections past this fall one that’s currently out there, and fulfillment via the website will likely end soon (even before Sept 25th, 2025.) If there’s anything you wanted, watch for a big sale and put stuff in your wish list first.
The indie brands that print with them will likely change their format – heavier paper, larger size envelopes, or not offer printed patterns at all.
Times are changing – as sewists, we have only to change with them. And support indie brands and local stores both in your communities and online.