The results of our annual Charm Survey are here!

At the end of every year, Charm sends out separate (but similar) survey questions to our email subscribers, each of our Patreon tiers, and (new this year) to our free Patreon members. As always, we were overwhelmed with responses (more than 1800!) and we’re excited to share the most interesting results with you.

If you’re not yet a patron, you can join the membership here. When you join, you’ll receive access to every pattern in the Patreon catalog in your chosen tier (with a companion sewing tutorial video for most patterns), as well as a new pattern or two every month. There is no commitment, and we’d love to have you join us for a month just to check it out.

Now, on to the results of the survey…

Our Audience

Charm has grown significantly in the last few years, but one thing has stayed the same. Our audience (that’s you!) is amazing, creative, kind, and fun.

About 80% of you sew in our 2-20 size range, and 20% sew in the 18-34 size range. These percentages have held stable for years, and we are extremely proud of being the only pattern company that consistently puts out patterns in such a wide size range, with individual A-H cup sizes.

We’re working through the back catalog of patterns to make sure that every single one is expanded into the 18-34 size range. The next size expansion to be released will be the Night & Day Dress (coming soon!), and we’ll do a better job in the future of letting you know the status of our pattern expansions.

We’ve tracked the preference for projector sewing files for the last few years, and this year it tipped over 10%. While it is unlikely that we’ll have the bandwidth to start doing projector files in 2025, we are factoring them into our future plans.

Your Favorite Patterns in 2024

I was shocked to see that nearly 30% of you chose the Drama Club Cape pattern as your favorite of the year. (I love it, too!)

It’s always a risk to design a pattern that is a bit over the top, but that’s one of the things that Charm is known for, right? In second and third place (with 12% and 11% of responses, respectively) were the Boardwalk Sundress and the Study Hall Dress. It’s fun to see a pattern inspired by the 1960s in your favorites!

We always ask, “If you got to play designer for a month, what’s your fantasy?” and you all have such great ideas. We read every single one, and they definitely inspire my design plans for the year. There were a lot of Hollywood wishes on your fantasy list this year, and we’re very excited to be delivering some of them!

What Surprised Us the Most

You have always loved our patterns, the companion sew-along videos, the Charm community, and the fun goodies we deliver throughout the year. But this year, so many of you mentioned the fun nature of Charm. And we appreciate that so much!

We work very hard to create incredible patterns, but we have so much fun doing it, and we are delighted that some of that fun is spreading out into the world. We hope you’re having fun, too!

What Didn’t Surprise Us

Every year, we have a good laugh about how diverse the desires of the community are. The following statements came through in equal numbers:

“Make more cocktail dresses and ball gowns, please.” 
“Please make more everyday separates.”

“Make more woven garments. I hate knits!”
“Please make more knits. They’re so easy to sew and wear!”

“I love the 1950s, so please concentrate on fit-and-flare dresses.”
“More garments from the 1920s/1930s/1940s/1970s, please.” (People don’t seem to love the 1960s as much!)

We know we’ll never be able to please everyone every time. But that’s part of the fun of Charm! You never know what you’re going to get – but we do so many patterns and with such a wide variety that we’re sure to have something you love.

What This Means Going Forward

The team and I read your responses over the holiday break, and it was wonderful to be flooded with so many kind words about Charm and the work we do. Thank you so much for all of the love, kindness, and positive testimonials that you shared. It means the world to us that you love Charm, and we’re not interested in changing anything about that!

With the new theme for 2025, Hollywood Icons, we will be going back to the glamour and elegance of classic Charm. (But don’t worry – we’ve got plenty of plans for separates, pattern expansions, hacks, accessories, and more “everyday” patterns, too!)

Behind the scenes, Charm has spent the last two years focusing on the pattern production systems and processes that allow this amazing team to produce such fun and beautiful patterns so consistently.

This next year, we’re going to be working a little more on the “public” side of the business. We need a better website (and a much better way of organizing our entire catalog of back patterns, so you can easily find what you want to sew next!). We’re also going to communicate with our patrons and email members more consistently about the content you really care about. And we’re going to integrate having fun into everything we do. Here’s to having fun in 2025!