BurdaStyle: Breaking the Mold of the Spinster Stereotype

January 19th, 2009 in News, by Head Honcho

The term “spinster” has had a bad reputation for many years. Originally meant to be someone who spins or twists fiber into threads, it has gained a second meaning - an elderly unmarried woman.

Indeed, the stereotype of someone who knits or sews includes a domestic goddess sewing in her alone time, an elderly on her rocking chair crocheting a holiday gift, or a grandmother cross stitching by the fireplace. The stereotype has a common theme: that of a solitary person whiling away the time sewing or stitching.

But if you come across BurdaStyle.com, you’d be convinced that the stereotype is unjustified, as the site has a very large yet close-knit community.

Burdastyle is described as a “virtual sewing circle, an open-source hub of ideas, expertise, and amazing patterns you can download and sew at home.” The website is not just for the traditional “spinsters,” but also for DIYers, sewing hobbyists and even fashion designers.

A member of the BurdaStyle community can contribute in many ways. You can get involved by sharing your expertise and discussing sewing with other members. You can also contribute content through the website’s blog. You can personalize your profile by uploading sewing creations, how tos, and patterns you have made. You can also explore other users’ creations in the gallery, as well as keep track of your favorites for easy reference. Moreover, you can buy or sell print patterns for convenience. The community feel is reinforced by the site’s forum, where you may ask questions, discuss creations or content, participate in a sew along, post classifieds or request new features. The site also has a Sewpedia where you can find the definitions for those sewing terms. And  like any wiki, members can upload and edit sewing terms and definitions. In other words, BurdaStyle is packed with features that will make any sewing enthusiast more than satisfied.

Burdastyle has close to 160,000 members. With such a big sewing community, maybe the society got it wrong with the spinster stereotype, after all.

Check out the video below, showing BurdaStyle members having fun as they celebrated their 100,000th member milsetone: