Our in house open source pattern library access is managed through a 

'Contributive Debt Model '

As you may know, the development of DIY patterns and digital kits requires hundreds of hours of hard work. This includes design research, prototyping, fitting, grading,  sewing instructions,  pattern testing, translation, photoshoots, video editing and tutorials, technical drawings and publishing. 

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At the ZWDO Collective, we believe open source is a powerful opportunity to spread the word about Zero Waste Design in education,  industry and the home sewing world without any accesibility restrictions. But we also know in the captalist society we live in, it's not financially sustainable for content creators to keep working for the common good without any support from their community to pay their bills.

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The 'contributive debt model' is a hybrid financial model that enables creators to be paid by community contributions for the time they spend on developing open source content. 

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

HOW DOES IT WORK?

For the development of each pattern we track the amount of work spent as well as the resources invested. We then calculate the average cost by assigning an hourly rate in Euros.

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The total cost becomes what we call the 'collective debt'.  This is a debt that the whole community of users incurs towards the creator who invested their time for the common good. This debt can be repayed by this collective contribution. Once the debt is fully repayed by the community, the open source digital kit will be available to the open source world forever - meaning accessible without any paywall.

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This flow chart shown here highlights the different possible scenarios depending on the pattern funding rates and your financial capacity to support the creator.

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In short, if the pattern you'd like to download isn't 100% funded yet, you have 3 options: 

- Get your membership

- Support with a one time donation

- Join the waitlist. 

Zero Waste Patterns

developed by ZWDO Collective co-founders

'In house' 

Hopefully

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Mylène, Danielle, Cass, and Holly