TeresaA

First, to be clear before I say the rest: It is 100% violation of the copyright to copy patterns. You have a right to sell the pattern you bought, called the first sale doctrine. You never have the right to sell or otherwise distribute copies of it. You can copy it for personal use, say if you need to make 100 paper pieced blocks or whatever. Just being clear before I say the rest.

As for selling the products made, it depends on what the pattern is. If it's based on a block that is in the public domain (as all of the traditional blocks are), and the layout is similar to something that's been done before plenty of times, or it's an obvious design (sampler with cornerstones) then it definitely can't be copyrighted.

If it's something very very unique to the designer, they have some right to control its reproduction, a very, very limited, hard to enforce, right.

I suspect that if you aren't making more than a few of the item, then you're fine, because (1) Unless you use the exact same design and the exact same fabrics, it will be hard to prove in court that you've copied the design and judges tend to lean on the side of gee, it's a pattern!; (2) it would make the magazine look really, really bad to go after a small-time manufacturer when probably a great portion of their reader base is small time manufacturers; (3) The copyright would be ridiculously hard to enforce.

Most patterns allow you to make a few for resale. Outsourcing the design to a Chinese manufacturing plant would be a violation tho....

For individual use, to keep and give away, you can make as many as you want without violating copyright. Or it's unenforceable, as in the pattern manufacturer can't go into our homes and determine how many we've made. Also, if the copyright is hidden within packaging, it's absolutely unenforceable. They are expecting you to enter into a contract for which you don't know the terms. Not enforceable.

I 100% like to support small pattern designers, and I have a huge box of patterns and shelves full of magazines and books to prove it (mostly things I've never made). However, I get tremendously irritated with pattern designers who sell PATTERNS (for gawl's sake) and expect them not to be made. For me, they're in the wrong business. (This is why I never went into stamp crafting. The stamps are ridiculously priced, and they are STAMPS, but you're limited in how many you can make. Geez) If I see a pattern with onerous restrictions, I don't buy it, even though I'm NOT a manufacturer. Instead, I store the picture of the finished quilt, figuring I can likely copy it so it's close enough to the finished design for my enjoyment, while being far enough from the finished design that I won't be violating copyright if I pseudo-copy it. Ideas and inspirations are not copyrightable.

Clothing manufacture can't be controlled at all, because utilitarian items can't be copyrighted. Imagine if The Gap had the copyright on jeans. (Ugh, I'd have to wear skirts!) In that case, no matter how unique, only the pattern itself can be copyrighted. Quilts are arguably utilitarian as well, but not as much of a utilitarian requirement as clothing. Nobody can copyright their shape and use as blankets, but the artwork on the front can have limited copyright.