Threadloop brings sewists together with tools to organize, share, and connect.

There may still be stacks of fabric in the closet and piles of patterns under the sewing machine table, but sewers from around the globe are using Threadloop app to get a digital handle on their stash. The platform helps them organize their projects, patterns and materials, discover new patterns, and share their experiences and processes with others. There’s also a place on the app for measurements, wish lists and stats on what the sewer has collected.

A Digital Solution for Sewists

After opening a Threadloop account, users can catalog their fabrics with descriptions, amounts and images. Other materials can also be listed. The site can also be used as a record of projects completed (again, with images) and those still on the to-do list and the wish list. A collection feature is included with a “Plus” membership, with which sewers can create custom groups for their projects and reorder them with a drag-and-drop function.

Similarly, sewers can catalog their patterns, share them with other Threadloopers, and browse through the patterns shared by others. These are organized by a range of features, including skill level and body type.

The forum areas, designed to encourage community interaction, are also organized  by topic, focusing on general discussions, pattern discussions, sewing help and advice, and support and feedback.

This multi-function app — and the community that is forming through it – was created by partners designer Guro Lindahl Flåten and web developer Endre Johnsen.

The co-founders have been together for almost 10 years, and Threadloop is their first joint project taking advantage of their years of experience with web and product development, user experience, and design.

They created Threadloop (formerly Backstitch, more on that later) to fill a void in the market.

“I started sewing in 2018, and could already tell quite early on that there was lacking a space online where you could both organize your sewing and connect with other sewers at the same time” Lindahl Flåten said,

“After winning the Norwegian Sewing Bee TV show in 2021, I was inspired to do something related to sewing in my career, but I didn’t know exactly what. I decided to quit my job as a UX designer to do some soul searching and figure out what I really wanted,” she said.

The Journey Behind Threadloop

“When Guro quit her job, I was struggling with burnout from running a small software engineering consultancy, and desperately wanted a change. When Guro suggested that we should combine both of our skillsets to make something together, I jumped at the opportunity. After finishing my ongoing consulting work, we started making an early version of Threadloop together in 2022, and have been working on it full-time since,” said Johnsen.

“We live in Norway, which has a high cost of living, but through some careful financial planning and frugal living, we are close to being able to support our modest lifestyle with Threadloop,” according to Johnsen.

Threadloop currently has about 8,000 members, of which close to 600 have a paid Plus subscription.

“We launched the Plus option in March of this year and have seen about 10% growth month-over-month since then, so we’re very grateful for where we are right now,” Johnsen said.

Threadloop has visitors from 120 countries. The top 5 in terms of activity are the US (45%), Canada (11%), Australia (8%), Norway (6%), and the UK (5.5%). With launch of the “Plus” service, Lindahl Flåten and Johnsen are now focusing on building on what they have for the foreseeable future.

Looking Ahead: Building a Community and Expanding Features

“We really just want to continue doing what we are doing right now, which is building Threadloop together into something great for the sewing community. Although it was somewhat risky quitting our jobs, working together has been incredibly rewarding, and there are a lot of small benefits to having this entrepreneurial lifestyle. Little things, like being able to work from wherever, or go for a long walk in the middle of the day, have had a very positive impact on our mental health,” Johnsen said. “Hopefully our continued work on Threadloop will create enough value for our members that we are able to support ourselves going forward for a long time.”

Catalog fabrics, track projects, and discover patterns with Threadloop’s all-in-one platform.

What’s probably not in the foreseeable future is advertising or sponsors.

“We think that if you’re going to have advertising or sponsors for a niche website like Threadloop, you really have to make sure that it is all very relevant to the audience, and done in a way that does not impact the user experience negatively,” Johnsen said.

“We’re sure this could be done, but finding the right advertising opportunities or partnerships seems like very time-consuming work, and it’s also something that is pretty far from our expertise.”

As for sponsorship, Johnsen and Lindahl Flåten are concerned with maintaining trust in the Threadloop platform.

“We really want Threadloop to be a place you go to discover new patterns, and find out what our member’s genuine impressions are. If we start mixing in sponsored content, I think we would have to be very clear with our members about that, in order to avoid losing trust,” Johnsen said.

That said, since they don’t know what the future holds, and would love to be able to continue working on Threadloop for years to come, it would be safer to have more than one revenue stream coming in.

“Advertising or sponsorships could possibly fill that role in the future, if we’re able to find the right partners and integrate it in a way we feel comfortable with,” Johnsen said.

In addition, adding a marketplace where members could sell fabrics or patterns has been requested by a few of Threadloop’s members, but there are no current concrete plans to add that feature.

“One reason is that our payment processor does not support a marketplace. We are very happy with them for dealing with sales tax all around the world, but we would have to look into an alternative if we want to offer a marketplace,” said Johnsen. “Additionally, I am not sure we are ready to be a marketplace, as I imagine it would require more customer support than we can offer at the moment. We’ll consider it in the future.”

Their long-term goal? “If we are to allow ourselves to be very ambitious, I guess our goal would be that most home sewing enthusiasts should be familiar with Threadloop and find use for it in some capacity. That would be very cool!” according to Johnsen.

The Story Behind the Name Change

Back to the name change. Lindahl Flåten and Johnsen were threatened with a lawsuit from a company called Backstitch, that makes HR software. They had a registered servicemark for use with HR Software as a Service.

“We knew the company existed from having looked up trademarks/servicemarks beforehand but decided at the time that their service offering was so different from ours that there wouldn’t be any confusion, and that they did not have a service mark extending to our industry,” Johnsen said.

“Although we didn’t initially think they had a strong case, we had noticed that we were receiving some emails that were intended for their company, and some of our users had even managed to download their HR app and were confused as to why they could not log in. This made it clear to us that there was some confusion, which we thought potentially might play to their advantage. Additionally, we noticed that the phrasing of their servicemark was quite vague, and we figured it might be interpreted as just being for Software as a Service involving humans in some way. This could potentially be the same space we operated in, if you allow for a very broad definition of it.

“In the end, we figured we would rather spend our time and money improving our platform, instead of going to court. We decided to change our name. In hindsight, perhaps this is just the sort of thing that the Craft Industry Alliance could’ve helped us with? If only we were a member!”