20 Nov 2024-2025 Craft Trends Report for Craft Marketers
Stitchcraft Marketing returns this season with our popular trends report for craft marketers!
This year we took a closer look at enduring and emerging trends in both crafting and marketing. We’re hopeful insight into these trends will help guide your marketing efforts in the upcoming fall and winter seasons and on through 2025. Craft retailers and marketers should consider methods for incorporating these trends into their product and class offerings, and when crafting their marketing and engaging with influencers and creators. We also presented our findings on our YouTube channel—watch below for deeper insights!
Choose Your Own Craftventure
Clockwise from top left: Pacific Knit Co. Autumn 2 Doodle Deck, Slice of Pi Besties Quilt, Summer Lee Design Co. Colorwork Cuff Club, Gnatalia mix & match gnome from The Gnomes of Grimblewood
Crafters have always sought methods for customizing their craft projects to make them feel unique and personalized to their taste. Now, craft retailers and creators are meeting makers halfway, with projects designed to engage crafters in a “choose your own adventure” style of crafting.
From colorwork charts that can be mixed and matched across any kind of knitwear project to friendship bracelet-style quilts with customizable messages to monthly clubs offering plug-and-play patterns for sock knitting, the Choose Your Own Craftventure trend encourages crafters to participate in the creative process and craft unique, singular projects tailored to their tastes.
Patchwork Fashion Beyond Quilted Jackets
Clockwise from left: Patchwork dress by Carny Couture, Patchwork skirt from scraps by Tiffany Toh, Patchwork corset by Psychic Outlaw, Mini quilt patch on beanie by Flora West Design
Patchwork fashion is having a serious moment. Quilted coats were everywhere at Baby Lock Tech 2024, h+h americas 2024, and last year’s Quilt Market—not to mention on Kacey Musgraves during her SNL performance in March!
Now, quilters and sewists have expanded beyond quilted coats to different garments and accessories that showcase their quilting skills. Some quilters are opting to make their patchwork efforts more sustainable by upcycling old quilts or using scraps when possible. Quilted dresses, tops, skirts, hats, pants, and quilted embellishments featured on knitwear and clothing continue to push this trend forward.
Granny Square Evolution
Clockwise from top left: Granny square vest by Toni Lipsey, Granny square card deck, Jethro Vest featuring knitting and granny squares by Tanis Fiber Arts, Granny square chickens from Sweet Softies, Granny square fanny pack from Red Heart Yarns
If you’ve followed our trend reports for a few seasons now, you know we’ve beat this particular drum before. Granny squares are hot, they refuse to cool down, and if you aren’t incorporating granny squares into your product offerings you’re seriously missing out.
The granny square trend is so hot, it’s moved beyond crochet. Yes, we’re still witnessing lots of crochet granny squares in garments like coats, dresses, vests, and pullovers, but the humble granny square has also infiltrated accessories and toys, showing up in perennially popular granny pack designs and plush toys. The Granny Square Trend also teams up with the Choose Your Own Craftventure Trend in granny square card decks and one-a-day calendars. Knitters have incorporated granny squares into their knitwear designs; embroiderers have embraced granny square motifs, and quilt designers are designing granny square-inspired quilt patterns. It’s time to get on the granny square train!
Sustainable Fabrics & Fibers
Clockwise from top left: Bolt Threads’ Mylo™ fabric, made from mycelium, Recycled cotton yarn from Hobbii, Desserto leather handbag made from cactus, Piñatex leather made from pineapples, Mylium mushroom leather, Bananatex fabric made from Abacá banana plants
Sustainability is important for crafters, who increasingly prioritize conscious consumerism when considering brand purchases. They actively seek out environmentally friendly companies and hold them to high standards in their materials sourcing and environmental impact. Microplastics shed from fabrics and fibers have become a hot-button issue in the crafting community
As shown in our other trends, upcycling has become one popular method of sustainability crafters employ. Crafters are turning old denim into fabric scraps that can be quilted and sewn into household items, garments, and accessories, and scouring used clothing shops for items that can be reshaped and tailored to create contemporary silhouettes. For their part, manufacturers and craft retailers are responding to the greater desire for sustainability with new, innovative fibers and fabrics made from food waste, plants, and recycled materials. Oyster shells, cactus, banana, mushrooms, and pineapple fabrics have become new alternatives to “vegan leather,” which is made from plastic. These plant-based fibers are sustainable, bio-degradable, and environmentally friendly.
Fauxstalgia Revisited
Clockwise from top left: Marimekko-inspired chair from Spoonflower, Mid-century Modern colored glass from Madame Saint Vintage, 60s-inspired print fabric from Spoonflower, Scandi-inspired vest from Thread + Sprout, Bold 60s florals from Bekah Worley Co.
Current popular aesthetics and trends may inspire a sense of déjà vu, but it’s not just you. Most trends are cyclical, and those cycles inform marketing and crafting trends. Some familiar eras are inspiring crafters at the moment. Notably, mid-century modern is back again (if it’s ever truly gone away) with Scandinavian tulips blooming everywhere and colored glass decorating shelves. The late 60s and 70s have also returned via Marimekko-inspired patterns, funky, earthy, punchy florals and colors, and hold and sparkly disco vibes. We’re seeing the 80s rising in popularity among crafters, represented by the resurgence of roller skating culture (tune in to Roller Jam premiering this month!) and roller rink fashions, and crafter’s enduring love for neons, bright colors, checkered patterns, and the pop culture references that defined Millennial youth (think Pac-man, Walkman, Rainbow Brite, and other 80s favorites).
Marketing Trends for 2024
We round out this year’s trend report with a look at some marketing trends on the rise for year-end 2024 and 2025.
Content automation is huge for marketers right now. Platforms like BrandMuscle, SoCi, and PostFeed are working with retailers like BERNINA and OESD to automate branded content across participating retailers’ platforms. We’re encouraging businesses to explore these tools as they come across their radar, as we believe automated posts give retailers the time and opportunity to focus efforts on crafting their own branded content.
That last part is key: these brand-directed automated posts go out to all participating retailers, which means the content is the same for everyone. We want to stress the importance of differentiating from your competitors, so consider this method of content automation as an additional tool in your content marketing toolbelt. It should not replace your unique, individuated content marketing.
Influencer marketing continues to provide unique, authentic content for marketers. More micro-bloggers are gaining traction on online platforms, and user-generated content is a huge driver of this phenomenon. Customers crave authenticity, and real crafters demonstrating the value of your products and brand endow your brand with legitimacy. Utilize affiliate and tracking codes to monitor ROI and ensure effective influencer marketing campaigns.
AI tools are everywhere. AI integrations exist for search engines, content writing, graphics creation, note-taking, and more. Canva’s AI integrations, ChatGPT’s custom GPTs for brand aggregation, and the Fireflies note-taking app are a few of our favorites.
Working with AI carries the same rules as working with a new intern: treat it like it only has a few weeks on the job and requires constant supervision. AI’s strengths: brainstorming, ideation, and ugly first drafts. AI’s weaknesses: images. All images. Image generation is still terrible, mangles words and letters, and puts too many fingers on hands.
Curious about how to integrate these trends into your marketing? Stitchcraft Marketing is a marketing agency of crafting experts. We customize every program to showcase your brand, engage your customer base, and generate sales in a way that is nothing less than magical. Contact us today to get started!
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