craftgrrl | when is it legal to sell? (Reply)

ok, after the patchwork stealing, it brought up something that I have a question about now. is anyone ever able to sell things made from patterns? I make beaded flowers. many times, I've altered the patterns to make the flowers smaller since my place isn't that big. I've sold maybe 2 or 3 of the flowers I've made (I usually give them to my mom or give them out as gifts) for people who have seen them and asked me to make them for them. is this illegal? I have so many pattern books from different countries, I don't remember where I get half of them. plus, some of the patterns in different books by different people are the same. I've yet to make any two that are alike, and since it's just me and I work full time and about to also be a full time student as well, I'm not able to mass produce items. I'm just hoping to cover costs of them and make some extra money for tuition. is this illegal? some older mascot pattern books I picked up in hong kong, all you have are pages, who can you credit if it's just a picture and a bead map? what's illegal to sell and what isn't? most people either aren't able to make the items with the pattern or just don't have the time or patience, so they ask for them to be made. there was one woman selling items at saks when I worked there, and she was talking about people ripping off her designs, but all she did was use italian beading methods and standard patterns that I've seen in books from the 40s (before she was even born) and one of the patterns was even in martha stewart's wedding magazine from that month, but this woman was mass producing the items with a team of people in various cities. I'm confused. I don't want to be sued by anyone for using patterns and people wanting to buy things I make. what can I do?

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