The short version
- We keep what you put into SewSlay, so your patterns, stash and makes are there when you come back.
- The AI (Claude, made by Anthropic) sees your words, pictures and measurements only when you press an AI button. Everything else stays on our server and in its encrypted backups.
- SewSlay has no ads, analytics or tracking, and we don't sell your data.
- You can download everything or delete your account at any time, from the Account page.
Who we are
SewSlay is run by Maksim Okunev (Max), a sole trader in the UK. Max is the controller of your personal data: he decides how it is used and is responsible for it.
Postal address: 33 Sackville Street, London W1S 3EB, United Kingdom
Email: hello@sewslay.co.uk. This is the quickest way to reach us about anything on this page.
What we store and why
Each account has its own database, kept apart from everyone else's. This is everything in it, and the reason for each part.
| What | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| The invite list, during the small beta: only the email address Kat gives us for each person she invites | So the people Kat invites can sign up while SewSlay is invite-only | Our legitimate interest in starting small and safely |
| Your email address, your name and how you sign in. If you sign in with Google, the name, the link to the profile picture and the sign-in tokens Google gives us | To sign you in, and to email you about your account and payments | Contract |
| Sign-in sessions: when you signed in, the IP address and the browser you used | To keep you signed in, and to spot someone else using your account | Contract, and our legitimate interest in keeping accounts safe |
| Profiles: the name or role you give each person and their body measurements | To draft patterns that fit the person you sew for | Contract |
| Your makes: titles, notes, what you described, your answers, plans, patterns, chat messages and the steps you ticked | So your work is there when you come back | Contract |
| Pictures: the reference pictures you add to a make (and the reference link, if you pasted one) and photos of your fabric | So the AI can read them when you ask, and so you can see your stash | Contract |
| Your wardrobe: each garment you add, who it is for, its fabric and pattern, when you finished it, your notes and its photos | So you keep a record of what you have made | Contract |
| Your fabric and notions stash, and your projector calibration | To match patterns to your fabric and to project at true size | Contract |
| Your patterns: the pattern PDFs you bought and keep here (and any PDF you open in the projector), with the name, designer, sizes and notes you give each, its cover photo and the make it is for | So you can print or project any pattern you bought, whenever you need it | Contract |
| Your plan: which plan, when it renews or ends, each payment, the tick you gave at checkout with its time, and each pattern you used (which kind of step and which make, never your words or pictures) | To run your plan, count your patterns and keep payment records | Contract, and the law on keeping payment records |
| Each AI step: which feature and model, how many tokens and what it cost us (never your words or pictures). And, if you had prepaid credit before plans, its history | To keep the service affordable and safe, and to show you your old credit history | Our legitimate interest in running the service within its costs, and the law on keeping payment records |
We never see or store your card number. Stripe handles it on its own page and tells us only that you paid and how much.
Your measurements and photos
Body measurements and photos are personal data, and we treat them carefully. They are used for one thing: drafting patterns and showing you your own studio. We don't use them to identify you, share them with anyone for their own purposes, or use them for ads.
If you add measurements or photos of someone else, such as a friend you sew for, please make sure they are happy for you to.
When the AI sees your data
Anthropic sees your words, pictures and measurements only when you use an AI feature: reading your idea, planning a pattern, drafting your own design, writing a plan, or a chat message. Each AI button says whether it uses one of your patterns.
We send only what that step needs: what you described, the pictures for that make, its title and notes, the measurements the pattern asks for, and your chat messages. Drafting your own design also sends what SewSlay read from your idea and your answers to its questions, and its last check sends a picture of the drafted pattern pieces, so the AI can look over the shapes. Your other makes, your stash and your email address are not sent.
Under Anthropic's commercial terms, what we send is not used to train its models.
The free features (profiles, stash, Your patterns, your wardrobe, ready patterns, layouts, the projector, guides and PDFs) never send anything to Anthropic.
Who else handles it
These companies handle data for us, only to provide SewSlay, under contracts that require them to keep it safe.
| Who | What they do | What they see | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Claude, the AI that reads your ideas and answers your questions | Only what an AI step needs, and only when you use one: your words, the pictures for that make, its title and notes, the measurements the pattern needs, your chat messages and, when you draft your own design, a picture of its drafted pieces | United States |
| Stripe | Takes card payments for plans, renews them each month, and runs the page where you change or cancel a plan | Your card details (we never see them), your email address, your plan and what you paid | United States and Ireland |
| Hetzner | The server SewSlay runs on | Everything stored in your account, on a server only we can sign in to | European Union (Germany or Finland) |
| Cloudflare | Keeps the site's address working and its connection secure, and stores the backups (Cloudflare R2) | Your IP address and the pages you ask for, as they pass through, and the encrypted backups of your account and pictures | Worldwide for connections; backups in one Cloudflare storage region |
| Resend | Sends our emails: sign-in links, plan confirmations and account notices. Sign-in emails carry no tracking: no open pixels and no rewritten links | Your email address and the email we send you | United States |
Some of them are outside the UK. Where data leaves the UK, it is protected by the safeguards UK law requires, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or the UK-US data bridge.
How long we keep it
- Your account data: until you delete your account. Deleting your account deletes your profiles, measurements, makes, pictures, stash and settings straight away.
- Invites: an invite holds only the email address. It is deleted when that person makes an account, or after 30 days if they don't.
- Backups: copies of the database are kept for 30 days in case something breaks, then they are gone. So after you delete your account, your data is out of the backups within 30 days.
- File backups: your pictures, fabric photos and the pattern PDFs you keep are copied to Cloudflare R2 every night. A file you delete, or every file when you delete your account, is kept there for up to 30 days, then removed.
- Payment records: 6 years, because tax law asks us to keep them. They are pseudonymised when you delete your account: the amounts and dates stay, your name and email do not.
- Server logs: kept for 14 days. They record which pages were asked for and when, never your measurements, pictures or what you wrote.
- Emails: Resend sends them for us and keeps its own delivery records. Sign-in emails carry no tracking: no open pixels and no rewritten links.
- Sign-in links stop working after 10 minutes. A sign-in session ends 30 days after you last used SewSlay, or when you sign out.
Your rights
- To see and export it: Account, then Export my data. That downloads everything we hold about you in one file.
- To delete it: Account, then Delete my account. Your plan is cancelled with it.
- To correct it: you can edit almost everything in the app. To change your email address, or anything else you can't edit, write to us.
- To object, or to ask us to stop: write to us and we will look at it within one month.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first at hello@sewslay.co.uk. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data protection regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.
Age
SewSlay is for people aged 18 and over. If you are younger, please don't make an account.
No tracking
SewSlay runs no adverts, analytics, tracking pixels or third-party scripts. We set only the cookies needed to keep you signed in; the cookie page lists them.
Keeping it safe
Every connection to SewSlay is encrypted. Your sign-in cookie can't be read by scripts on the page. Each account's data lives in its own database, and every request is checked against the account that is signed in.
If we ever find that your data has been exposed, we will tell you and, where the law requires it, the ICO.
Changes to this policy
If we change what we collect or who sees it, we will email you before it takes effect. The version and date at the top of this page change with every edit.