Sewing Patterns

by

Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. In one of my books I needed to research what would have been available to my heroine in 1888 in the way of dress patterns. So I dived in and did a bit of research. Below are some notes and a timeline based on what I found out.

Tailoring as a profession emerged around the 12th century in Europe, leading to the creation of more structured and fitted garments. Tailors used measurements and cutting techniques passed down through apprenticeships to create clothing tailored to the individual. However, these techniques were closely guarded secrets, making it difficult for the average person to produce their own custom-fitted garments.

But the 19th century brought about significant changes to the world of sewing and fashion. The Industrial Revolution, which began in the late 18th century, brought about the mechanization of textile production, making fabric more affordable and accessible. This, in turn, led to an increased demand for ready-made clothing.

Amid these developments, the concept of sewing patterns as we know them today began to take shape. In the early 19th century, sewing pattern companies such as Butterick and McCall’s emerged. These companies started by offering patterns for women’s clothing, which were often published in women’s magazines. These early patterns were often simple, one-size-fits-all templates that required significant skill to adapt to individual measurements.

The 1860s saw a significant breakthrough in sewing patterns with the invention of the perforated pattern. Ebenezer Butterick, the founder of Butterick patterns, is credited with this innovation. His perforated patterns allowed for a more precise and consistent method of transferring pattern markings onto fabric. This made it easier for home sewers to create garments that closely resembled the latest fashion trends.

The Victorian era (1837-1901) saw a surge in home sewing. Sewing machines, which had been invented in the mid-19th century, began to find their way into regular households. These machines made sewing faster and more accessible, further fueling the desire for creating one’s own clothing.

Sewing patterns of this era reflected the fashionable styles of the time. Women’s clothing featured intricate designs with multiple layers, bustles, and tightly fitted bodices. Sewing patterns for these garments often included elaborate instructions, and women would spend hours perfecting their creations. The ability to sew one’s clothing became a valuable skill for women, not only for practical reasons but also as a sign of social status and accomplishment.

The 20th century saw a dramatic shift in fashion, with styles evolving rapidly. Sewing patterns played a crucial role in keeping up with these changes. The early 1900s witnessed the emergence of new pattern companies like Vogue and Simplicity, each offering a unique style and approach to pattern design.

World War I and World War II brought about rationing and a focus on practicality in fashion. Sewing patterns of this time reflected the need for simplicity and efficiency. Women sewed clothing for themselves and their families, making the most of limited resources.

In the post-war era, fashion underwent a radical transformation. The 1950s brought with it the hourglass silhouette, characterized by cinched waists and full skirts, and sewing patterns embraced this trend. Sewing became a popular hobby for women, and pattern catalogs featured a wide range of designs, from everyday dresses to elaborate evening gowns.

The 1960s marked a departure from the conservative styles of the previous decade. Youth culture and the influence of designers like Mary Quant gave rise to the mod style, characterized by bold colors, geometric shapes, and short hemlines. Sewing patterns followed suit, offering designs that captured the spirit of the era.

The 1970s brought a return to a more relaxed, bohemian style. Sewing patterns included flowy dresses, bell-bottom pants, and other free-spirited designs. Sewing became a means of self-expression, with individuals customizing patterns to create unique garments.

The late 20th century and early 21st century witnessed the digital revolution. Sewing patterns transitioned from paper to digital formats. Today, sewing enthusiasts can access and purchase patterns online, allowing for instant downloads and printing at home. Digital patterns offer greater flexibility and customization, as sewers can easily adjust sizing and fit to their preferences.

The history of sewing patterns is a testament to the evolution of fashion, technology, and society. From the early days of hand-tailored garments to the digital age of instant pattern downloads, sewing patterns have adapted to meet the changing needs of home sewers.

Today, sewing patterns continue to empower individuals to create their clothing, allowing for self-expression and customization. They bridge the gap between fashion and personal style, offering a means for anyone to participate in the creative process of clothing design

 

As for myself, I didn’t learn to sew until the summer after my freshman year of college. That summer I had my mom teach me. I also had a job that summer and by the time I was ready to head back to school in the fall i not only had learned the basics but had purchased a portable sewing machine to take with me. I still have that same machine, though now it is mostly used for repairs and hems. In the 70s I made a large percentage of my clothing myself. That image above is a photo of  some of those patterns that are still stuck in the back of my sewing cabinet.

After that I had four children and had no time for sewing. When the kids were older I’d lost the inclination to get back to it. Below are pictures of two garments that I made and still own. The first is a colorful (garish?) smock which was the very first garment I made. It no longer fits but I’m sentimental enough to not be able to discard it.

 

This next is of course my wedding dress. (my sister made the veil). I was quite proud of the fact that I was able to make such a complicated dress and it actually fit perfectly <g>

So what about you – do you sew? Or do you perform other needlecraft – weaving, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, etc. Tell me about your experiences (or lack thereof) in the comments to be entered in the drawing for one of my backlist books.

 

71 thoughts on “Sewing Patterns”

  1. That’s a beautiful wedding dress! I love that it is modest and has such a gorgeous veil!
    My mother thought all of her children (including the boys) at least the basics of sewing and mending, although none of us enjoyed it. I did make my own bridesmaid dress for my brother & sister in law’s wedding. I have only worn it twice, and every time I look at it, I see all of the flaws that I know are there. I also made a baby quilt by hand for our first child, using an embroidery hoop since I didn’t have a sewing machine or a quilt stand at the time. I do know how to tie quilts (which is much easier than sewing), but only do so when invited to join a group completing a project. I much prefer reading as a way to relax and unwind.

    • Good for your mom! That’s really a good life skill to have. And we’re always our own worse critics aren’t we? I’ll bet that baby quilt is a sweett keepsake now. The closest I ever came to tahtwass making my kids Christmas stockings 🙂

  2. I used to sew a lot but not so much anymore. I also did most of the textile arts and crafts. However, my mom was the real seamstress in the family. She could see a design and make her own pattern for it.

  3. My sewing skills would almost fit in a thimble! My mother was/is a great seamstress & she made most of mine & my sister’s clothes when we were little. My sister inherited all the sewing skills in the family, as she became a professional seamstress by the time she was 16 & now is a famous custom cowboy bootmaker. She builds the whole boot from the sole up & her stitching on the boot tops is amazing! I did learn to sew, but I didn’t enjoy it, so while my sister is an artist with her stitching, I have trouble sewing a straight line! 😀 Haha

    Your wedding dress is very pretty! I’m sure glad I wasn’t in charge of making mine. ha! I drew up what I wanted & my sister created it… it was perfect & beautiful… & all I had to do was stitch in the lining, do a little hemming (I think), & sew on the buttons! 🙂

  4. My mom was a beautiful seamstress. She made beautiful clothes. I can sew but I don’t really enjoy it. My passion is crocheting.

  6. I’m better at sewing straight lines than clothing. I prefer quilting over sewing clothes.

    Love your patterns. Oh, I could pore over those pattern books when I was a kid. My mom sewed a lot of my clothes, and always my Easter outfit.

    • LOL Straight lines is about all I sew thesee days. And quilting is such a fascinating skill that requires lots of patience. And yes, I spent many an hour in fabric stores thumbing through pattern books back in the day.

  7. I used to make mine and my daughter’s clothes to match, but that was eons ago, since they are 51 and 53 now. I like to crochet, embroidery, and make jewelry. I have crocheted dresses for the Barbie doll. My mom used to sew clothes for our Barbie and Ken dolls.

  8. well my Mom was a great seamstress and at 1 time we had 3 sewing machines set up in the basement along with a 4X8 piece of plywood on sawhorses that was our pattern cut out table!! We sewed everything, blouses, pants and Mom even made undies and swimsuits – she made both of my prom dresses as well – I too still have them in remembrance of her! One of my daughters had my machine now and maybe later I would like to learn to quilt!

    • Three sewing machines – y’all had your own dressmakers’ shop! My mon made my prom dress too! She later modified it a bit for a college formal. I still have that dress though it is totally out of fashion now. 🙂

  9. I really don’t sew anymore mostly do repairs now, arthritis has got the best of me now. I use to make some of my clothes in high school and have made the curtains that is in my house right now. I also pieced a lot or quilts in the past and really enjoyed doing that. Now its mostly repairs and maybe hemming my pants for my son and me.

  10. I do not sew, though I did take home ec in school. I used to crochet, but now I do embroidery and make my own cards. My Mom used to sew almost all of my clothes, and she loved to crochet and do all kinds of crafts.

  11. When I was 12, my mom got a job at a fabric store.
    She bought a pattern and some fabric to make my sister and me some contrasting sundresses… and then found out she didn’t have her mom’s talent or patience to sew.

    After the dresses sat cut but unsewn, I asked if I could try. I’d been sewing doll dresses for years by hand, but had never sewn on a machine.

    By the time I was 16, mom was bringing home patterns and fabric for me to make her or her friends clothing.

    I didn’t sew much after my kids were born, but did make each an outfit or two.
    Even now, with only adult kids, I mostly mend or alter ready-made clothing.

  12. It has been YEARS since the last time I used my sewing machine, but I still have the first one gifted to me by my mom. She is much more skilled at sewing than I am, but I still remember quite a lot that she taught me.

  13. I can sew a little. I took home ec in high school but I wasn’t very good at sewing. My mom can sew and made our clothes when we’re little and she used to crochet a lot.

  14. I learned to sew in home ec in 9th grade . I made a wool pant suit and dresses for my 2 sisters. In 11th grade I made my prom dress which I still have a picture of. I made a few more clothing more my daughters and Barbie clothes. Today I make quilts and shorten hems.

  15. I learned to sew when I was in grade school. The summer before 7th grade, I babysat 4 kids daily. I took my wages to TG&Y, bought remnants, borrowed my aunt’s new Singer Golden Touch’n Sew, and sewed my school wardrobe for the coming year, complete including a coat and bathing suit, everything except my underwear and socks. I still have every pattern I ever bought, including some you pictured. Today, I don’t sew much, but have a collection of vintage and antique Singer sewing machines, all the way from the Singer 201 to my beloved preferred Featherweights. The old Singers are so much better than the new modern “plastic fantastics”. With maintenance easy enough for the average home sewing enthusiast, a vintage black cast iron or aluminum Singer will still be around 100s of years from now. I also greatly enjoy needle tatting.

  16. I learned to sew when I was young and in 4-H clubs. I learned on a treadle machine. I sewed a lot of my own clothes. My favorite pattern was one for a wrap around dress designed by Diane von Furstenberg.
    I think I made about 5 dresses with that pattern.
    I also do all of the other needle arts.

  18. It was required in middle school (7 and 8 grades) that all students take home ec which included sewing, a pillowcase and probably something else, maybe an apron. I then took Sewing I and II in high school, I made several of my own clothes for my trip to France the summer of my junior year of college. My graduation present from college was a portable Singer sewing machine. I was a nanny just out of college and made some cute outfits for the boys I watched and a neighbor boy. When I got married and was pregnant with my first child I made a lot of my own maternity clothes because I couldn’t afford the store bought ones and I made her several outfits. My mother made a lot of mine and my sister’s clothes and she also sewed Barbie and doll clothes and sold those. I still have all of mine. My middle daughter sewed every year for 4H, she loves to sew but doesn’t want to wear what she makes, She made the blue Cinderella dress from the movie a few years ago, she made her prom dress her junior year and several other dresses and skirts/tops and shorts/pants and tops. So in our family the art or love of sewing has been passed through the generations. Now I only sew when I’m in the mood. I’m on my third sewing machine, I had a Singer, then a Brother and now a Genome?

  19. I have a question, in Little House on the Prairie, when they buy fabric they ask for a dress length, how many yards is that? No one asks for so many yards, it’s always a dress length. I just wondered how they determined what a “dress length” was. And then if you watched the show, Caroline was putting the hem in her dress and then took it apart and made two dresses for the girls. Is that possible since she already had a dress made out of it? I can see with the full skirt having a lot of fabric but it seems a little to unbelievable that she could make a dress for Laura and one for Mary out of her dress.

  20. Well, like a lot of the ladies from my era, I sew. While I was a child, my grandmother lived with us, and had her treadle sewing machine in the attic, where she did a lot of her work. I learned to sew from her…starting out, under the machine, rocking the treadle for her. Then i went on to sewing clothes for my dolls, and later, sewing my own dolls and stuffed animals. In my teens. I would make stuffed poodles and sell them to people. One year, I sewed a whole flock of chicks and ducklings, and small rabbits. The local store put them up in the window display, for Easter, and sold them all in two days.
    I made a lot of my clothes, during my high school years, and later, I made clothes for my two children and pants and jackets for my husband. When I finally retired from the workforce, I started making More complicated , Art dolls and animals. I was invited to cloth clubs and conferences to teach my techniques, and sell my creations and my own line of patterns. My years working as an artist in the publication department of a large company, taught me a lot of the skills I used later, in my instruction books and patterns.
    I traveled all over the US and Canada, teaching for 12 years, before my husband discovered his cancer, and my traveling was cut short. I still make and sell my patterns, from home in my spare time, but now, mostly animals…dogs and Horses. My sister and I had a pattern making company, for skaters. We offered custom drawn pattern to their measurements. I drew and mailed out the patterns, while my sister sewed and fitted the outfits for the skaters that wanted the outfits made to order for them. So, Patterns have been a large part of my life.

  21. My grandmother sewed, my mother sewed, and so I had great teachers. I made a lot of my dresses until college when I didn’t have time to sew. I was a Home Economics teacher for 35 years . After retirement I took a knitting class and a quilting class. Presently I make quilts. I also crochet and love to embroider. Sewing is in my blood.

  22. I enjoying your blog, Winnie. Sewing was a big part of my life until my 40s. I learned to sew from my mother when I was 8 and made my own doll clothes. Mom could go to a store, find a dress she liked, go home, make the pattern and the dress. I didn’t inherit that talent. In 8th grade I had a sewing class. The teacher instructed us to make what was then the most popular thing to wear, a full skirt using three yards of fabric. I went home, made the skirt, sewing the gathering and hem by hand, and took it to class the next day. The teacher had a fit. She wanted the skirt made entirely by machine, so I went home, took the skirt apart and redid it on Mom’s machine. Unfortunately, the machine was old and didn’t do gathering well at all, so the skirt was a mess and I hated it. I sewed all my own clothes and did things like shirts and jackets for my husband. One day (in my forties) I tried on a dress I’d just finished and was upset that it didn’t fit right and I didn’t like it. My husband asked why I bothered to go to all that work when I could just buy my clothes. At this time (1980s) material and especially buttons, zippers and such had become expensive and sewing was no longer as economical as it used to be. So I took his advice and quit sewing except to do mending. Now, I can’t even reach my sewing machine which wasn’t working well anyway, because of junk my husband has stacked around it. I can’t even do mending now. Downstairs in our basement I still have my mom’s old singer sewing machine that I learned to sew on. It’s probably a collector item now. I crochet a lot but the only thing I ever knitted was an Aran Isle style sweater for my first husband. He still owns and wears it. I tried to get him to give it to me, but he refused. I learned to tat in the ’70s, and I do petti point needlepoint.

    • Hi Charlene. It sounds like you and I moved away from sewing at about the same time. And yes the financial incentive (or lack thereof) played as big a part as having children did.

  23. My mom taught each of us girls to sew. We made our own dresses. When I got married, I made shirts for our boys and dresses for my daughter and me. I haven’t done any sewing for quite a few years but want to start doing it again.

  24. I was taught to sew by my mother when I was about 10 years old, to the best I can recall. I have never ceased sewing as I still mend, hem, make simpler things and even still have some patterns from the 1960’s, one of which was my mothers. It is a precious memento since she is no longer with us. I also have crocheted, latch hooked, done cruel with my husband. He did one and I did another, both pictures now hanging on our walls. I did attempt to knit, but I just could not get the hang of it, while I did lots of crocheting, making baby blankets, the afghans everyone was doing back when, that were in a ‘v’ pattern. I still have them as well. Somethings one just cannot part with. Nowadays I just basically love to read, when I am not on my computer.

  26. welcome. thanks for sharing this information today. I love your wedding dress. It is gorgeous. I started sewing when I was six. mom and grandma were both big sewers. Mom and I learned how to quilt when I was in high school. Today I still quilt and sew. I have also learned to knit, crochet, emborder among other things. I still quilt/sew/count cross stitch. I also make greeting cards. I have not bought a card at a store in sooo many years. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net

  28. I learned to sew in home economics classes in high school. I made many of my clothes for a few years after that, but got out of the habit and only do repairs now.

  29. My maternal grandmother was a wonderful seamstress and sewed clothes for her many grandchildren. I did make a skirt in high school Home Ec. which did nothing to interest me in sewing. While in college, I started to sew simple skirts. My junior year I was flying to CA for Peach Corps training and decided I needed a suit and sundresses. I insisted on making the lined suit myself with my grandmother’s help. She showed a lot of patience helping me. She could have finished the suit in a fraction of the time. I sewed many of my clothes after that. I planned to make my wedding dress, but found the perfect dress when trying on dresses with my future mother-in-law to see what style I liked best. I did make all my attendants’ dresses. I continued to make many of my clothes and sewed for our children. As they got older, my sewing tended to be costumes and a bride’s maid outfit. I have made many curtains, tablecloths, pillows, stuffed creatures, and other odds and ends. I still sew simple skirts, etc. for myself. I have material and patterns for period outfits, but my sewing room sort of turned into a storeroom. I need to do some serious digging and organization before I do any sewing. I have my mother-in-law’s old singer sewing machine and my paternal grandmother’s treadle sewing machine.
    Thanks for the interesting information on sewing machines and patterns. I, too, still have my patterns from the 60’s on. I find t interesting that some of them are similar to patterns coming out now.

  31. Wow! I wish I had your sewing talent. Unfortunately, though my mom tried to teach me how to sew I just could not get the hang of it. I am a really good cook and baker, but I could not get the hang of any kind of needlework.

  32. I don’t have any sewing talent. I did take a home economics class in high school. My mom sews really good. Years ago when my brother and I were small, she would sew clothes for us. However, my grandmother was wonderful at knitting and crocheting. We still have things that she had made.

  33. I used to make all of my clothing and most of my children’s clothing. Now I am busy making quilts for all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

  34. Winnie! What a great post and thanks for sharing pictures of things you made…what a lovely wedding dress, veil and bride too!

    I’m always interested to hear about the research authors do and I appreciate it because something super inaccurate in a book can be jarring.

    I supposedly learned to sew in Junior High School but after my ‘unfortunate gym bag project’ I was relieved when we started knitting. Evidently our home economics teacher didn’t think it should take four weeks to sew up three seams, turn the top down and feed a drawstring through it haha… It was the worst grade I ever received in my life. 🙂

    I collect tatted items but I don’t do anything other than mending anymore.

  35. I have crocheted afghans. I also cross stitched lap quilts. I have not made in crafts for a while. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.

  36. Hi Winnie, Your sewing is Awesome & your Wedding gown. Wow!! Yes, I sew a little. My Mother taught me. She made a lot of our dresses for school & events like Halloween. Enjoy your books & newsletters.

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