Up until the early 19th century, most working-class women made the clothes for their families by hand. Wealthier families employed seamstresses and tailors to do the same.
Following several years of attempts the development of a sewing machine (made by a number of inventors, most of whom could lay claim to having influenced the version that eventually succeeded), Isaac Singer built the first commercially viable machine in 1850.
Mass production of these machines for household and industrial application quickly followed and the sewing machine became the first durable, technologically complex household appliance in America (and in Britain soon after). Industrial use of sewing machines moved clothing production away from the housewives and seamstresses and into large-scale factories. This resulted in a decrease in the amount of time clothing production took, which in turn caused prices for clothing to drop.
For many existing garment manufacturers, the installation of sewing machines greatly reduced the manpower they needed to employ, and numbers of employees in some clothing factories dropped sharply. But this was the time of the Industrial Revolution and many of the workers found new employment in other factories. A further swelling of the potential workforce was seen in those women who had previously been kept busy hand sewing at home now being liberated to go out to work, thus increasing the family income. Rising income meant families could afford to buy more ready-made garments, thus creating more demand.
The sewing machine’s effects on the clothing industry resulted in major changes for other industries as well. Cotton production increases in order to meet the demands of the new clothing factories, with associated impacts on foreign trade and development. Machine production democratized fashion, transforming the social meaning of clothing by making stylish garments available to almost everyone.
Contribution to Retail History
The sewing machine saw the birth of clothing manufacturing as we know it today, creating a supply and demand for ready-made garments. While the move away from bespoke, handmade items to mass production was one of the major characteristics of the industrialized era, the classic modern sewing machine is making a comeback in this do-it-yourself era of customization, personalization and differentiation.