Building the machines themselves
Once a design worked, the next challenge was making many of them. In the early 1850s sewing machines were largely built in small workshops by skilled mechanics, one at a time and with a good deal of hand fitting. As demand grew, companies in the United States and later in Britain and continental Europe began to organize production around standardized parts, machine tools and division of labor. The idea of manufacturing with interchangeable parts was already developing in other American industries such as firearms, and sewing machine makers drew on that tradition, though how thoroughly early firms achieved true interchangeability is debated.
The scale reached by the late nineteenth century is large. The leading firms operated big factories, sold machines through networks of agents and shops, and exported them widely. Numbers quoted for annual output vary from source to source and should be treated cautiously, but it is safe to say that machines went from a few thousand a year to several hundred thousand a year within about three decades. The company side of that expansion, including payment plans, is covered in the article on the Singer sewing machine.
Different machines for different jobs
As the market grew, the machine split into types. A household machine was built for light fabric and occasional use. A clothing factory needed machines that ran faster, longer and with a single dedicated purpose. Over time makers developed specialized machines for tasks including:
- long straight seams in shirts and trousers
- buttonholes and button attachment
- hemming and finishing edges
- heavy work such as leather, canvas and shoe uppers
- decorative stitching and embroidery
Specialization also changed the work. A garment could now be divided into many small operations, each handled by a worker at a machine set up for that purpose. This resembles other forms of factory division of labor, such as the assembly line production that later became associated with automobiles.
Power was another change. Early machines were driven by hand or foot. In larger shops, a line of machines could be run from a shared shaft turned by a water wheel or steam engine, and later electric motors let each machine have its own drive, which gave operators finer control and made it easier to arrange the work floor.
Ready-made clothing takes off
Ready-made clothing had existed before sewing machines, mostly for sailors, soldiers and poorer customers, but machine sewing helped widen the market. Manufacturers could cut multiple layers of cloth at once, standardize sizes and sew the pieces quickly. Orders for military uniforms in the 1860s are often cited as a stimulus to standard sizing, and retail stores began to sell finished suits, coats and dresses at fixed prices. Over the following decades, ready-to-wear clothing became the normal way for many people to buy at least some of their clothes, though custom tailoring and home dressmaking continued alongside it.
Patterns for home dressmaking also spread in the later nineteenth century, which helped families who owned sewing machines make more of their own clothing. In that sense, the machine supported both the factory and the home.
Factory work and home work
The shift of sewing work is not a simple move from home to factory. Both existed side by side.
Factories gathered workers and machines in one place, with supervision and set hours. Large clothing factories were common in industrial cities, and they employed many women and immigrants.
Homework and small shops persisted because contractors could hand out cut pieces to be sewn on machines in tenement rooms or private houses. This “outwork” kept the contractor’s costs low but left the workers with little protection and often poor pay. The article on garment factories describes the conditions that grew out of this system and the reform efforts they provoked.
Home sewing expanded as families bought machines for mending and making their own clothing, a trend supported by magazines and paper patterns.
Later industrial developments
During the twentieth century, industrial sewing continued to evolve. Electric motors became standard, and machines became faster and more specialized. Cutting was increasingly done with powered knives and, later, computer-guided equipment. Stitching itself still required operators to guide fabric, which is one reason clothing production has stayed relatively labor intensive compared with other manufacturing. Much garment production moved between regions over time as companies looked for lower costs, a pattern with continuing social consequences.
Putting it in context
The central change in this period was one of scale and organization rather than basic principle. The stitching mechanism worked out earlier remained largely the same. What changed was the number of machines, the way work was divided and the market for clothing that resulted. Cheaper and more abundant clothes were a real benefit for many consumers, while the people who sewed them often paid for that benefit with long hours and low wages.