Sewing Business Blog

Sew With Sarah —- 1975-2015

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Sew With Sarah is celebrating our 40th Anniversary this year!

As many of you already know, I learned the Oriental Method of Pattern Making while on a military tour to Taiwan with my husband and family.  A young Taiwanese woman we met at church offered to help me get registered at a local pattern making school and attended the classes with me as my interpreter (you can read all about it here).

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Sarah started her “Sew With Sarah” business in 1975.  Starting with just  one book, “Sarah’s Key to Pattern Drafting”, and a long list of people wanting that book, Sarah now has over 35 sewing, pattern making, pattern make-over, craft, quilting, embroidery, sewing machine repair and general how-to books available.

Sarah Doyle, author of “Sarah’s Key To Pattern Drafting” has taught pattern drafting classes all over the country, to the general public as well as “for credit” classes for home economics teachers.  She then made the classes available by mail order so those who could not attend her classes would also have the opportunity to learn pattern making.

With the internet explosion, a fast paced society, and so little time for organized classes, Sarah once again filled a real need for the sewers around the world by painstakingly setting up and making available online every class, book and pattern she has available.  Online classes are convenient – simply download the class of your choice and work on it at your own pace and in your own place!  The variety of pattern making, pattern make-over and sewing/craft/quilting classes and patterns that are available will keep you busy for quite some time.  Choose whichever class you want and never have to worry about the class being cancelled or problems with your own schedule that won’t allow you to take part in the class.

We would like to thank all of our customers and loyal supporters for allowing Sew With Sarah.com to be your pattern and pattern making headquarters all these years.  We look forward to serving you for many years to come.

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Elias Howe – Inventor of the Lock-Stitch Sewing Machine

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Elias Howe grew up in poverty in Spencer, Massachusetts on his parents’ farm.  Born in 1819, he was sickly as a child and had difficulty performing chores around the farm, but he did them anyway.


He later got rich from his invention and patent of the lock-stitch sewing machine, considered one of the great breakthroughs in history.  Many patents were issued later for improvements to the sewing machine, but Howe was obviously mechanically gifted as he created something that didn’t exist previously.


Howe apprenticed at a textile factory at 16 which is where he first learned about fabric, then later went on to learn about mechanical designs from a master machinist in Boston.  One day he overheard his boss tell a customer that whoever invented the sewing machine would make a fortune.


Actually, the first sewing machine had been invented in the early 1830s by Walter Hunt, who sold his machine to a blacksmith and never patented the design.  Of course Howe was not aware of this and he made it his mission to invent a functional sewing machine.


Howe had a difficult time supporting his wife and three children on the $9/week that he earned (equivalent to $230 today).  His wife worked to make ends meet by taking in sewing jobs.  He analyzed her hand movements as she sewed and after working on his initial design for a year he began to test out models.  He settled on a finished design and then patented it the following year in 1846.


The early machines were hard to use as they were “clunky” and the fabric needed to be pinned to a plate and then repositioned as the stitching went along.  Needles jammed often and thread tension was touchy.  The original machines are on display at the Smithsonian National Museum in Washington, D.C.  Read more about Elias Howe in the Investor’s Business Daily.

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Ebenezer Butterick – An American Inventor

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Ebenezer Butterick was born in Sterling, Massachusetts in 1826 and he spent much of his life, up until he was 37 years old, sewing clothes and cutting fabric in his hometown. 

Historians say that although he was a competent tailor, he wasn’t earning very much money, until his sewing expertise turned him into an unlikely inventor.


Along with his wife Ellen, Butterick is credited with inventing the modern graded tissue paper pattern.  The invention was a revolution at a time when ready made clothing was not available so people had to either hire a tailor or make their own clothes.  Patterns at the time were available in limited styles and typically came in one size that must be graded, or altered, to a person’s actual measurements.

Grading patterns was a laborious process and frustrating for most home sewers, however Butterick was very experienced at grading patterns to fit his customers. 

Butterick began working on templates for graded patterns that contained different sizes, to be printed on tissue thin paper that would be easy to fold and ship across country.

His patterns allowed the expanding lower to middle class who could not afford custom clothing to finally be able to afford modern fashions.  Originally available in 1863 only in men’s and boy’s designs, the patterns cost between 25 and 75 cents each.  This was a luxury for most of the working class who earned about $1-2 a day at the time.

Originally sold by travelling salesmen, sales took off and the patterns were so successful that the line was expanded to include women’s fashions in 1866, and in 1867 the company began publishing magazines to promote their patterns, and started to offer mail order services.  Mail order at the time was an exciting new innovation, much like Internet shopping is today.  The company sold 6 million patterns in 1871.

Although McCall Pattern Company now owns the firm, the Butterick name still has global recognition.  Visit the Butterick website to view today’s modern designs, or check out this great article about Butterick’s leadership and success in the Investor’s Business Daily.

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