Sewing is one of the first and most basic crafts of humanity, dating back to the Stone Age. In fact, sewing is so old that it pre-dates our own species, and was practiced by earlier hominin peoples to make the first clothing. The history of sewing is the history of humanity, and well worth exploring.
Sewing In Pre-History
Before the invention of textiles or weaving, early humans developed the art of sewing. Scientists estimate that early humans developed sewn clothing 42,000-72,000 years ago, as early hominins left Africa and moved into colder climates where it was necessary to stay warm. They constructed garments by taking animal skins or large leaves, using an awl to create holes in the material, and then using needles made of bone, ivory, or antlers to thread plant fibers or sinews into the holes. In this way, they were able to piece fabrics together and make early garments, bedding, tents, and other useful objects.
Archaeologists have found needles dating back to 30,000 years ago, and the earliest needles with eyes are estimated to have been made 17,500 years ago.
Early Ages of Sewing
In about 300 BC, metal workers in India began to make steel. By the time of the Han Dynasty in China, about 200 BC, Chinese sewers were using needles made of steel. Strong, thin steel needles were essential for working with silk, a fabric, that had become incredibly important in Chinese fashion and trade.
Because steel needles are difficult on the fingers, Chinese tailors and seamstresses began using bronze thimble rings to protect themselves. Chinese fashion at the time required a lot of detailed embroidery, and sewing was an important and respected craft.
As the Chinese exported silk to Europe along the silk road, steel needles and thimble rings were exported as well. While decorative sewing had developed independently in the middle east, Chinese embroidery techniques were extremely influential in the early days of sewing.
By about 1000 AD, people in Central and West Asia had developed thimbles into the capped shape we are more familiar with today. This is likely because the sewers in those regions were using cotton fabrics, and making sailcloth for ships.
Sewing in the Middle Ages
Although people had been weaving plant and animal fibers into cloth for millennia, making cloth was always expensive and time consuming. In the early Middle Ages, fabric was a sign of wealth, so kings and nobles made a point of showing off with curtains, tapestries, and wall hangings.
In fact, cloth was so difficult and time consuming to make, that for thousands of years of human clothing and fashion, clothing was made without actually cutting fabric. All around the world, fashions reflected this unwillingness to cut cloth. Garments like tunics and kimonos were made by weaving a tunic shape and sewing the edges together. Garments like saris, togas, and robes were made by wrapping long lengths of fabric and tying them in place. Fabric was too expensive to cut and piece together into fitted garments.
That all changed in the 10th or 11th century, when the spinning wheel was invented in the Middle East. The spinning wheel spread from Baghdad east to China, and west into Europe, and by the 12th century it was widely adopted.
The spinning wheel made thread and yarn much faster and easier, although the threads were originally considered to be of lower quality. But the spinning wheel made the creation of thread 10 times more efficient than hand spinning, making it faster, easier, and less expensive in turn to produce fabrics by weaving.
As cloth became more affordable, clothing became more sophisticated, involving different fabric types and pieces, and being more fitted to the body. Europeans had also imported the idea of buttons from tailors in the Middle East, making it even easier to wear clothing that fitted the body. Suddenly there were sleeves, and there could be jackets and coats instead of robes and cloaks.
These advances made the skill of tailoring clothes extremely important in Europe in the Middle Ages. In fact, tailors were organized into guilds and governed the craft and pricing of sewing. While sewing for the household was a skill expected of women, the guilds had rules about what products and services women could provide professionally. To meet the demand for clothing, metal workers in Spain, Germany, and Italy were making sewing needles and brass thimbles for widespread distribution.
Some historians also point out that, without the spinning wheel, there would have been very few fabric rags, because cloth was so precious and expensive. But the availability of rags was crucial for the development of inexpensive paper, which was in turn crucial for the development of the printing press.
Sewing in the Industrial Revolution
The social transformation brought about by the spinning wheel is often cited as one of the factors that contributed to the industrial revolution. From the moment the spinning wheel became popular in 12th or 13th century Europe, people began working to improve it.
There were dozens of different designs, additions, and experiments to make the spinning wheel even more efficient, and to improve the quality of the yarn they produced.
A key innovation was the addition of a foot-powered treadle in the 1500s. Historians also describe a water-powered spinning wheel in China around the same time, while water-powered looms would not be invented in Europe until the 1700s.
The cotton market in Europe was dominated by the cotton industry in England. Even with the invention of the spinning wheel, in the early 1700s production was still extremely slow. Families lived on subsistence farms, and every family member spent time every day carding or spinning cotton or wool for an income.
Every day, spinners would go from home to home buying carded wool, and then spin. Every day weavers would go from home to home to buy yarn, and then weave. It took three carding families to provide materials for one spinner, and then three spinners to provide yarn for one weaver. Once a week, the weaver took their cloth to the market for sale. This system could never keep up with the enormous demand for fabric.
In the mid 1700s, several innovations emerged. Guild masters began to centralize the collection and distribution of materials, collecting wool for spinners and yarn for weavers and collecting the finished work. This subcontracting system allowed people to spend time on their part of the production process, without spending time collecting materials.
An Englishman invented the flying shuttle, which made a single weaver much more productive, and in 1764 the spinning jenny allowed a single spinner to create eight spools at once.
These machines and processes that exponentially increased output by dividing, outsourcing, and specializing labor were the key ingredients of the factory system and the Industrial Revolution.
Invention of the Sewing Machine
The first sewing machine as we would understand it today was invented in 1790 in England. However, the inventor was a cabinet maker named Thomas Saint, and he never marketed or promoted his invention. Although the invention exists in the patent office, the actual machine was never offered to the public.
Over the next few decades, multiple innovators in Europe would develop different working models of sewing machines, but most of these inventors developed the machines for use in their own factories or workshops, and not for sale to others. However, the innovations and improvements of these machines were important contributions to the final design of a commercial sewing machine, built by Englishman John Fisher in 1844. A similarly functioning sewing machine was also patented by Elias Howe in 1845.
Fisher’s machine was very similar to a sewing machine invented by American Isaac Merritt Singer in 1851.
Although Singer’s machine worked very much like Fisher’s and Howe’s, it was much easier to use. Unlike earlier inventors, Singer planned to appeal to the at-home consumer market, and had an installment payment plan and distribution channel. Singer’s sewing machine did run into some patent trouble, but because Fisher’s patent application was not completed successfully in 1845, and Singer reached an agreement with Howe, Singer is widely regarded as the inventor of the first modern sewing machine.
In the 1850s, clothing manufacturers were eager to buy sewing machines, and many companies began building and selling them in an extremely competitive market. A sewing machine could make a man’s shirt in about an hour, when previously it had taken more than 14 hours to make a shirt by hand.
By the 1860s, consumers began purchasing sewing machines of their own, and women’s magazines began publishing clothing patterns and instructions for the home seamstress.
In 1885, Singer introduced the Singer Vibrating Shuttle sewing machine, which was a substantially improved design. These machines were practical, easy to use, and marketed directly toward the home sewer. They sold millions, and the machines were so durable and reliable that some of them are still in use today.
Adoption of the Sewing Machine
At the end of WWI, industrial processes had made ready-to-wear clothing widely available and easily affordable. This led to the decline of women sewing at home for their family’s needs, and families purchased clothes instead of making them.
During the Great Depression in the 1930s, there was a resurgence of sewing at home as money was tight. Helped by the fact that domestic electric service was now available in rural areas, and by government programs that promoted thrift and self-sufficiency, more women were making clothes at home.
Then, during WWII, factories in America stopped making sewing machines and were converted to military purposes. After the war, imported sewing machines became available. This newer generation of imported sewing machines were lighter in weight, had advanced stitches, and had more modern, fashionable design. Post-war women loved these new features and designs, and domestic American sewing machine manufacture never recovered.
Sewing Today
It nearly goes without saying that the most significant change in sewing machines since the 1950s has been the integration of computer capabilities. Today’s sewing machines are programmable, automatic, intuitive to use, and capable of designs and functions that sewers 100 years ago wouldn’t have dreamed of.
Sewing today is often seen as a craft, a hobby, and a form of artistic expression, more than it is seen as a functional necessity in caring for a family. However, sewing and quilting TV shows, how-to YouTube channels, and affordable sewing machines have led to a huge increase in people taking up sewing at home.
In fact, according to the UK’s Craft and Hobby Association, more than 1 million new people have started making their own clothes at home since 2015, and nearly as many have picked up knitting needles for the first time. Today’s sewers also have access to sites like Etsy where they can share and sell their creations, and handmade clothes are often seen as more luxurious than fast fashion.
Today, people who sew have access to groundbreaking, world-class sewing machines. They have access to the best instruction, the best patterns, the best materials, and to a global marketplace to share and sell their creations. What young people today didn’t learn in Home Economics class, they are learning online, by the thousands.
In many ways, this resurgence is a return to the roots of sewing. People are sewing at home, for themselves and their loved ones. They are polishing their skills and inventing new traditions. And they are finding that sewing your own clothes means that they get exactly the right style, and exactly the right fit, every time.
Sewing is one of the oldest human activities, and has been a key trigger point for innovation, exploration, and social change throughout the centuries. As long as we need to protect our bodies from the elements, it will remain a basic human activity for the centuries to come. But sewing is also how we express our taste, our social status, or culture, and our values, so it makes sense that we continue to evolve and develop this skill over time.
Interested in getting started, or ready to upgrade your equipment? Check out our many sewing machine reviews!