Editing Sewing (section)

===Industrial Revolution===
[[File:SewingInDetroit,Michigan.jpg|thumb|Early 20th century sewing in Detroit, Michigan]]
[[File:Street seamstress vendor Bangkok.jpg|thumb|A woman sewing as a street vendor in [[Bangkok, Thailand]].]]
[[File:Sewing with a 1894 Singer sewing machine.webm|thumb|Sewing with an 1894 [[Singer Corporation|Singer]] sewing machine.]]
The Industrial Revolution shifted the production of textiles from the household to the mills. In the early decades of the Industrial Revolution, the machinery produced whole cloth. The world's first sewing machine was patented in 1790 by Thomas Saint.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/national-sewing-month-2011_50290c5a9fbfb.jpg | title=National Sewing Month 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304202735/http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/national-sewing-month-2011_50290c5a9fbfb.jpg | archive-date=4 March 2016 }}</ref> By the early 1840s, other early sewing machines began to appear. [[Barthélemy Thimonnier]] introduced a simple sewing machine in 1841 to produce military uniforms for France's army; shortly afterward, a mob of tailors broke into Thimonnier's shop and threw the machines out of the windows, believing the machines would put them out of work.<ref>{{cite book|last=Carlson|first=Laurie M.|title=Queen of Inventions: How the Sewing Machine Changed the World|year=2003|publisher=Millbrook Press|isbn=9780761327066|page=8}}</ref> By the 1850s, [[Isaac Singer]] developed the first sewing machines that could operate quickly and accurately and surpass the productivity of a seamstress or tailor sewing by hand.

While much clothing was still produced at home by female members of the family, more and more ready-made clothes for the middle classes were being produced with sewing machines. Textile [[sweatshop]]s full of poorly paid sewing machine operators grew into entire business districts in large cities like London and New York City. To further support the industry, [[piece work]] was done for little money by women living in slums. [[Needlework]] was one of the few occupations considered acceptable for women, but it did not pay a living wage. Women working from home often worked 14-hour days to earn enough to support themselves, sometimes by renting sewing machines that they could not afford to buy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Perkin |first=Joan|title=Victorian Women |year=1993 |publisher=[[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] |location=London |isbn=0-7195-4955-8 |pages=189–190}}</ref>

Tailors became associated with higher-end clothing during this period. In London, this status grew out of the [[dandy]] trend of the early 19th century, when new tailor shops were established around [[Savile Row]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Berg Companion to Fashion |year=2010 |publisher=Berg |isbn=9781847885920 |page=618 |editor=Valerie Steele}}</ref> These shops acquired a reputation for sewing high-quality handmade clothing in the style of the latest British fashions, as well as more classic styles. The boutique culture of [[Carnaby Street]] was absorbed by Savile Row tailors during the late 20th century, ensuring the continued flourishing of Savile Row's businesses.

Historian Judith Bennett explains that the nature of women's work maintained a consistent pattern from the medieval period through the Second Industrial Revolution, characterized by tasks that were low-profit, low-volume, and low-skilled, often performed alongside other responsibilities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bennett |first=Judith M. |title=History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism |date=2007 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia}}</ref> Similarly, Judy Lown argues that although women's work transitioned from the household to the factory, its essence—remaining low-skilled and poorly paid—persisted without significant change.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lown |first=Judy |title=Women and Industrialization: Gender at Work in Nineteenth-Century England |date=1990 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis}}</ref>

The transition to industrialization introduced a growing dependence on cash income in Northwestern Europe. For many working-class families, opportunities to earn wages were often located in distant cities, prompting many girls to leave their rural homes and migrate to urban areas.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tilly, Scott |first=Louise A., Joan W. |title=Women, Work, and Family |date=1987 |publisher=Routledge |edition=2nd |location=New York}}</ref> The changing nature of work in general raised questions about how women fit into rising industrialization and how both men and women should navigate gender roles. One of the concerns of the 19th century was the impact of industrialization on women's morality. According to Mariana Valverde, many male factory workers and union leaders alike argued that women working in industrial settings would be contrary to their nature and symbolized a "return to barbarism."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Valverde |first=Mariana |date=1988 |title=Giving the Female a Domestic Turn': The Social, Legal and Moral Regulation of Women's Work in British Cotton Mills, 1820-1850 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3788005. |journal=Journal of Social History |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=619–634|doi=10.1353/jsh/21.4.619 |jstor=3788005 }}</ref>  

This perception not only reflected prevailing gender biases but also influenced labor policies and union strategies, which often sought to exclude women from better-paying industrial jobs. Such debates reinforced the belief that women were best suited for domestic roles or low-skilled work, limiting their economic opportunities and perpetuating a cycle of inequality.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Collins |first=Jane L. |date=2002 |title=Mapping a Global Labor Market: Gender and Skill in the Globalizing Garment Industry |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3081941 |journal=Gender and Society |volume=16 |issue=6 |pages=921–940 |doi=10.1177/089124302237895 |jstor=3081941 }}</ref>