Editing Sewing (section)

===20th century onward===
[[File:Bangladeshi women sewing clothes.jpg|thumb|Bangladeshi women sewing clothes.]]
Sewing underwent further developments during the 20th century. As sewing machines became more affordable to the working class, demand for [[Pattern (sewing)|sewing pattern]]s grew. Women had become accustomed to seeing the latest fashions in periodicals during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, increasing demand for sewing patterns yet more. American tailor and manufacturer [[Ebenezer Butterick]] met the demand with paper patterns that could be traced and used by home sewers. The patterns, sold in small packets, became wildly popular. Several pattern companies soon established themselves. Women's magazines also carried sewing patterns, and continued to do so for much of the 20th century. This practice declined during the later decades of the 20th century, when ready-made clothing became a necessity as women joined the paid workforce in larger numbers, leaving them with less time to sew, if indeed they had an interest.{{Citation needed|reason=Was the reason time, cheapness of clothing, or something else?|date=February 2017}} Today, the low price of ready-made clothing in shops means that home sewing is confined largely to hobbyists in Western countries,{{Citation needed|date=February 2017}} with the exception of cottage industries in custom dressmaking and [[upholstery]]. Sewing as a pleasurable hobby has gained popularity as attested by the BBC televisions show [[The Great British Sewing Bee]], on air since 2013.

The spread of sewing machine technology to industrialized economies around the world meant the spread of Western-style sewing methods and clothing styles as well. In Japan, traditional clothing was sewn together with running stitch that could be removed so that the clothing could be taken apart and the assorted pieces laundered separately. The tight-locked stitches made by home sewing machines, and the use of Western clothing patterns, led to a movement towards wearing Western-style clothing during the early 20th century.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Historical Consumer: Consumption and Everyday Life in Japan, 1850–2000|year=2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=9780230273665|pages=56–7|editor1=Janet Hunter |editor2=Penelope Francks }}</ref> Western sewing and clothing styles were disseminated in sub-Saharan Africa by Christian missionaries from the 1830s onward. Indigenous cultures, such as the [[Zulu people|Zulu]] and [[Tswana people|Tswana]], were indoctrinated in the Western way of dress as a sign of conversion to Christianity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cornwell|first=Andrea|title=Readings in Gender in Africa|year=2005|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253345172|page=179}}</ref> First Western hand sewing techniques, and later machine sewing, spread throughout the regions where the European colonists settled. However, a recent examination of new online learning methods demonstrated that technology can be adapted to share knowledge of a culture's traditional sewing methods. Using self-paced online tutorials, a [[Malaysia|Malay]] sewing class learned how to tailor and sew a traditional men's ''[[Baju Kurung]]'' garment in 3 days, whereas a traditional Malay sewing class would have taken 5 days to teach the same information.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Abdul Salam Zailan Arabee  |author2=Mansur Azmi |name-list-style=amp |title=Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on e-Learning|year=2005|publisher=Academic Conferences Limited|isbn=9781905305124|pages=18–9|editor=Dan Remenyi}}</ref>
[[File:Henri Lebasque, Jeune fille cousant, ca. 1925.jpg|thumb|Henri Lebasque, Jeune fille cousant, {{c.|1925}}]]

Advances in industrial technology, such as the development of [[synthetic fibre]]s during the early 20th century, have brought profound changes to the [[textile industry]] as a whole. Textile industries in Western countries have declined sharply as textile companies compete for cheaper labour in other parts of the world. According to the U.S. Department of Labor "employment of sewers and tailors is expected to experience little or no change, growing 1 percent from 2010 to 2020".<ref>{{cite web|last=Bureau of Labor Statistics|first=U.S. Department of Labor|title=Occupational Outlook Handbook|url=http://www.bls.gov/ooh/production/sewers-and-tailors.htm#tab-6|publisher=Bureau of Labor Statistics|access-date=10 November 2013|date=26 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Singer Quantum Sewing 2010 to 2020|website = [[YouTube]]| date=11 January 2014 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BvTdedUpos| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211117/9BvTdedUpos| archive-date=2021-11-17 | url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}</ref> It is estimated that every lost textile job in a Western country in recent years has resulted in 1.5 jobs being created in an [[outsourcing|outsourced]] country such as China.<ref>{{cite web|last=Flanagan|first=Mike|title=The Flanarant: China's textile and clothing challenge in new era|url=http://www.just-style.com/comment/chinas-textile-and-clothing-challenge-in-new-era_id116173.aspx|publisher=just-style|access-date=10 December 2012|date=18 November 2012|archive-date=29 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121129123517/http://www.just-style.com/comment/chinas-textile-and-clothing-challenge-in-new-era_id116173.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> Textile workers who perform tasks with sewing machines, or do detailed work by hand, are still a vital component of the industry, however. Small-scale sewing is also an economic standby in many developing countries, where many people, both male and female, are self-employed sewers.