What was the impact of the invention of the sewing machine?

The major impacts of the invention of the sewing machine were to 1) create the clothing industry and 2) to help allow people to have more clothing.

Before the invention of the sewing machine, all sewing had to be done by hand.  Cloth could be made by machines, but the actual sewing of garments and other things could only be done by hand.  People would either make clothes at home by hand or would buy them from tailors.  This made clothing very expensive (if you bought it) or time-consuming (if you made it yourself).  The invention of the sewing machine changed this.

Once Elias Howe invented the sewing machine, clothes could be made on a much more industrial scale, much as cloth was.  People could set up factories with large numbers of sewing machines.  Workers using sewing machines could produce garments much more quickly than was previously possible.  When workers can make things more quickly, that also means that the products can be sold more cheaply because the workers do not have to be paid as much.  When clothes become cheaper, people are able to buy more clothing.  In addition, the invention of the sewing machine even helped people who sewed at home.  Sewing clothing at home with a machine was much quicker than hand-sewing and so a woman (almost always a woman) could make more clothes for herself and her family.

In these ways, the invention of the sewing machine had important impacts.  It helped to build the clothing industry and it improved people’s quality of life by allowing them to own more clothes.