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The Biggest Sewing Trends of the Last Decade

Before we slide into 2020 I wanted to take a look back over the trends and movements that have shaped the Twenty-Tens. Over the past 10 years, sewing at home/dressmaking has come into its own with more people joining the growing ranks of seamstresses. The Great British Sewing Bee has become a national favourite household name, and sewing machine sales have been on the increase according to John Lewis.

As home sewers, we are becoming increasingly conscious of what we’re putting on our bodies. Sustainable sewing has become a mainstream term that’s used across the different sewing communities be they on blogs, YouTube, podcasts or forums, while our access to wider fabric ranges have become more robust thanks to the rise of globalisation.

Of course, there have been plenty of micro trends and fads that have failed to breakthrough, but what are the biggest innovations and movements that have changed our approach to sewing at home?

Sustainable Sewing

Sustainable sewing is becoming a big thing – as seamstresses are more conscious about what fabrics they are sewing with. There is more awareness of the impact of the textile industry on the environment. This is reflected by the growth of specialist fabrics that seek to have a cleaner supply chain. There has also been a corresponding rise of certification programs like GOTS that have a goal to make it easier for home sewers and fashion designers to make fabric choices that reduce damage to the environment. 

Diversity & Inclusivity

Diversity in sewing patterns imagery. The conversation on diversity and representation in any form of media shows no sign of going away. This reflects the wider cultural conversation that is happening the world over. Home sewing is a subset of the fashion world so what is happening in fashion tends to trickle down. After years of complacency, the fashion industry faced a perfect storm of consumer activism driven by political consciousness and social-media that has put pressure on brands to be more inclusive. Globalised marketplaces mean catering to increasingly diverse and vocal consumer bases. A statistic of note is that the proportion of ad campaigns featuring models of colour rose from 15 percent in the spring of 2015 to 35 percent in the spring of 2019 (The Fashion Spot). With catwalks in London, New York, Paris and Milan having seen a similar shift of older, plus-size, transgender or non-binary models also increasing.

Independent Sewing Patterns

The explosion in independent sewing pattern companies that doesn’t look like its slowing down any time soon. Coupled with the apparent decline in the traditional Big Four – this decade saw the collapse of Interweave and Burdastyle.com move back to its European roots. We now have The Big Four owning all of Simplicity and New Look patterns under one roof. I predict that the market will continue to move towards the smaller companies doing limited runs of print patterns while providing PDFs as evergreen patterns. The Big 4 are playing catch up with the more forward-thinking indie pattern companies by offering downloadable  PDFs for the newer releases. People want convenient, transparent and affordable options at their fingertips.

…which has led to print at home PDFs

The prevalence of the A0 file size of print it yourself PDFS has created a new revenue stream for printers. At the start of the decade, taping and gluing A4 papers together was the norm but now there is the option of sending your file to be printed out on one large A0 paper. With more entrants in this niche market space, prices have gone down so as to make it an affordable option.

Sewing Podcasts

Sewing podcasts as another way of consuming sewing media. The biggest growth in the past few years has been the podcast arena and this is for the entire world of content creation in general. Podcasting shows no sign of slowing down with an audience keen to consume their favoured interests without the inconvenience of YouTube ads and indeed the limitations of mobile data.

Sewing as Self Care

The phenomenal rise of ‘self-care’ is showing no sign of slowing as we move into the new decade. Self-care found a natural home within the sewing world as sewing fits in under self-care practices like stress management and social connection. The social connection comes from digital sewing communities while much anecdotal evidence indicates that many home sewers use it as an outlet of creative energy and stress release. It is worth noting that self-care has surged in popularity and in 2018 it was the most popular app name.

What other trends could be added?

Thanks for stopping by!

Hila