One of the first functional sewing machines was patented by Barthélemy Thimmonier in 1830. However, his machines did not last long since the following year they were destroyed by a mob of French tailors concerned over loosing their jobs. His intention was to help speed up the process of producing French military uniforms. Thimmonier patented other improvements to the machine but was never truly successful. In 1846 Elias Howe patented a lock-stitch machine that would be familiar to us in function. The newspapers mention in 1845 that such a machine can "perform up to 200 stitches a minute" and can construct "all parts of a coat, excepting the buttonholes". Isaac Singer came out with his machine a few years later, but it was very similar and was successfully sued for patent infringement by Howe. There's an explosion of articles in newspapers about sewing machines being invented from Boston to France, all focusing on their speed and treating it is a very exciting new thing, often noting that people can come to view it working.

The earliest machines were originally aimed at large-scale industrial use. Some did well on heavy materials, such as leather, but would have eaten up the delicate silks and cottons used in fashionable attire. Eventually the machines were improved upon for use by tailors and other garment production and were advertised for home use in 1856. When written about in magazines they often discussed how much more quickly basic items like shirts could be produced (10 machined shirts in the time to make 1 by hand). Tailors advertisements in the 1850s for ready-made clothing sometimes mention using sewing machines to achieve the best speed and price. Note that ready-made clothing outside of unfitted items (like shirts) was still unusual at this point.

One advertisement from 1858 in San Francisco is just for machine sewing. It mentions sewing "Gents Shirts, Collar, Undershirts, etc., made to order. Also, Handkerchiefs and Carats neatly hemmed. Fine Sewing and Stitching on Ladies and Children's garments; also, Sheets, Towels, Napkins, Pillow Slips, etc." The fact that they advertise this a service points to the fact that it still was not overly common for clothing to be machine sewn. Surviving garments from the mid-19th century are often a mix, sometimes within the same garment. The explosion of ready-to-wear garments near the end of the century co-incides nicely with the growth of the sewing machine. It really was this type of garment that it's worked focused on. High fashion was still made by hand, whether it was a gown or suit.

Additional pieces were invented over the years that allowed the machine to do more than just hem or seam, such as the automatic ruffling foot. This allows for mass-production industries as well as at-home amateurs to mimic the fashions much easier and faster. Machines didn't dictate new fashion trends, but they made them more accessible and cheap. This alters how clothing is produced and consumed, though slowly over the 20th century, to the point where now anything hand-sewn or bespoke is very rare and expensive.