BUTTERICK PATTERNS

The History of Butterick Patterns

The oldest pattern company in the world. Founded in 1863 by Ebenezer Butterick who created the first-ever graded sewing pattern. The company he founded continues to lead the way in make-it-yourself fashion over 150 years later. The first graded sewing patterns were cut and folded by members of the Butterick family and sold from their home in Sterling, Massachusetts. In no time at all Butterick expanded his women’s line to include dresses, jackets and capes in 13 sizes and skirts in five sizes. By 1903, Butterick was one of the largest manufacturing concerns in the world and the largest publishing plant in the United States, with the exception of the government printing office in Washington. Patterns were created and graded into sizes, printed on tissue paper, cut, folded and inserted into envelopes complete with instruction sheets. Garments were constructed, sketched with pen and ink and engraved for coloured fashion plates. Magazine articles and advertisements were conceived, written and put into type. Billions of pages were printed, gathered, bound and trimmed. 

And finally, all those magazines and patterns were bundled, sorted and shipped to consumers, retailers and newsstands worldwide. In 1948, Butterick purchased advanced printing equipment for the new manufacturing plant. To begin with, the company installed two new presses specially designed to print markings on the pattern tissue. The ‘printed pattern’ was the most significant improvement of home sewing patterns since its invention. What a joy it was for the home sewists to have bold dots, notches and lines replacing the little holes that previously marked darts, matching points and foldlines! Next, Butterick introduced new four-colour printing presses to bring full colour to the monthly counter catalogues and pattern envelopes, greatly improving their quality and making them more lifelike. Shortly thereafter the first black and white editorial photographs began to appear in the catalogue and in 1950 the first full-colour photograph appeared on the catalogue cover.

Patterns for all the family

Butterick children’s patterns are an excellent part of the range. With a large collection of designs for girls and baby sewing patterns. We have patterns for Boys and Men, as well as family packs with unisex sizing for all. Our most popular styles are the girls party dress patterns and adorable baby onesie patterns.

Pattern sizing

Butterick patterns are sized in line with our other pattern brands and while we label our tissue with American sizing you can see European sizing on our envelopes. You can find all our size charts and helpful information on picking your size in our size and fit section which includes imperial and metric measurements.

Butterick Indie Dewing Patterns 

We have an exciting range of Butterick Indie Sewing Pattern collaborations for you to try with designs from Lisette and Palmer Pletsch! Our indie sewing pattern licensees create designs in our standard size charts for a consistent experience across our brands.

Liesl Gibson is the creative mind behind our Lisette for Butterick collection. The accomplished indie pattern designer designs chic, classic, timeless designs so you can invest in making items you can wear for a long time, especially in this age of fast fashion. 

Pati Palmer is “the Fit Expert,” known for creating the Palmer/Pletsch tissue-fitting method, along with Marta Alto. Since 1980, Pati has designed and written instructions for 350 indie sewing patterns in collaboration with our brands and the unique tissue fitting method is at the heart of everything she teaches. Our Palmer/Pletsch patterns are unique in that the guide sheets include more than sewing: they have in-depth fitting tips, design recommendations and professional sewing techniques. The patterns themselves have alteration lines printed on the tissue to help you with your fitting techniques.