MCCALL'S PATTERN CO.

McCall's was apatterncompany founded in 1873 by (American) James McCall that sold full-scale paper patterns to the home sewer. Unlike his competitors at the time, McCall's offered a full range of sizes. As the home sewing market grew, better methods of communicating garment cutting and construction procedures were sought after. McCall's responded with its own patent in 1921 by Francis Hotter called the "Printo Gravure," the first printed-pattern process (patent expired in 1938) and instruction panel. Up until then, patterns were done manually and lacked instructional materials. In 1984, Reginald F. Lewis purchased the floundering McCall's Pattern Company and three years later sold it for a $70 million profit to Crowther Group. Under Crowther, the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and, in 1990, was sold to MP Holdings Inc. In 2001, McCall's acquired Butterick andVoguealthough all three retain their own signature names.