What Do John Molloy, Family Circle Magazine, 1980, and McCalls Patterns Have in Common?
Family Circle magazine approached Pati to write an article on sewing blazer jackets for women in 1980. At the same time, she was designing the innovative 8-hour Blazer, her first pattern for McCall’s. John Molloy’s book, Dress for Success, published in 1975, was catching on. He told women that if they wanted to get ahead in the corporate world, they needed to dress like men. That meant wearing tailored suits. Timing is everything. There were no blazers for women in stores, so women took to sewing them. They found Palmer’s pattern that promise to make sewing a jacket easy using the new iron-on interfacings. The pattern took off in sales. Her pattern sold 20,000 copies the first week, 40,000 the second week, 60,000 the third week—over 120,000 the first month and by year end, one million copies. (By comparison, an average pattern in 1980 sold 1500 copies a month.) This year, Palmer celebrates her 30th year as a licensee for The McCall Pattern Co. and is their #1 licensee in 2010. To cel
