At the time, McCall was number two in its industry, holding 29.7 percent of the market, compared to industry leader Simplicity Patterns with 39.4 percent.

In 1948, while working as a fashion director for Simplicity Patterns, he had a one-man exhibition in New York of his oil paintings, wire montages, dry-pen drawings and abstract photography.

Simplicity Patterns, like most home sewing patterns, consist of tissue paper with numbers and instructions written on it.

Some of the licensed brands that Simplicity Patterns carry are:

Simplicity Patterns was still racking up profits long after most American women had given up making their own clothes, but now it is struggling to stay out of bankruptcy court.

Three aspiring teen designers competed to design a dress to wear to the prom, and a pattern of the winning dress was then produced and sold nationwide by Simplicity Patterns.

Deborah Kreiling, a quality-control manager for Simplicity Pattern in New York, learned to juggle 25 years ago and says she never performs without an audience, whether children, friends or co-workers.

At the end of 2010 Suede signed his first licensing deal with Simplicity Patterns.

His designs are available world wide and are distributed by Simplicity Patterns.

The pending sale of Continental is expected to be completed during the third quarter of fiscal 1989; Simplicity Pattern was sold in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1988.