Sarah Boone was a dressmaker and people of her craft were mainly ironing clothes on a wooden plank placed across two chairs. This method was fine for a wide skirt, but not so great for other clothing. Boone thought that it would be useful to have a narrower board on which you could slip sleeves that would make ironing them so much easier. She also thought of the padding, because the wood would make impressions in fabrics, and her ironing board was collapsible so as to not take up much space when storing. Her patent was approved in 1892, in which she wrote that the purpose of her invention was "to produce a cheap, simple, convenient and highly effective device, particularly adapted to be used in ironing the sleeves and bodies of ladies' garments." Boone became one of the first African American women to be given a patent.