Lord knows I do NOT sew well though i try. My grandmother could look at a picture or a dress in a window come home make her own pattern and sew it and it looked just as good. *Now I wish i had paid more attention* a lot of the sewing she did was by hand and her stitches were very small.
Id have to say that stitches even for a poor person would have to be just as good for a wealthy person because their clothes did have to hold up longer than the wealthy. And from all the repeated patchings, handing garments too little to others,so that they had to be hemmed or taken in or loosened, the stitches had to be small so they would not show all the repeated work...though eventually the more repaired a garment was the more likely to show it's repairings.
That is just my worthless two cents.