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Sewing machine

Elias Howe's lockstitch machine, invented 1845

A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric, paper, card and other material together with

thread Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of

manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. Since the invention of the first working sewing

machine, generally considered to have been the work of Englishman Thomas Saint in 1790, the sewing

machine has vastly improved the efficiency and productivity of fabric and clothing industries.

Needle plate, foot and transporter of a sewing machine

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Singer sewing machine (detail 1)

A Merrow A-Class machine

A Merrow 70-Class machine (2007)

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an

nand t ti n. arl ill r at nt d t first achine t stitch tt nholes j U.S. Patent

k l,6

l m n.

o hrough the k l s oreand orecompanies

ere eing formedand

ere trying tosueeachother. o his

triggeredapatent thicket knownas theSewing

achine War.[

] Ink

6 theSewing

achine

ombinationwas formed, consistingof Singer, owe, Wheelerand Wilson, and Groverand Baker. o hese

fourcompaniespooled theirpatents, meaning that all theothermanufacturershad toobtaina licenseand

pay $ k permachine. o his lasteduntil k when the last patent expired.

In the k

l samachineshopwasestablishedat the errowmill todevelopspecializedmachinery forthe

knittingoperations. In k theworlds first crochet machinewas inventedandpatentedbyJoseph .

errow, then-president of thecompany. o hiscrochetmachinewas the first productionoverlocksewing

machine. o he errow achine ompanywent on tobecomeoneof the largest American anufacturers

ofoverlocksewingmachines, andcontinues tobeaglobal presencein the k st centuryas the last

Americanoverlocksewingmachinemanufacturer.

James Edward Allen Gibbs j k m -1902), a farmer from aphine in ockbridge ounty, Virginiapatented

the first chain-stitchsingle-threadsewingmachineon June2, 1857. Inpartnershipwith James Wilcox,

Gibbsbecameaprincipal in Wilcox & Gibbs Sewing achine ompany. Wilcox & Gibbscommercial

sewingmachinesarestill used in the21st century.

In1885 Singerpatented theSingerVibrating Shuttlesewingmachine, whichused Allen B. Wilson's idea for

avibratingshuttleandwasabetterlockstitcherthan theoscillatingshuttlesof the time.

illionswere

produceduntil finallysupersededbyrotaryshuttlemachines in the20thcentury.

In1905 errowwona lawsuit against Wilcox & Gibbs fortherights to theoriginalcrochet stitch.

Sewingmachinescontinuedbeingmade toroughly thesamedesign, withmore lavishdecoration

appearinguntil well into the1900swhen the first electricmachinesstarted toappear. o he first electric

machinesweredevelopedby SingerSewing o. and introduced in1889.[5] At first thesewerestandard

machineswithamotorstrappedon theside. Asmorehomesgainedpower, thesebecamemorepopular

and themotorwasgradually introduced into thecasing.

Describedbysomeas the " aytagofsewingmachines" the ecchi sewingmachines from Italywere

coveted fortheiraestheticallypleasingdesigns.

In1946, the first o oyotasewingmachinewasbuilt underthestrict supervisionofo oyota founder, r.

Kiichiro o oyoda. r. o oyodahadastrongbelief that home-useproductsmust be "functional yet beautiful".

In1987, Orisol j Israel)pioneered the introductionof the first visioncontrolledcomputerized industrial

sewingmachines into theshoemakingworld. o headditionofvisionsense j sophisticated image

processing) to thecomputercontrolledsewingsystemsdramaticallyenhanced theaccuracyof themulti-

part sewingprocess, correctingorcompensating inreal time foranydeflection, deformationordynamic

movement of thesewnpartsascompared to theresults fromconventional computerizedsewingmachines.

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Modern machines may be computer controlled and use stepper motors or sezuential cams to achieve very

complex patterns. Most of these are now made in Asia and the market is becoming more speciali{

ed.

Stitch formation

A rotary hook sewing machine creating a lockstitch

Sewing machines can make a great variety of plain or patterned stitches. Ignoring strictly decorative

aspects, over three do{

en distinct stitch formations are formally recogni{

ed by the IS|

4915:1991

standard, involving one to seven separate threads to form the stitch.

Plain stitches fall into four general categories: lockstitch, chainstitch, overlock, and coverstitch:

Lockstitch

Lockstitch is the familiar stitch performed by most household sewing machines and most industrial}

singleneedle

}sewing machines from two threads, one passed through a needle and one coming from a bobb in or

shuttle. Each thread stays on the same side of the material being sewn, interlacing with the other thread at

each needle hole by means of abobbin driver. As a result, a lockstitch can be formed anywhere on the

material being sewn; it does not need to be near an edge.

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C i i

C ~

i

i

~wasusedbyearlysewingmachinesandhasamajordrawback: thestitchcaneasilyberipped

out, andcanripout by itself if the threadbreaksat anypoint.[6] Peoplesoonrealizedabetterstitchwas

needed, and it was found in thlockstitch.

hechainstitch isstill used today inclothingmanufacture, thoughdue to itsmajordrawback it isgenerally

pairedwithanoverlockstitchalong thesameseam.

Ov rlo

Alsoknownas

r

i

or

r

r

i

~ .

Varietiesofoverlockstitchcanbe formedwithone to fourthreads, oneortwoneedles, andoneortwo

loopers. Overlocksewingmachinesareusuallyequippedwithknives that trimorcreate theedge

immediately in front of thestitch formation. ouseholdand industrial overlockmachinesarecommonly

used forgarment seams inknit orstretchy fabrics, forgarment seamswhere the fabric is light enough that

theseamdoesnot need tobepressedopen, and forprotectingedgesagainst raveling. achinesusing

two to fourthreadsaremost common, and frequentlyonemachinecanbeconfigured forseveral varieties

ofoverlockstitch. Overlockmachineswith fiveormore threadsusuallymakebothachainstitchwithone

needleandone looper, andanoverlockstitchwith theremainingneedlesand loopers. hiscombination is

knownasa "safetystitch". ouseholdoverlockmachinesarewidelyused.

Overlockcanonlybe formedat theedge itself, whereoneormore threadspassovertheedge.

Cov r i

Cov

r

i

~ is formedby twoormoreneedlesandoneortwo loopers. Like lockstitchandchainstitch,

coverstitchcanbe formedanywhereon thematerial beingsewn. One loopermanipulatesa threadbelow

thematerial beingsewn, formingabottomcoverstitchagainst theneedle threads. Anadditional looperabove thematerial can forma topcoverstitchsimultaneously. heneedle threads formparallel rows, while

the looperthreadscrossbackand forthall theneedlerows. overstitch isso-calledbecause thegridof

crossingneedleand looperthreadscoversrawseamedges, muchas theoverlockstitchdoes. It iswidely

used ingarment construction, particularly forattaching trimsand flat seamingwhere therawedgescanbe

finished in thesameoperationas forming theseam. achineswith threeneedlesaremost common, and

canbeconfigured touseany twoorall threeof theneedles. achineswithsixormoreneedlesareoften

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used forapplications like fasteningelasticwaistbands togarments. ouseholdcoverstitchmachinesare

fairlyrare, but arebecomingmorereadilyavailable.

Feedmechanisms

Besides thebasicmotionofneedles, loopersandbobbins , thematerial beingsewnmust moveso that

eachcycleofneedlemotion involvesadifferent part of thematerial. hismotion isknownas feed, and

sewingmachineshavealmost asmanywaysof feedingmaterial as theydoof formingstitches. Forgeneral

categories, wehave: drop feed, needle feed, walking foot, puller, andmanual. Often, multiple typesof feed

areusedon thesamemachine. Besides thesegeneral categories, therearealsouncommon feed

mechanismsused inspecificapplications likeedge joining fur, makingseamsoncaps, andblindstitching.

Drop f d

Drop f

d, themechanismusedbyalmost all householdmachines, involvesamechanismbelow the

sewingsurfaceof themachine. When theneedle iswithdrawn from thematerial beingsewn, aset of "feed

dogs" ispushedup throughslots in themachinesurface, thendraggedhorizontallypast theneedle. he

dogsareserrated togrip thematerial, anda "presserfoot" isused tokeep thematerial incontact with the

dogs. At theendof theirhorizontal motion, thedogsare loweredagainandreturned to theiroriginal

positionwhile theneedlemakes itsnext pass through thematerial. While theneedle is in thematerial,

there isno feedaction. Almost all householdmachinesand themajorityof industrialmachinesusedrop

feed. Differential feed isavariationofdrop feedwith two independent setsofdogs, onebeforeandone

aftertheneedle. Bychanging theirrelativemotions, thesesetsofdogscanbeused tostretchorcompress

thematerial in thevicinityof theneedle. his isextremelyuseful whensewingstretchymaterial, andover

lockmachines heavilyused forsuchmaterials) frequentlyhavedifferential feed.

N dl f d

N

dl

f

d, usedonly in industrial machines, moves thematerial while theneedle is in thematerial. In

fact, theneedlemaybe theprimary feeding force. Some implementationsofneedle feedrock theaxisof

needlemotionbackand forth, whileotherimplementationskeep theaxisvertical whilemoving it forward

andback. Inbothcases, there isno feedactionwhile theneedle isout of thematerial. eedle feed isoften

used inconjunctionwithamodifieddrop feed, and isverycommonon industrial twoneedlemachines. he

advantageofneedle feedoverdrop feed is that multiple layersofmaterial, especiallyslipperymaterial,

cannot slidewithrespect tooneanother, since theneedleholdsall layers togetherwhile the feedaction

takesplace.

ouseholdmachinesdonot useneedle feedasageneral rule.

W l i foo

A

l i

foo

replaces thestationarypresserfoot withone that movesalongwithwhateverotherfeed

mechanisms themachinealreadyhas. As thewalking foot moves, it shifts theworkpiecealongwith it.

Pull r f d

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Some factorymachinesanda fewhouseholdmachinesareset upwithanauxiliarypull

r f

d, which

grips thematerial beingsewn usually frombehind theneedles)andpulls it witha forceandreliability

usuallynot possiblewithothertypesof feed. Pullerfeedsareseldombuilt directly into thebasicsewing

machine. heiractionmust besynchronizedwith theneedleand feedactionbuilt into themachine toavoid

damaging themachine. Pullersarealso limited tostraight seams, orverynearlyso. Despite theiradditionalcost and limitations, pulling feedsareveryuseful whenmaking largeheavy items like tentsandvehicle

covers.

M ual f d

Manual f

d isusedprimarily in freehandembroidery, quilting, andshoerepair. Withmanual feed, the

stitch lengthanddirection iscontrolledentirelyby themotionof thematerial beingsewn. Frequentlysome

formofhooporstabilizingmaterial isusedwith fabric tokeep thematerial underpropertensionandaid in

moving it around. ost householdmachinescanbeset formanual feedbydisengaging thedrop feed

dogs. ost industrial machinescannot beused formanual feedwithout actuallyremoving the feeddogs.

Sewingmachineneedle

Sewingmachinesusespecial needles tailored to theirneedsand to thecharacterof thematerial being

sewn.