Sewing Machine

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Sewing Machine

A sewing machine is a mechanical or electromechanical device equipped with a needle (or needles) threaded at the point-end, which puncture the fabric periodically as it moves under the needle. Each stitch is created as the thread loops onto itself (chain stitch) or locks around a second strand of thread (lock stitch), sewing the fabrics together. Sewing machines are used in both the home and industry, but are designed differently for each setting. Those for the home tend to be more versatile in terms of the number and kinds of stitches they can perform, but they operate more slowly than industrial machines, and have a shorter life span. Industrial machines are heavier, have a much longer life span, are capable of thousands of stitches per inch, and may be designed for very specialized tasks.

History

Near the end of the eighteenth century, London cabinetmaker Thomas Saint patented the design of a primitive machine for chain-stitch sewing that used a forked needle, which passed through a hole made by the sewer using an awl. In the 1870s, Newton Wilson discovered Saint’s patient (which had been lost in the patent office). He built a sewing machine based on Saint’s design. Wilson found that Saint’s design had to be modified in order to actually build a functioning sewing machine. Wilson concluded that Saint had designed but never built a sewing machine. During these years between Saint’s patent and Wilson” construction, inventors in Europe and the United Stated advanced the sewing machine concept. Early machine-sewers operated their machines by turning a hand wheel that moved the needle up and down, and in and out of the fabric. By the early 1830s, with the introduction of New Yorker Walter Hunt’s lock stitch machine, and with the addition of the feed mechanism that moved the fabric automatically beneath the needle, the mechanics of the sewing machine as it is known today had been worked out. But it was not until American inventor Isaac Merritt Singer (1811–1875)—the first manufacturer to make sewing machines widely available—that sewing machines became a fixture in the average household. Singer introduced a lock-stitch machine in 1851, the first powered by a foot treadle, a pump or lever device that turned a flywheel and belt drive.

As clothing manufacture moved into factories at the beginning of the twentieth century, sewing machine design branched out as well. Sewing machines designed for home use have remained versatile, capable of performing different kinds of stitching for a variety of tasks such as making buttonholes, or sewing stretchy fabrics using the zig-zag stitch, in which the needle moves back and forth horizontally. More recently, manufacturers of home machines have incorporated computerized controls that can be programmed to create a multitude of decorative stitches as well as the basics.

Sewing machines intended for industrial use evolved along a different track. In the factory setting, where time and efficiency are at a premium, machines have to be very fast, capable of producing thousands stitches per second. Clothing manufacturers also realized that sewing machines designed to perform just one task, such as making a collar, attaching buttons, making buttonholes, setting in pockets, and attaching belt loops, could perform these tasks much more quickly than a less specialized machines.

Types of sewing machines

Sewing machines are designed to create one of two basic types of stitches. The chainstitch is created as a single thread loops through itself on the underside or edge of the fabric, and is used for such purposes as button holes and edgings. The lock stitch is created as two separate threads—one below the fabric in a bobbin, the other above on a spool, lock together from the top and the bottom of the fabric at each stitch. The lock stitch is used most widely in both industrial and home sewing, and is stronger than the chain stitch, but because it puts more tension on the thread, cannot be created as quickly. (Industrial lockstitch machines can sew up to 6,000 stitches per minute, while the fastest chainstitch machines can sew 10,000 stitches per minute.) In the early 1970s, manufacturers of industrial machines began to incorporate computerized technology into their products. Because these machines could be programmed to perform a number of the steps previously done by the operator, the new technology halved the number of steps (from 16 to 8) in a labor-intensive task such as stitching together the various parts of a collar (top ply [outer collar], interlining, lower ply, two-piece collarband, and collarband interlining).

Innovations in the 1970s led to the design of three types of machines. Dedicated machines incorporate microprocessors capable of controlling the assembly of apparel parts such as collars, and the operator simply loads the pre-cut clothing parts into these machines. Programmable convertible machines can be converted to perform a number of different tasks, and in this case, too, the operator just loads the pre-cut fabrics. Operator-programmable machines can be taught new sewing procedures as the operator performs the task with the machine in “teach” mode, and the machine “learns” the various parts of a task. The machine can then perform most of the functions except placing the material.

Future developments

In both industrial and domestic machines, computer technology is the driving force for improvement and change. Computer-controlled sewing machines use specialized sequential cams (sometimes called,

KEY TERMS

Chainstitch —Stitch usually created with a single thread that loops through itself on the underside of the fabric, which is used for such purposes as button holes and edging.

Lockstitch —A stitch created as two separate threadsone below the fabric in a bobbin, the other above, lock together from the top and the bottom of the fabric at each stitch. The lock stitch is stronger but cannot be created as quickly as the chain stitch, because it puts more tension on the thread.

stepper motors) to produce complicated sewing patterns and other sewing techniques. In the industrial setting, this change has three goals: to speed up operation of the sewing machines; to make the operator’s job easier as materials move through their station more quickly; and to make the assembly of small parts of a garment easier with the design of more specialized sewing machines. In the industrial setting, where the pressure toward innovation is highest, machines are likely to move toward higher levels of automation.

See also Textiles.