Sewing Articles

Sewing Machine Part

The Vital Sewing Machine Part

Sewing has been around almost as long as mankind has. Throughout the millennia, the most technological changes have been in the materials used to make sewing needles and thread. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century, that a sewing machine was developed. Not surprisingly, it caused a riot. Surprisingly, it wasn’t in a good way.

The Discovery

Hand sewing is almost intuitive. Two pieces of cloth, a needle and a thread – the relationship is obvious. The natural movement of needle through cloth and back again is performed automatically. The problem is that the simple movement that’s so easy for a hand is impossible for a machine to perform. It can push a threaded needle down through the cloth but can’t let go of it to pick it up again on the other side of the fabric and push it through the other way.

The first patent for a sewing machine part that can replicate that move was filed in 1755 and others followed but no working machine resulted until 1830. The first functioning machine to contain that special sewing machine part was developed by Bathelemy Thimonnier, a French tailor. The sewing machine part used a hooked needle and a single thread to create a chain stitch. The fear of becoming obsolete overtook a mob of other French tailors that burned down Thimonnier’s factory.

The sewing machine part that creates a chain stitch is located below the fabric. A needle threaded near its point pushes the material and the special hooked piece catches the thread and pulls it into a loop before letting go. The next stitch places thread within the loop and the hooked piece pulls the first stitch tight when it creates the next loop. While such a contraption saves a lot of work, it can only make a straight seam that pulls loose if any part of the thread breaks.

The sewing machine part that makes a home machine better is the bobbin which introduces a second thread and attached it to the first. This creates a lock stitch, which, as its name suggests, is much more secure. While this type of sewing machine part is the breakthrough that made machine sewing possible, each subsequent sewing machine part made its mark. Parts that move the fabric forward, control stitch length, make a zig-zag stitch and so forth have resulted in wonderful advances in modern sewing.