How sewing machines work :)

[Bill Ryan]

I bet no-one had ever thought I might post a thread on this. :P

For years, I've always secretly felt that the person (probably a man!) who invented the sewing machine must have been a genius. (And I've thought the same about hand knitting, as well, which may be even more brilliantly inspired.)

Here's a video by Derek Muller from Veritasium, about which I feel vindicated. Veritasium usually posts on mathematics, high tech, astrophysics, and much else that's often pretty high-IQ material. But here he dares to ask all the questions about sewing that I never knew the answers to. Enjoy. :)

The Surprising Genius of Sewing Machines


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQYuyHNLPTQ

[Satori]

Good post Bill. I’ve often wondered how these contraptions worked. I remember my mother using one and occasionally cursing at it.

We could call this “The sewing machine thread”.

[Michel Leclerc]

Quite interesting, thank you Bill.

Incidentally, one of the greatest XXth-century writers of Dutch literature, Willem Frederik Hermans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Frederik_Hermans), was a lifelong collector of typewriters and, with the scientific outlook he had as a geology lecturer at Groningen University for part of his life, also quite interested in their mechanics.

The sewing machine however seems to be the greater mechanical engineering feat.

While I was admiring the genius of the inventors and improvers, it occurred to me how very "Western" the whole sewing thing is. Indian dresses, both for women and men, I have since long found superior to what we Westerners do to avoid walking around nude. They are a better compromise with nudity and modesty I feel, or with allowing the skin to breathe and to stay safe.

The introduction about bone needles found everywhere in caves many tens of thousands of years ago made me wonder: is that also, just like cave paintings, the result of a skill remembered and honed by catastrophe survivors?

They used to have sewing machines – but then, without them, restarted the sewing process by having the needles right first?

[Isserley]

Interesting thread :) I wonder if there are people nowadays who could make similar inventions.

Another old and fascinating "machine" is the weaving loom..
I still have some pieces of clothing and linen tablecloths from my great-grandmother, made on such a traditional machine. This fabric is unbreakable, even though it is over 100 years old

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[Ravenlocke]

Thank you for this. I always wondered how the bobbin and the needle went together to form the stitches. Lately been seeing a lot of sewing tips and tricks on Instagram for hemming tight spots, stitching in a straight row, etc.

[Ewan]

Amazing, I have literally wondered this very thing since I was a child.

I often watched my mother using her sewing machine and I could see the needle never passed all the way through the thread. I could not understand how it worked, based on hand-stitch. I'm fairly sure I would have asked for an explanation and, as usual, no-one could answer me.

Life was very frustrating for a young, inquisitive and enquiring mind. It took a long time, a very long time, to understand that most people just accept things without asking questions.

Plus ça Change

[Casey Claar]

I really enjoyed this. I am going to share it with my mom. ( she sews! ). I wonder how much of this she knows. I am going to ask.

[samsdice]

My mum was good at sewing. I remember as a child being fascinated by her foot pedal operated Singer machine. It looked beautiful, made of iron. Then she got rid of it and bought an electric affair which, as you may guess, just wasn't as good and kept breaking down.

[Mari]

Great thread (pun very much intended!) Love my Brother machine, and yes, since Ma and Pa bought me my first (pink, yeuggh!) machine when I was 10 years old, I too, have often wondered at how this thing works. Tried to take it apart once to find out, but It flummoxed me and still did, until Bill's post :thumbsup:

[Ricker]

I worked as a Maintenance man in the bedding industry for 10 years and was surprised at the number of different designs and configurations there were.
There were large quilting machines that make the tops of the mattresses that 3 rows of up to 96 needles across a 8 foot platform.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZTwEhdLzxs

[Johnnycomelately]

I really enjoyed this. I am going to share it with my mom. ( she sews! ). I wonder how much of this she knows. I am going to ask.

Moms are smart, she’ll know.

My mom showed me the works, including the bobbin, when I took an interest. I sewed a belt-slung pouch that could contain a couple three apples and a nice pack of dried dates (Banff AB ‘81 mountaintop adventure). Learned that design from a book I had read, a paperback western that got well into native ways.

Off Topic: I don’t imagine that many people fix their kids’ clothes these days by sewing. My solution to holes at the knees and hips of pants, is duct tape on the inside. Years of falling off inline wheel skates and another learning curve with skateboard cruising, ongoing. IMO, Gorilla Tape is best now, better than the standard duct tape for everything (Red Green? .. haha).

Cheers sis, hope to hear what your mom says. 👻

[Ravenlocke]

My mum was good at sewing. I remember as a child being fascinated by her foot pedal operated Singer machine. It looked beautiful, made of iron. Then she got rid of it and bought an electric affair which, as you may guess, just wasn't as good and kept breaking down.


As a child, I sewed pillow cases and curtains for my grandma on the old Singer and I loved the foot pedal. It was a big metal one, like a wrought iron pattern on the peddle and it was easy to control speed with your foot on it and the small wheel on top of the singer you controlled with your hand to start, stop etc. I loved the speed I could do with my foot on the pedal especially when filling the bobbin with thread. It was all mechanical, no electric but I loved it.

[Red Robin]

Barthélemy Thimonnier A French tailor invented the sewing machine ,my mother loved Vogue tailored clothes she studied and passed her City and Guilds in Tailoring and sewed the most beautiful clothes for herself she was tiny - l inherited her machine l know the basics how to thread fix the spool adjust the tension length of stitch length reverse , my creativity had its limits l still have her tailors dummy faded red on wooden stand all l can advise to workings is dont put your fingers near the needle with your foot on the pedal !

[avid]

Horribly true, ouch loads, my Mum’s old knee operated electric Singer still works, I’ve made loads of curtains with it, but we made fantastically tailored suits and loads of family clothes. I still use my Mum’s home made sheets and pillowcases in easy care fabrics bought in bulk.Singer is for sale, but the knack of threading the needle and spool is automatic with me, but not for a novice. Times flit by, we lose skills, and pride in what we’ve made sadly.

[DeDukshyn]

As a child with a high propensity to be fascinated by all things mechanical, always needing to know how everything "works" I was never not mesmerized by my mother's sewing machine. To me it was the coolest piece of mechanical equipment in the house. I never did figure out exactly how it worked, but I was always amazed at what it could do.

Thanks for the explainer vid! :)

[Lunesoleil]

The sewing machine was created in the 19th century (https://www.caminteresse.fr/culture/qui-a-invente-la-machine-a-coudre-11152469/). A true revolution in the textile industry at the time, this sewing device was overtaken by the advent of ready-to-wear at the beginning of the 1950s. Back in fashion following the DIY trend, the machine sewing is gradually regaining its letters of nobility. But who is behind such an invention?

While clothes have always been sewn by hand, Barthélemy Thimonnier, a tailor by trade, developed the first wooden sewing machine in 1830. It allows you to work with a thread and produce 200 stitches per minute using a wheel that must be turned by hand. Building on his success, he opened a workshop in 1831 which had 80 devices in order to respond to an order for military uniforms. But this project ended in failure. Fearing that the sewing machine would eventually replace them, the workers decided to burn down the workshop.

Thimonnier’s invention ended up resonated with two Americans. Elias Howe filed a patent in 1846 for an advanced sewing machine model based on the “locked stitch”. This system, which we still use today, uses two threads to assemble fabrics. One going through a needle, the other coming from a bobbin.

A few years later, in 1851, Isaac Merritt Singer improved Howe's concept and in turn filed a patent for his sewing machine. The latter literally revolutionized the textile industry and enjoyed dazzling success. Not planning to let this man profit from his invention, Elias Howe launches into a real legal battle. It was ultimately Howe who was credited with paternity of the device, forcing Singer to share in the profits of his company.


Some sources claim that knitting comes from a Viking technique (https://needle-it.com/petite-histoire-du-tricot/) of creating textiles called, nalbinding. Knitting developed from the knitting machine designed by William Lee, an English vicar, a knitting invention of 1589. It was mostly used to make stockings and socks


These two techniques, sewing and knitting, are my childhood. I made my son's sweaters when he was little with a teddy bear on his chest and made these pajamas... and at the turn of my thirties I stopped everything... I was ready to live my new passion ...

[Matthew]

I'm planning on buying someone a sewing machine so otherwise I'd find the thread title too dull to swan in on, and talk a load of rubbish. But now it caught my attention.

After reading the opening post and other replies I was struck with the thought that the sewing machine is the industrial revolution in a personal box. It's like the personal computer of its day, where before it was mainframes in corporation buildings the Spinning Jenny in a factory, but now you could have that POWER in your home, for you. There's nothing quite like it, that shift from centralised power to personal power halleluliah.

And I have to add that I find the history leading up to the industrial revolution surprisingly fascinating. Like the Mechanical Turk, a fraudulent 'mechanical automation' which was wasn't an automation that could play anyone at chess. It turned out to be a bloke in a box pretending to be a mechanical chess player.

Before it was exposed as a fraud though the Mechanical Turk inspired the invention of the early weaving machines, which led to more mechanised factories and the industrial revolution. Before the Mechanical Turk, common knowledge was that weaving was too complicated to automate with cogs and such like. But the (later to be discovered as fraudulent) Mechanical Turk was so amazing it itself inspired the rise of mechanised weaving.

The Mechanical Turk itself was inspired by real and amazing automations that preceded it, like this ancient meme generator boy, which would automate writing your own message on a bit of paper directly in front of it, or draw a dog. All built with cogs:

https://www.christies.com/-/media/images/features/articles/2015/08/19/automata/mainimage.jpg?h=500&iar=0&w=800&rev=0c935d768bf946f896ae500f7da10125&hash=75e1c04b86e59bdc7e68b385bcf17ba472dc847c

Just wow.

Then take a look at the original 'model village' produced by the snobby aristocracy in the 1740's. Archbishop Jakob von Dietrichstein had a really good automaton made; a model of an entire village. Here's a youtube video about this stuff: video link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6le2-li_Y8U)

There's more of this stuff, like a flute player automation which moved its fingers to block holes on its flute as it played beautiful music, wowing and impressing everyone.

But the aristocracy lost when we got personal computers sewing machines. Power to the people.

[Artemesia]

I saw this post last year when Bill Ryan first started the thread.... interesting that I found it then.

Anyhow, I have mentioned elsewhere that I play with a sewing machine a lot.

I particularly enjoy quilting, making functional art from repurposed/salvaged fabric, and applique, which is where you basically make pictures from fabric.

Anyhow, in March of 2024, the folks at ECETI Ranch reached out to me quite out of the blue to see if I would be willing to come to the Ranch for a week to volunteer to 'spruce up the ranch before the guest season'. I initially said yes wholeheartedly, excited to finally feel 'included' in something....

The last time I had been to the Ranch was in 2022, I had forseen I needed to go there starting in about fall of 2021 after my whistleblower case with UC Irvine hit the wall. So I went on opening weekend 2022. It was .... odd. I was surprised to see how many viable resources (rope, stuff... etc) was just left laying around, uncared for, unused. It struck me as odd for a group wanting to be really into a permaculture ethic and demonstrate lived practices of sustainability, resource efficiency and compassion. (because compassion for stuff and its use it included!)

Anyways, after that trip I made a cool tote bag to take grocery shopping, made with fabrics salvaged from -- get this -- THE BOEING MUSEUM OF FLIGHT. Long story there, but the short of it is that in 2020 the caterer there figured the circa 1980's buffet fabrics, all high-quality quilters cotton, had served its time. It all came to me. like 9 rubbermaid tubs worth. A LOT of fabric to deploy.

Anyways, that first tote also sported the ECETI logo rendered in acrylic paints mixed with textile medium to allow it to go through the washing machine unharmed. Carrying that bag lead to some interesting conversations -- it was an opener! I eventually gifted it to this wonderful woman who worked at my local Trader Joes who had an alien tattoo. And soon after I had this vision that I should make a BUNCH more totes. But.... each one is like quite time consuming because of the handpainted logos, the fabric cuts from salvaged cloth (have to avoid the stained bits), the sew outs. But it was an idea.

Anyhow, in March I saw that these bags needed to become themselves into existence. So I worked at it.

Funny thing about sewing.... its a lot like conspiracy research. Or in my case, putting together fragments of memory and experience into a coherent picture. And just around then all the news was a flutter with the Boeing whistleblower and the recent air accident over Oregon.... it was a lot!

So anyhow, I made these three bags. For those of you who have not been to the ECETI ranch, the one with the meadow of wildflowers and the mountain (Mt. Adams) and the trees on the reverse is EXACTLY what the meadow at ECETI ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE. Amazing that I had fabrics to create that scene exactly exact. I did not buy anything to make these, it was all done with materials I had on hand. Incredible!

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Anyways, as I worked these I realized that I was in **NO** shape to go lay in a field camping in my own tent for a week in cold wet rainy Washington weather with my fibromyalgia due to complex PTSD in a flare up. And surrendering my familiar surroundings for someone else's food and drink, hard work at being noble whilst cleaning other people's toilets as a volunteer effort, and the occasionally questionable behaviors (cult like channelling he forced others on staff to participate in, sexual coveting of other staffers... that was in 2012... no idea if its ongoing but it didn't look/feel good when I saw it...) I have witnessed James Gilliland engage in myself personally on my 3 prior trips there, including two in 2012 just before and just after the George Kavasillas visit... it just felt like it was time to realize things for what they were.

But that said, the ECETI folk I actually spoke to via email were kind to me (not James, he was not involved in the contact at all) and so I shipped these totes off on my own expense to arrive on April 1, april fools day. They arrived but there were snafus with the post office and I had to intervene to ensure they were not sent back to me. But they arrived. My letter enclosed suggested that maybe they be offered for sale in the gift shop, to make money for the efforts of the Ranch. I did not have a weeks worth of my labor to share, plus the gas money scrapped together on my own dime to donate. But I had some baggage to share. Homemade even! With the power of salvaged pictures created from leftover scraps off the rich man's Boeing table. Practically perfect in every way.

So.... yeah. How sewing machines work.

They help us patch together leftover scraps into a working model of function, coherence and purpose.

Kinda like this forum.

Thanks Bill. :bigsmile:

[Artemesia]

Sewing and Knitting for UFO Research and Contactees....

(ie: letting my crafty UFO nerd hang out with y'all...)

Awhile back I got fascinated with the technique of illusion knitting. Basically, the depending on which stitch you make (knit or purrl, the knit in reverse) you can create a hidden texture and add a dimensional image into an otherwise ordinary piece of knitting. It was something I did while contemplating the concept of 'dimensional blending experiments' in my ufo research and specifically the Montauk stuff. Dense material best digested with a cup of tea and quiet time in focus while being distracted by something else. Knitting this scarf project was perfect for that.

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As you can see, from a top down above view it just looks like an alternating color scarf... but from the correct angle, sort of diagonally, you can see the grey alien heads appear. Hmmmm.... sound familiar?

(I kept thinking of Harry Potter misspeaking 'diagonally' when he was supposed to say Diagon Alley, when using the floo powder to transport through the portal in the fireplace, as I worked on this)

And joining the alien illusion scarf (pattern is part of the 'Stitch n Bitch' knitting tutorial book by Debbie Stoller) is my Arcturian doll. I made the body using a doll body blank pattern available as a download on etsy, then tie dyed the sewn body blue, then stuffed it, rather painstakingly hand embroidered the facial features and from there free-form designed the super cool robe this Arcturian adult is wearing. I wanted a doll like the Cynthia Crawford Arcturian dolls, but once I found out she had passed away in 2017 I realized I was going to have to make one myself. This doll is loosely based on the Cynthia Crawford versions shown in photos on my dear friend Khris Neal's blog:

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Khris's blog, though he himself is now deceased, murdered in his home for going public as an MK survivor, is still up on wordpress. Please take a look at his work if the Arcturian presence is meaningful to you, as continued internet traffic to his site is a wonderful way to honor his memory as he truly gave his all to the effort for disclosure. And I think he would've thought my sewn Arcturian doll pretty neat.

https://clandestineragerevealed.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/arcturian-play-pal-%e2%99%a6-implant-abduction-wars-%e2%99%a6-surveillance/