How the Sewing Machine Changed Tailors’ and Seamstresses’ Lives

I'm sort of cheating with this blog post. :P

I've wrote this essay for school, but I though maybe everyone would like to find out the history of the sewing machine!

How the Sewing Machine Changed Tailors’ and Seamstresses’ Lives

With fingers weary and worn,

With eyelids heavy and red, 
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,

Plying her needle and thread--
Stitch! Stitch! Stitch! In poverty, hunger, and dirt, 
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch,

She sang the "Song of the Shirt." (Thomas Hood “Song of the Shirt”)

Before the invention of the sewing machine, all sewing was done by hand: every piece of lace, every button, all sewn with sweat and, in the case of pricked fingers, blood. If someone wanted a new dress they would go to a tailor shop, get fitted and the seamstress would hand sew a dress. Only the rich could afford to buy new clothes and the poor would sew them. With the invention of the sewing machine, the process was sped up greatly and tailors were able to make more money, clothes became fancier, and the poor could afford more clothes.

Thomas Saint saw a need for a sewing machine and created a patent in 1790 for a “Leather Stitcher.” He didn’t commercially produce the machine, and his patent lay forgotten for a hundred years until Newton Wilson found it and made the sewing machine featured on the patent. The machine didn’t work because the needle didn’t have an eye.

One of the greatest challenges of creating the machine was the needle. By just sitting down and watching a seamstress work, watching the needle go back and forth, front side back side, right hand left hand, it was very difficult for the inventors to imagine a machine that would recreate the same motion.

Several different attempts by various inventors were failures, needles with the eye in the middle, some with holes on both ends and some without any eye at all like Thomas Saint’s.

Then, Bathelemy Thimonnier, a tailor, came along with his machine. He was the first successful producer and a whole sewing factory bought his machines and used them. The tailors didn’t like that though, because they were afraid the machines would put them out of business. They started a riot and broke into the factory, smashing the machines and chasing Bathelemy who barely escaped with his life. He was discouraged and gave up producing sewing machines.

Five years later, Walter Hunt created a machine but, like a true visionary, lost interest after making his first one. The machine featured two threads (one on top and one on bottom) and a needle with the eye near the point. If he had continued with production, he might have had just as much success as Singer or Howe.

Elias Howe was an American mechanic and he set about to build a sewing machine. After about two years, he had most of the machine in working order, but couldn’t get the needle right. He was still trying to put the eye on the top, just like a hand sewing needle. He was extremely frustrated then, one night he dreamed that Indians were about to kill him and he noticed the spears they used had the holes on the end instead of the top! He woke up and realized that was the solution to his needle. He made a needle with the eye on the bottom and it worked! He made another sewing machine and patented it in 1846. He went on, with great enthusiasm to build more machines. Unfortunately for him, the general public didn’t like the idea as it would cost a lot of money to buy machines. Howe decided to market the machines in England, but didn’t have much more success there. He continued to build more machines, probably thinking that the more he built, the more popularity he would get. It didn’t work very well, and he didn’t hit the jackpot until Isaac Singer came along with his sewing machine.

The first successful sewing machine producer was Isaac Singer. He had an idea for making a sewing machine, but didn’t have any money. In 1850, a friend offered him $40 if he would create a sewing machine, Singer agreed. In his own words:

“I worked on it day and night, sleeping but three or four hours out of the 24 and eating generally but once a day, as I knew I must make it for the $40 or not get it at all” (Jewel 24)

In just eleven days, he had created a working sewing machine! He used the same needle as Howe, and also a chain stitch with two threads, one on top, and one underneath. At first he didn’t have very much success due to the same problem Howe encountered: sewing machines were too expensive; nobody had money to buy them. Singer decided to risk everything and sell the machines in installments. The buyer would pay a very little price up front, and promise to pay the rest in increments. The hazardous plan worked!

Singer’s success soon attracted the attention of Howe, who claimed that Singer had “stolen ideas” for his machine. A lawsuit followed in which Howe won and Singer had to pay Howe a portion of each sewing machine sale. In spite of this, Singer’s success was astronomical, and both Howe and Singer became millionaires.

Singer opened a factory in New Jersey to mass-produce the machines. The factory grew as demand reached all-time highs and soon it was 72 acres and had 9,000 workers!

From this point on, the sewing machine design stayed pretty much the same with just a few minor tweaks. The foot treadle was slowly formed in different ways to make it easier to operate and the machines were installed on desks for home use. Some machines were fashioned after animals or people, and one inventor made a “Musical Sewing Machine Cover,” sort of like a player piano but a sewing machine. The first zigzag sewing machine was produced by Helen Blanchard in 1873, paving the way for the ability of fancier stitches.

With the coming of electricity, sewing machines’ capabilities expanded even more. Their speed increased because it was no longer based on how fast the operator could move his foot up and down. By 1935, most machines used electricity for power.

The sewing machine increased in popularity and soon just about everybody who could afford one, had one. Clothes had more lace because it didn’t take so long to sew it. They became more elaborate, with even more fabric than before. An exploration team even took a sewing machine along to Antarctica to repair the sled dog harnesses.

With sewing machines, tailors could keep more clients and make even more money. It used to take fifteen minutes to sew a hat, with the sewing machine it only took one min. It took six days to sew an overcoat, and with a sewing machine, only three days.

With the invention of the sewing machine, the suffering described in the poem “The Song of the Shirt” has been eased and, no longer do we have to work so continuously.

"Oh! But for one short hour!
A respite however brief!
No blessed leisure for Love or Hope,
But only time for Grief!
A little weeping would ease my heart,
But in their briny bed
my tears must stop, for every drop
Hinders needle and thread!" (Hood)

Works Cited

Jewell, Brian. Antique Sewing Machines. Great Britain: Bear & Son Ltd, 1985. Print

Bays, Carter. The Encyclopedia of Early American Sewing Machines. Kentucky:

Collector Books, 2005. Print.

  Ewers, William, and H. Baylor, J., and H. Kenaga, H. Sincere’s History of the Sewing

Machine. Arizona: Sincere Press, 1970. Print.

Dorn, Rebekah. The Sewing Machine. Mankat: Capstone Press, 2005. Print

Cooper, Grace, R. The Invention of the Sewing Machine. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian

Institution, 1968. Print

Carlson, Laurie. Queen of Inventions: How the Sewing Machine Changed the World.

Connecticut: Millbrook Press, Inc. Print

 “Elias Howe”. Wikipedia. n.p. n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2013