How it changed the dressmaking profession with the introduction of the sewing machine.

The introduction of the sew machine needed a radical modification in the dressmaking art. Many of the first attempts done to sew with a machine followed the idea of imitating the hand-sewn technique , using a needle that was forced to enter and leave the fabric by mechanical fingers or teeth, but all these inventions failed. It was considered necesary to leave completely the conventional method of sewing fabrics, devising other means to unite them more suitable to the use of machines. In the first constructed apparatuses loose threads were used, not being able to obtain a uniform stitch length. But soon new mechanisms were devised where the thread could be used continuously, winding it in a spool or coil . These devices were designed so that to each stitch a new and identical amount of thread was provided , and thus obtained a seam absolutely uniform. In the sew machine, the march of the thread is continuous from the spool to the fabric, passing it through the needle's eye , whereas in the seam by hand the thread goes fixed to the needle.

It became evident, in consequence, that the thread could only pass through the fabric, in form of loop or eyelet , being the more advisable method to use a needle with the eyelet near its end. The needle is pushed exactly the precise length to cross the fabric and to drag at the same time a thread length that forms a loop in the other side, rising the needle immediately. But, instead of taking out with it the thread piece that it introduced, this one is retained by the reverse of the fabric, fastening it with the same thread or with another one that is unwound from a coil and that is called "filling thread". Another disposition that distinguishes the seam by machine is the possibility to regulate the length of the stitch. In the hand sewing , naturally, the work does not move, determining by rough estimate the length of the stitch, whose size is more or less variable; whereas, in the machine, the fabric is the one that moves under the needle, advancing at absolutely regular intervals , in such a way that, the stitch length as the tension of the thread, remains uniform.

Although the invention of the sewing machine is attributed to Elias Howe whose apparatus, patented in 1846, contained most of the devices of the present machine, this one was the result of numerous tests made along a century or more before this date. The original idea belonged to an Englishman , Charles F. Weisenthal, that obtained a patent in 1755 for an apparatus that facilitated the embroider procedure , and to perfect it many tests were done in England before the American inventors directed their attention to this object, happening in this case just like in many other mechanical inventions, which are the result of the efforts of many inventors, reaching the success those who take advantage of it, whereas remain generally ignored those who cooperated more effectively to the triumph.

The Weisenthal invention never got to be applied, because it consisted of the use of a needle of two ends with the eyelet in the center, moving from back to front, by means of teeth placed at the sides.

Thomas Saint patented, in 1790, a machine for hard seam. It was made of wood to a large extent, with a protruding arm, in which it was placed a vertical needle and an awl to make the holes before. In the superior part of the arm it had a spool that provided the thread continuously. The stitch was equal to that of the Weisenthal's apparatus . A loop was formed, pushing the needle through the fabric or of the leather; a second push passed the threads through this fastener, forming another one , through which the needle was pushed again to form a third one , tightening the first in the third impulse. This stitch class was used during many years to facilitate the hard seam work. It seems to be that Saint did not consider his system practical to replace in general the seam by hand. To this one later followed other inventions of smaller importance, but any machine called the attention.

As all the inventions to save the manual labor, the sewing machine found a great opposition in the beginning . The workers were alarmed to its introduction in the workshops in which leathers were worked, fighting against it with all their forces. A French tailor, Bartholomew Thimmonnier, devised a sewing machine , also of the stitch type , that was used extensively in the manufacture of army uniforms . The machine of Thimmonnier is remarkable by having only one needle with tip to cross the fabric, being provided with a carving in which the thread lodges. The stitch or loop was formed by the thread surrounded around the needle, that would be passed through the material. The fabric or leather was moved ahead a certain distance , to allow the needle to descend again. In this disposition, the stitch fasteners forming the chain stitch were made in the superior part of the material. So impressed were his friends by this invention that they lent him the money necesary to settle down a factory, and the company was so successful that several years later eighty machines were working but the dressmakers and the tailors did not see the subject with much enthusiasm. As it happened when Hargreave constructed his looms, they thought that the machines harmed their means of living and tried to destroy the common enemy; and it was in that occasion, in the luminous France, where a displeased multitude of manual workers destroyed the machines of Thimmonnier's factory . Without dismay before this manifestation of violent antagonism of the multitude, the inventor continued his efforts and constructed more perfected machines, but he did not find financial support among his friends, who, evidently, feared another riot between the workers if he were to restore the sewing mechanisms . Later , the inventor, discouraged, left his works.

Ingenious inventors in the United States of America had begun by those years to try to solve the problems of the sewing machines . The idea of the needle with the eyelet in the tip and the use of the double thread are completely American of origin , and this combination was first conceived by Walter Hunt, of New York, towards the year 1835. The defects of the chain stitch and the stitch itself that constituted the most salient characteristic of the previous machines, were very soon recognized. The breakage of the loops, in one side or the other , caused that the thread loosen, undoing the seam with great facility, looking for the form to combine another stitch free of this defect. This only could be obtained causing that each stitch be tied by a knot. In other words, it was necessary to close the stitch , and the improvement that this solution created was the backstitch .

The work necessary to sew was facilitated in great extent , without been necessary another care that the one to guide the work. This improvement which Wilson introduced made the sewing machine to gain popularity soon .

In 1851, William O. Grover, tailor of Boston, patented a sewing disposition with double chain stitch, that served as a base for the construction of machines known with the name of Grover & Baker. Also in 1865, Jaime A. E. Gibbs farmer of Virginia, devised a mechanism to sew in chain stitch with a single thread, which characterized to the Gibbs & Baker machines, improved later by Willcox and known as Willcox & Gibbs machines.

The machine of Grover & Baker

Still, and in spite of the activity of all these inventors, between the years 1830 and 1851, the sewing machine had not reached the complete popularity among the public. Being this fact due to the amount of imperfect inventions that appeared in the market, that gave so badly results that raised one rooted suspicion against the mechanical sewing apparatuses . This prejudice, so long extended , could not disappear easily, being necessary many years of constant efforts of the manufacturers to convince the skeptical public, whenever they tried to demonstrate that each perfected model was not another new machine doom to failure, and that it did not exist any intention to deceive them .