Hand Stitch Sewing Machine

Hand Stitch Sewing Machine

In nineteenth and early twentieth century England no one would venture outdoors without a hat. In the summer this period was the heyday of the straw hat, with fine bonnets for the ladies, boaters for the gentlemen and even straw helmets for the policemen of Luton.

Straw hats, then as now, were made by sewing together lengths of plaited straw in a spiral from button to brim. Production was limited by the rate at which they could be made up.

The earliest attempts to sew hats by machine were in 1865. However, it was not until 1873 that Mrs William Stratford, wife of the local Willcox and Gibbs agent, made the first complete hat on a sewing machine. Willcox and Gibbs mechanics worked on the problem and, in 1875, produced a purpose-built version of their classic chain stitch machine.

This was known as the ‘visible stitch’ machine and was an immediate success. 1500 machines were sold in the first two years and it remained popular to the end of the industry. There was a Singer version and also German copies such as the ‘Asema’ made by H. Grossmann of Dresden for a Luton sewing machine dealer, Janes Brothers Ltd.

The market for quality ladies’ hats demanded a machine for delicate plaits and able to simulate hand stitching. Various inventors had a go at hand stitch sewing machine. An early one was the French Legat machine of 1875. It was cumbersome, expensive and slow. In 1878 Edmund Wiseman of Luton patented his ‘concealed-stitch’ machine (Patent 2485 of 22nd June 1878) which was half the price and used less thread than the ‘visible stitch’ machine. Wiseman’s patent was developed by Willcox and Gibbs into its ‘hand-stitch’ machine of 1886. All the cams, rockers and mechanism were inside the cast iron box and it became known as the ‘box’ machine.

The hand stitch sewing machine produces a single thread chain stitch seam which looks on the top side like hand stitching with gaps between adjacent stitches. It is, however, a locked stitch which will not pull out like the standard single thread chain stitch. To make its stitch the machine uses two needles mounted on a common bar. The needles come up through the plait or material from below . One (A) has an eye near the point like an ordinary sewing machine needle; the other (B) has a barbed hook like a tiny crochet hook.

Hand stitch machines were also used on felt and other non-woven fabrics in the hat industry. They are still used in the fashion trade for decorative ‘saddle’ and ‘hand’ stitching so the machines crop up fairly frequently. http://www.salp-jx.com/