I'm retired now, and have taken up buying, refurbishing, then selling Antique sewing machines as a hobby. I'm learning so much, about the wild history of early Sewing Machines ... Patent Wars, the Inventors, & the ever shifting patents & designs. It's really fascinating, & quite interesting as a story, regardless of the sewing machines. Cabals, Law suits, Fortunes made & lost - sometimes more than once, & the times & people involved were more than enough to warrant a good movie - or a book, at least. : )

Credit: Alex Askaroff for getting me hooked on these wonderful stories of Sewing Machine history.

He has compiled a wealth of information & stories on his site: SEWALOT History Index . Well worth a read, if you're interested.

I am very grateful to him for sharing the wealth online. He has saved me hours of research, by already having so much of it available in one place.

This site is under construction, and has little info at this time.

I'll be adding to it, as time allows.

******** What is a chain stitch? *********

(I didn't know either.)

Chain stitching is when only one thread is used to sew. As the needle goes down, a Looper on the bottom catches the thread, & holds it in a loop, til the next stitch comes down through it. It then releases the first loop (which is then held in place by the next loop).

The stitching looks like a single line on the top side (similar to modern stitches), but it looks like a chain of loops on the bottom.

Blue Jeans are about the only place you find chain stitching in clothing anymore.

Interestingly, you can pull that entire line of loops out by simply tugging on one loose thread - but only in one direction.

I'd seen chain stitching when I was a kid, on big bags of dog food, but had no idea how they did it.

I did love tugging that thread out, though. : )

********* Here's how it works ***********

A Looper grabs a loop from the needle

Needle comes down through that loop. Looper releases the first loop, while it grabs a new one from the needle

Needle pulls up the thread, tightening the old loop as it goes.

If the timing is right, this results in a very nice stitch, & they're harder to pull apart than it might seem at first. There is a trick to it.

** This is not quite how it looks on the Antique Sewing Machines I see, but the concept is the same.