National Sewing Machine Day

A friend insisted that I take the Singer sewing machine in the 6-drawer cabinet, hoping that it would work when plugged in and could replace mine that was lost in a fire.

The throat plate is inscribed with the following:

PATENTED

U.S.A.

DEC. 11 - 1900

Mar 5 - 1901

July 23 - 1901

Dec 31 - 1901

July 21 - 1903

June 14 - 1910

Part of the cabinet is weathered and, although there is no water damage, the sewing machine is quite rusty in spots. The lamp cord is coiled and stiff making it unreliable for use.

I opened the cabinet today - on National Sewing Machine Day - to honor those from the past who used this tired but lovely antique.

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From the National Day Calendar website: Before the invention of the sewing machine, tailors and sewists created clothing by hand, one single stitch at a time. The invention of the sewing machine brought about revolutionary change. Not only did it boost an entire industry, but it also changed the way we viewed the garments we wore, However, the development of the sewing machine took time.

Skilled cabinet-maker and English inventor, Thomas Saint, received the first patent for a design of a sewing machine in 1790. He intended his design to sew on leather and canvas. However, he never advertised it and no evidence of the design, other than his drawings, could be found.

In 1874, William Newton Wilson found Saint's drawings in the London Patent office. With some minor adjustments, Wilson built a working model.

Other sewing machine inventors include:

• Walter Hunt invented the first American lockstitch sewing machine in 1832.

• John Greenough patented the first sewing machine in the United States in 1843.

• In 1851, another inventor, Isaac Singer, developed a sewing machine model that would endure and also thrust him into court with Elias Howe over patent infringement. Howe successfully sued for infringement and earned substantial royalties from a 'sewing machine combination' patent pool formed in 1856, one of the earliest examples of a major patent-sharing agreement in American industry.

Scholars have shown that while middle-class housewives sometimes gained leisure, Industrial use of the sewing machine moved production to large-scale factories. This also resulted in a decrease in production time which caused the price of clothing to drop considerably.

In New York and other cities, thousands of women stitched shirts, dresses, and undergarments for pay that could be a fraction of male industrial wages. Labor historians describe workers bent over machines for 11 or more hours a day in poorly ventilated rooms, a reality that helped fuel early labor organizing and later workplace safety reforms.

"National Sewing Machine Day stitches its way into our calendars every June 13. This day honors the ingenious invention that transformed clothing production and empowered countless crafters. Dust off your machine, mend a favorite item, or embark on a new creative project to celebrate this essential too." ~NationalToday.com

So, whether it's a mechanical, electronic, computerized or specialized machine you're sewing with - this is the perfect weekend to get creative with your favorite (old or new) sewing machine. Using my trusty Featherweight, I am putting the finishing touches on a quilt top's border. What fun project are you working on?

Thank you for stopping by.

XOXOX