Sewing Machine Attachments & Parts

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Like all old things, antique sewing machines are often in need of repair, so vintage parts and accessories are essential to keeping them functioning in tip-top shape. Most older model sewing machines also require tools known as attachments to...
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Like all old things, antique sewing machines are often in need of repair, so vintage parts and accessories are essential to keeping them functioning in tip-top shape. Most older model sewing machines also require tools known as attachments to execute techniques more complicated than a basic straight stitch. In fact, ever since the first factory-made sewing machines hit store shelves, manufacturers have had to provide ways to modify their machines for a variety of sewing-specific needs, as well as repair or replace broken parts. The earliest known sewing machines, like the invention patented by French tailor Barthelemy Thimonnier, actually attempted to recreate the hand-sewn stitch, rather than develop novel stitches better adapted to mechanization. However, later versions like those by Walter Hunt and Elias Howe sewed using a lock stitch with an upper thread (from the needle) and lower thread (from the bobbin). Though this was a great improvement, these devices were still made individually by hand, meaning they couldn’t use interchangeable parts. During the mid-19th century, these handmade sewing machines were very costly—at around $125 when average family income was $500 a year—and required skilled technicians to fix in case of a breakdown. In 1851, Isaac Singer developed his first sewing machine prototype in the shop of Orson Phelps, who manufactured other mechanical devices. With help from his business partner, Edward Clark, Singer began outselling competitors, though Singer’s machines still didn’t utilize standardized parts, meaning production and repair were very slow processes. Even on early Singer models that appear identical, their antique parts often have small size differences such that their workings are not interchangeable. At the same time, the company was mired in ongoing fights over the patents for various parts of the mechanized sewing-machine. So in 1856, four sewing-machine companies—Howe, Grover & Baker, Singer, and Wheeler &...
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