Page 34 - JOA August 2020

Howe model
1901 sewing room.

A Brief History of the

Sewing Machine
By Alex Askaroff

Alex Askaroff is the enthusiastic founder of sewalot.com, a wildly popular website for all things sewing-machine related and officially named the
number one antique sewing machine website. With millions of visitors, his enterprise is noted for its extreme depth of information and ease (and
great humor) with which the information is disseminated. As one fan said, “Alex, in a sea of bland, boring sewing machine websites, Sewalot stands
head and shoulders above the rest, with real stories, history, information and tales.” He has an extensive collection of 19th century antique sewing
machines, has around 35,000 customer “from boot-patchers to sail makers, plus all those happy quilters … ,” and is a long term member of the Guild
of Master Craftsmen. He was trained by experts from Jaeger and spent ten years on the factory floor at the family firm before starting his own business.
NOTE: This article was originally shared in our January, 2016 issue and we thought it beared repeating in this issue focused on the Needle & Thread.

ho invented the sewing machine? It is a question I am James was the son of a Shenandoah farmer and witnessed all the major
often asked in my profession. Let me take you on a brief and developments of the sewing machine. In 1901 he was an old man and
W fascinating tour of one of the most useful inventions of the interviewed about his inventions and patents. No other person alive was
19th century. better qualified to quote on the subject. His words are absolutely
By the middle of the Victorian Era crucial in understanding the development of
sewing machines were taking hold in Improved Dolly Varden the sewing machine.
Sewalot.com
America and within the space of a few “No useful sewing machine was ever invented
years they had spread across the globe. by one man; and all first attempts to do
Before that period all fabric would have work by machinery, previously done by
been joined by hand, every single stitch hand, had been failures. It was only
using methods hardly changed since Stone after several able inventors had
Age times. Clothes were slow and timely to failed in their attempts, that
produce and cost a lot of money. Factories someone with the mental powers
around the world were employing people to combine the efforts of others,
(mainly women because they were better with his own, at last produced a
at it) to sew all day long. As the practicable sewing machine.”
population of our planet exploded Sewing machine manufacture
and the Industrial revolution took started slowly and was constantly
hold, someone had to come up with interrupted. However in the 50
a solution of how to join two pieces years from 1846 to 1896 the sewing
of fabric quicker and cheaper than machine went from a circus attraction
by hand. This in turn led to a to a necessity for every household. The
captivating trail of invention and Victorian era, with its massive expansion
failure. Some inventors died in poverty, in industry and technology proved to
some became rich beyond their dreams. One be the fertile ground in which the sewing
man, Singer, became so famous that his machine grew. Let’s find out where it
name is still one of the most well-known all started.
names all over the world. The first mention of mechanical sewing was in England in 1755.
So how did it all begin? First of all I want you to read a quote from Charles Weisenthal was German but while living in England he took out
one of the first sewing machine pioneers, James Edward Allen Gibbs. a patent for a needle to be used for ‘mechanical sewing’. Unfortunately
32 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles