Mamagus

I have LONG been saying this: If more men sewed or if women were the sewers and the engineers, sewing machines would have evolved decades ago into the machines that we need.

1. fix the stupid tiny bobbin problem.
2. Build the blasted things with 20" throats... after all it IS only a bit of metal and a few wires that have to be extended.
3. Extend the feed dogs so the first stitch catches each and every time
4. provide some kind of device so that the foot pedal will stay where you put it.
5. Illuminate the working area with lights that are bright enough so you can see your work area!!!
6. And while I am venting... why the heck should I have to pay extra for a stitch regulator? Isn't that what a sewing machine SHOULD do?

My friend just bought a cute little basic sewing machine and paid about 500.00 for the same machine that I bought 30 years ago. Oh there's more plastic and brighter dials, but it is identical in what it does to my machine from thirty years ago. Can you IMAGINE the uproar that would be created if you bought a computer THREE (not 30) years later that had the same capabilities as the one you had bought three years before!

I tell ya we are being shafted!

winia

How about machine needles with bigger holes? My eyes
aren't what they used to be, and the metal threaders are
so cheap they break easily. I can't get how to use the threader that's on my machine.

I saw a machine the other day on a television shopping show,
and I can't remember which one or what the machine was,
but it had four or five LED lights under the area between the
needle and the base of the machine, plus the distance between
the needle and the base of the machine was twice as wide
as it normally is on most machines.

That's a start. If the companies would only listen to us.

Lostn51

They have already done that but it never caught on. Back in the early days of sewing machines they had a machine that used 2 spools. One for the bobbin and one for the top thread.

It was made by The National/Eldredge Sewing Machine Company.

Billy

fabric-holic

You're kidding? Why didn't it catch on? Women back then did a heck of lot more sewing than we do today.
I can't believe it :?

QBeth

You are a genius! What a wonderful suggestion!!! :thumbup:

QBeth

Being an engineer, myself, I couldn't agree more with this comment! There are not enough of us in the engineering field. Ladies & gents, encourage your daughters to go into tech-related college majors and careers! If there are enough of us, we will be heard.

Lostn51

It was around 1906 or 08 when the idea came around and there were several companies making machine that were "Two Spool" machines but National/Eldredge was the most popular of them. They are still out there to be had you just have to look thats all.

As for why they didnt catch on I imagine it had a lot to do with the industrial revolution and patent rights.

I bet that you didnt know that the sewing machine was what set the patent laws in effect. Singer, Wheeler & Wilson, Davis, Standard and National/Elderedge were the companies that were leading the pack during that era.

Billy

fabric-holic

Billy--
I love your history of sewing machines! Maybe you should have your own daily or weekly postings here of sewing history?

Gelswood

I would like to have had a sewing machine that had an odometer (like cars). With four girls I probably put a million miles on my 1965 Bernina.

Lostn51

Thanks for the complement but I am not that knowledgeable, I have lots of help! ;-)

When I am not on here I am either reading Carter Bays, on the NeedleBar, or the Smithsonians web site going through their documents.

I am also working with the NeedleBar in trying to be able to find out the origin and date of the Japanese 15's and the Japanese machines pre 1970.

I love history and the industrial revolution is one of my favorite times because of all that was going on and it incorporates my two favorite loves.......the Sewing Machine and the Automobiles!!
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Billy