page_title: Sewing machine
section_title: Stitches
hierarchical_section_title: Sewing machine / Design / Stitches
caption_attribution_description: English: A Husqvarna 3600 sewing machine Suomi: Husqvarna 3600 ompelukone, koottu Suomessa ja myyty Suomessa nimellä Fintikki.
context_page_description: A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. Since the invention of the first working sewing machine, generally considered to have been the work of Elias Howe and Englishman Thomas Saint in 1790, the sewing machine has greatly improved the efficiency and productivity of the clothing industry.
  Home sewing machines are designed for one person to sew individual items while using a single stitch type at a time. In a modern sewing machine, the process of stitching has been automated so that the fabric easily glides in and out of the machine without the inconvenience of needles, thimbles and other tools used in hand sewing. Early sewing machines were powered by either constantly turning a handle or with a treadle mechanism. Electrically-powered machines were later introduced.
  Industrial sewing machines, by contrast to domestic machines, are larger, faster, and more varied in their size, cost, appearance, and task.
context_section_description: Sewing machines can make a great variety of plain or patterned stitches. Ignoring strictly decorative aspects, over three dozen distinct stitch formations are formally recognized by the ISO 4915:1991 standard, involving one to seven separate threads to form the stitch.
  Plain stitches fall into four general categories: chainstitch, lockstitch, overlock, and coverstitch.
caption: The bobbin driver of a Husqvarna 3600 sewing machine
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