METHOD OF FORMING BY SEWING MACHINES THE STITCH KNOWN AS "REVERING," AND ADAPTATION OF APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE,
Year: 1884

page_text: Ì, JOSEPH BUCHANAN ROBERTSON of Lurgan in the County of Armagh, Ireland,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention for
" METHOD OF FORMING
BY SEWING MACHINES THE STITCH KNOWN AS "REVERING," AND ADAPTATION OF
APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE," and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The ornamental stitch known as "revering" has been usually formed by hand.
My invention relates to means of forming it on fabrics by sewing machines adapted
for that purpose. The machines most suitable for being so adapted are those which
are arranged to form the stitch known as French vein or hem-stitch, as also those
which can form button-hole stitch. In these, the needle, besides its regular up and
down motion, is made also to move a little laterally so that it descends for certain
stitches, a little to the one side or the other of the general line of sewing. Or,
instead of the needle having this lateral movement, in some machines, the fabric
besides having its forward feed has also a shorter backward feed and a lateral
movement. The revering stitch is a stitch somewhat resembling the French vein or
the button hole stitch, but it requires four distinctive sets of movements of the fabric
and needle, which are as follows:
1. The fabric being advanced its full feed, the needle descends a little to one
side, say the left, of the line of sewing.
2. The fabric being now retracted a little, the needle descends in the same line
as in 1.
3. The fabric being again advanced its full feed, the needle descends a little to
the right side of the line of sewing.
4. The fabric being again retracted a little, the the needle descends again in the
same line as in 3.
This cycle of stitches is continuously repeated, the effect being that along the
central line of sewing there appears, as it were, a cord with alternating triangular
apertures through the fabric, on each side of the middle line, these apertures being
formed by the sewing thread drawing together several yarns of the fabric.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings shews the revering stitch, and Fig. 2 shews
to an enlarged scale the succession of stitches producing it as above set forth.

page_text: In order to adapt a sewing machine for effecting this stitch, it is only necessary
to form and time the cams usually employed on such machines so as to produce the
proper extent and succession of stitches. Thus, the feed cam has to be made so as to
give a long forward alternating with a short backward feed, one such feed occurring at
each descent of the needle. And the cam, which gives the lateral movement to the
needle or fabric has to be formed so as to give, during four successive descents of
the needle, the two lateral movements mentioned, namely in the first and second
strokes of the needle, it descends to the left of the line of sewing, and in the third
and fourth strokes, it descends to the right.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that
what I claim is :-
1. The herein described method of producing revering stitch on a sewing machine,
by the combination of two long forward and two short backward feeds of the fabric
with two lateral movements of the needle or fabric.
2. In adapting a sewing machine for producing revering stitch, the use of feed
apparatus giving alternately a long forward and a short backward feed, in combina-
tion with apparatus moving the needle or fabric laterally to each side alternately
during two successive strokes of the needle, substantially as herein described.
Dated this twenty sixth day of November 1884.