Patent ID: 7373891

Claim:
An apparatus for free motion stitching and for inserting stitches of uniform length through a stack of one or more fabric layers as said stack is manually guided in a substantially horizontal plane, said apparatus comprising: a fixedly located stitch head including a needle mounted for cyclic vertical movement; a bed defining a substantially horizontally oriented first planar surface mounted opposite to said stitch head; a frame configured to retain said fabric layer stack in a substantially taut condition adjacent to said first planar surface; at least one bearing supporting said frame for manually guided movement to move said stack across said first planar surface; a detector for producing one or more signals representing the magnitude of translational movement of said frame; and control circuitry responsive to said detector signals indicating a magnitude of translational movement exceeding a threshold magnitude for causing said needle to execute a cyclic movement from an up position remote from said stack, to a down position piercing said stack, and back to said up position.