Isaac Merritt Singer invented the first practical home sewing machine around the middle of the 19th century. There had been many failed attempts before Singer to produce a machine that would speed up the process of hand sewing. In fact, the inventor Barthelemy Thimonnier was almost killed by an enraged group of French tailors who burnt down his garment factory because they feared unemployment as a result of his new invention.
The only reason Singer was actually successful was he had the foresight to patent his machine. It's all in the marketing - not much different than today. I will bet he did not think sewing would lead to the 1935 verbal expression, 'to have someone in stitches'. A result of laughing so hard one would have sudden stitches of pain in their sides.
Some days Some Like it Vintage will leave you in stitches too.
Some sewing inspiration.
3 comments:
What pretty little patterns, I so wish I had the talent- not pun intended but I'll take it.
Marie@ Lemondrop Vintage
Hey there. Nice post. Happy Sunday. Hope you've been enjoying the weekend. Take care. Have a great week ahead. Cheers!
I really didn't know that much about the sewing machine until I went to a re-enactment of this era. One of the ladies was actually using an age old (not sure how old) sewing machine. During these re-enactments, they can't refer to anything in today's times and she was telling the story of how she was the traveling seamstress with her machine. It was totally fascinating...as are ALL your posts!!
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