US1943300A - Seam for sewed articles and method of making same - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 16, 1934. A H D voE 1 ,943,300

SEAM FOR SEWED ARTICLES AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Filed July 31., 1931 ZIIST Patented .lan. 16, 1934 UNITED STATES PATEN'E' OFFECE SEAM FOR SEWED ARTICLES AND METHOD OF MAKING SAIWE 6 Claims.

This invention relates to seams for sewed articles and it has for an object to provide improved seams, adapted to be utilized for either ornamental or utilitarian purposes.

Another object is to provide a method of making such seams and also to provide a method of utilizing such seams to effect a desired finish on a body fabric.

Still another object of this invention is to render available an improved blind stitoh seam capable of being made on a sewing machine at a relatively rapid rate, and which, advantageously, may be employed in certain Operations in the manufactu'e or" various articles of wearing apparel, which Operations, heretofore, neoessarily have been performed by hand.

More or less recently the use of a conventional wide hem heretofore employed, as for example around the bottom of ladies' light weight dresses and about the edges of handkerchiefs, etc., has, to a large extent, been discontinued, and in its stead there has come into use a so-called handrolled edge. This, as its name implies, has been made by manually rolling inwardly the marginal portion of the fabric to be finished, thereby forming a relatively narrow roll enclosing the raw edge of the fabric. Frequently, this roll is not greater than inch in width. To maintain the roll in place on the body fabric and to prevent it from unrolling during use, it is subsequently stitched to the body iabric. Inasmuch as the appearance of stitches on the outside of the finished product is undesirable and, in the absence of any suitable blind stitoh seam 35 which could be made by a machine for this Work,

it has been customary and necessary to stitoh the rolled edge to the body fabric by hand sewing. In this operation the seamstress passes her needle through the innermost edge of the roll and partially through the body fabric, the needle preferably entering and emerging from the body fabric on the same side thereof, without passing therethrough. A series of such stitches placed at suitable intervals constitute a seam comprising spaced blind stitches connected together by an intervening thread.

Each of the various types of available blindstitoh machines has been tried for this particular operation but none has been oapable of producing a seam satisfactory for the purpose. Hand stitching of the rolled edge has, thereiore,

continued to be employed.

As is well understood, hand sewing is a relatively slow and tedious operation. consequently, it is unduly costly and, therefore, in quantity production, is avoided whenever and wherever pos- 4 ple, a needle thread and a bobbin thread or a needle thread and a looper thread, and comprises a plurality of blind tacking stitches engaging the fabric at spaced intervals. Intermediate the stitches the two threads extend lengthwise of the seam and, as shown in certain ones of the figures, later to be referred to, may be twisted together or concatenated to form a connecting bar. When stitching upon very thin material, which is extremely diifcult to split with a needle, the tacking stitches may pass through the fabrio and a minute stitoh may appear on the outside of the article. These stitches, however, will be a substantial distance apart and will be inoonspicuous and difiicult to see.

This seam readily may be made by a sewing machine by so bending the fabrio that a reciprocatory needle may be caused to enter and emerge from the same side of the fabric without passing through it. The loop of the needle thread is taken by a suitable looper, hook or shuttle and a second thread is engaged therewith. This forms a stitoh. After each stitoh has been made, the needle may be given a plurality of reciprocations without engaging the fabric. This may be efiected either by shifting the fabric out of the path of the needle or by shifting the needle away from the fabric. At each of these reoiprocations the needle thread loop is taken by the looper, hook or shuttle and the oomplemental lower thread is' engaged therewith In the absence of the fabric, no stitoh is formed during these reciprocations, and the action is such that the two threads are twisted together. After a suitable number of twists have been made, the needle is oaused again to engage the fabric and another e stitoh is formed. The two twisted threads connecting the stitches produce an ornamental efiect.

When this seam is utilized to stitoh the socalled rolled edge, it afiords all the advantages of the hand seam and, to a great eXtent, simulates the appearance of the latter. While the method and seams provided by this invention are particularly useful for stitching relatively narrow hems or rolled edges, it is to be understood that the invention is in nowise limited to this use but is also adaptable to relatively wide hems.

When utilized for ornamental purposes, the appearance of the seam may be improved by employing differently colored threads or by utilizing threads of unequal size.

various forms of my improved seam and the method-s whereby they may be made and utilized are illustrated in the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this disclosure, and in such drawing:-

Figure l is a face View of one form of my improved seam as applied to a body fabric for ornamental purposes.

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional View of the seam shown in Fig. 1, showing, in full lines, the fabric folded, as during the stitching operation, and, in dotted lines, the fabric opened out as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic View illustrating one `method of causing the stitch forming mechanism to make the stitches and twists as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a View of the seam shown in Fig. 1, when utilized to stitch a rolled or folded edge to the body fabric in simulation of a "hand-rolled edge".

Fig. 5 illustrates a method of producing the seam shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a View similar to Fig. 4 but showing the entwined threads engaging laments picked up from the side of the fold or roll.

Figs. 7 and 8 are sectional views illustrating the lateral manipulation of the fabric relative to the needle, to produce the seam shown in Fig. 6.

Referring more specifically to the drawing, and first particularly to Figs. l and 3, my improved seam is disclosed as comprising threads 1 and 2 passing through a body fabric a, and looped together at spaced intervals, as at 3, in the form of conventional lock stitches. Intermediate the stitches 3 the threads are twisted together a plurality of times, as shown at 4, thereby forming an ornamental bar arranged upon one face of the fabric. This seam Conveniently may be made, as shown in Fig. 3, by folding the body fabric and causing a conventional sewing machine needle n to make a stitch through the folded edge, as indicated at 5, then causing the needle to make a plurality of reciprocations over the edge of the fabric, as indicated at 5, and then again through the fabric as at 5 It is to be understood that the fabric is given `feeding movements between successive reciproeations of the needle and that at each reciprocation of the needle, its thread is taken by a suitable loop taker or shuttle and a bobbin thread is engaged therewith, all in a manner common to lock stitch sewing machines. After the seam has been completed, the fabric may be unfolded as shown in Fig. 1, and in dotted lines in Fig. 2, to place the ornamental seam on the face of the fabric. The stitches may be made through the fold and over the edge thereof either by shifting the fabric relative to the needle or by shifting the stitch forming mechanisn relative to the fabric.

Fig. 4 discloses my improved seam as applied to a rolled or folded edge 7 of a body fabric. In this form the two threads are locked together at 3 within the rolled edge '7 and one thread engages the body fabric adiacent the roll to form a blind tacking stitch, thereby to prevent the fold from unrolling. Intermedate the stitches the two threads are twisted together in a manner similar to that shown in Fig. 1. This seam may be made, as shown in Fig. 5, by causing the needle on certain ones of its strokes to pass through a portion of the body fabric and through a folded edge thereof and, on other strokes, to pass over the folded edge as shown in dotted lines. Fig. 5 shows the marginal portion of the fabric folded and resiing upon a conventional throat-plate 8, having a needle-hole 9' for the passage of the needle. Any suitable or preferred henmer or folder may be applied to the sewing machine, to give to the fabric the desired roll or the roll may be made by hand. Beneath the throat-plate the needle thread loop is taken by a conventional loop taker 9, or shuttle, and passed about a suitable bobbin in a manner common to lock stitch sewing machines.

It will be understood that, when the needle reoiprocates outside the folded edge and the needle thread loop is passed about the bobbin, the action is such that, instead of a stitch being formed, the needle and bobbin threads are merely twisted together, as shown at 4.

The stitch shown in Fig. 4 is well suited for` simulating the so-called "hand rolled edge hereinbefore described.

In Fig. 6 there is disolosed a seam generally similar to that shown in Fig. 4 and differing therefrom only in that the twisted threads intermediate the stitches B are attached by fine filaments f of the fabric to the edge of the roll on the body fabric. This is effected, as shown in Fgs. 7 and 8, by causing the needle first to engage the fabric, as shown in Fig. 7, and thereafter to make a plurality of reciprocations during each of which it barely engages the edge of the folds, as shown in Fg. 8. These last named reciprocations cause the needle to pick off, from the 'body fabric, fine laments of thread which aford insufiicient body to cause the threads to assume and maintain the form of a lock stitch. These thread filaments, therefore, are merely bound in with the threads as they are twisted together. Although these filaments may be extremely fine and hardly visible, they serve to tie the twisted threads to the rolled edge and hold them against movement relative thei-eto.

Having thus revealed this invention, I claim as new and desire by Letters Patent of United States:--

1. A lock stitch seam comprising two threads engaging a fabric at spaced intervals and twisted together a plurality of times between adjacent points of engagement.

2. A lock stitch seam comprising two complemental threads connected together at spaced points, one of said threads engaging a fabric at said spaced points, said two threads being twisted together a plurality of times between the points where they are connected.

3. A nishing seam for a fabric having a rolled edge comprising two threads connected together in said rolled edge, at spaced intervals, by conventional lock stitches, one of said threads also engaging the body abric to secure the rolled 'edge thereto, said two threads being twisted together a plurality of times between successive stitches.

4. A blind stitch seam for a body fabric having a rolled edge, comprising two threads Secured together at spaced intervals in said rolled edge, one of said threads passing partially through said body fabric and emerging on the same side thereof at which it entered without penetrating the fabric, the other of said threads extending over an edge of the roll, and being twisted together rio With the other thread a pluralty of times intermediate adjacent points of engagement with said body fabric and rolled edge.

5. A seam for a body fabric having a rolled edge comprising two threads engaging the roll and the body fabric to a substancial depth at spaced intervais and connected together at said points of engagement as locked stitches, said threads also engaging said roll a plurality of times intermediate said stitches to a depth materially less than at said stitches, the two threads thereby being twisted together a plurality of times intermediate said siitches and engaging between them thread filaments connected to said roll.

6. The method of making a seam and attaching it to a body fabric which consists in folding the marginal portion of the fabric, causing a reciprocatng needle to penetrate said fold, and to form a thread loop, engaging a second thread with the needle thread loop and forming a lock stitch, causing the needle to effect a plurality of reciprocations each penetrating the fold to a less depth than the first named penetration, thereby, at each of the latter reciprocations causing the needle to pick off from said fold thread filaments attached thereto and to twist the two threads together and to secure therebetween the thread filaments attached to said fold and picled off by said needle and again causing the needle to penetrate the fabric to the greater depth thereby to form a second lock stitch.

ALBERT H. DE VOE`

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