Sewing - Tools and History

The practice of sewing, as in making use of thread and needle to attach several kinds of material, has been dated to at least 20,000 years ago. Sewing is practically a universal occurrence, and the actual beginnings of it stretch back to the beginnings of history. It predates the weaving of cloth by several centuries, and was made use of to stitch together hides, furs, and bark for clothing and other uses.

Early sewing needles were made from bone, wood, or natural needles taken from plants as Native Americans did with the agave plant. The earliest verified sewing needles produced from iron date back to the third century B.C.E. and had been discovered in what is now Germany. Chinese archaeologists report discovering a total set of iron sewing needles and thimbles in a tomb dating from the Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220) in China. This is the earliest recognized example of a thimble in history. The thimble was created to help early sewers to push needles via thick hides and furs, and was first produced from bone, wood, leather, often glass and porcelain. Later thimbles began to be made from metal, and ahead of the 18th century dimples in a thimble had to be punched into it by hand. The thimble also became an object of beauty with thimbles made from precious and semi-precious stones, and precious metals.

The very first thread was created from plant fibers and animal sinew, which was utilized to sew together hides and furs for clothing, blankets and shelter. Later it was discovered that fibers from plants and animals could be spun together to make thread. The ancient Egyptians produced thread by spinning these fibers together, and devised approaches of dying the thread utilizing berries and plant matter. In China and Japan, silk fibers taken from the cocoon of the silk worm was spun to make rather fine thread.

For most of the history of sewing, it was performed by hand. From the simplest stitches to ornate decorative function was done with a needle, thread and a steady hand. It remained so till the initially patent for a machine that "emulated hand sewing" in 1790 in England. It is not known no matter if there ever was a machine built from the 1790 patent.

The 1st functioning sewing machine was issued a patent to Barthelemy Thimonnier in France in 1830. It utilized a single thread and a hooked needle to make a chain stitch similar to the one employed in hand embroidery. The inventor was practically killed when enraged French tailors rioted and burned down his garment factory because they feared the machine would cause unemployment. In 1846 the American Elias Howe was issued a patent for his machine, but the mass production of the machines did not happen until the 1850's when Isaac Singer built the 1st really productive sewing machine. With needle, thread, thimble and machine, the art and craft of it has not only formed items for our use and comfort. Sewing has helped form civilization itself.