Sewing - Tools and History

The practice of sewing, as in working with thread and needle to attach many different 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 various centuries, and was applied to stitch together hides, furs, and bark for clothing and other makes use of.

Early sewing needles had been created 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 were identified in what is now Germany. Chinese archaeologists report locating a complete 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 known example of a thimble in history. The thimble was created to assist early sewers to push needles by way of thick hides and furs, and was first produced from bone, wood, leather, often glass and porcelain. Later thimbles began to be created from metal, and just before 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 initial thread was produced from plant fibers and animal sinew, which was applied 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 created thread by spinning these fibers together, and devised strategies of dying the thread applying berries and plant matter. In China and Japan, silk fibers taken from the cocoon of the silk worm was spun to make really fine thread.

For most of the history of sewing, it was performed by hand. From the simplest stitches to ornate decorative work was performed 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 whether there ever was a machine built from the 1790 patent.

The initial functioning sewing machine was issued a patent to Barthelemy Thimonnier in France in 1830. It utilised a single thread and a hooked needle to make a chain stitch comparable to the 1 applied in hand embroidery. The inventor was almost killed when enraged French tailors rioted and burned down his garment factory simply because they feared the machine would trigger unemployment. In 1846 the American Elias Howe was issued a patent for his machine, but the mass production of the machines did not happen till the 1850's when Isaac Singer built the 1st truly profitable 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.