# How do sewing machines work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176 "2003-12-01T03:29:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boofy\_bloke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@boofy\_bloke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofy_bloke)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/1 "2003-12-01T03:29:59Z")
I can visualise tying a knot, with two ends of two pieces of string, but how can a machine do it with only one end? ---
**Author:** ![john31584](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@john31584](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john31584)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/2 "2003-12-01T03:46:19Z")
you know, i never thought about this. good question. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/3 "2003-12-01T03:46:43Z")
[Here](http://web.mit.edu/2.972/www/reports/sewing_machine/sewing_machine.htm-1) is a neat page showing exactly how a sewing machine makes its stitches. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/4 "2003-12-01T03:50:34Z")
Thank you, **Q.E.D.**! You’ve provided me with the answer in a way I can at last understand! ---
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/5 "2003-12-01T04:04:55Z")
There are other animations [here](http://home.howstuffworks.com/sewing-machine2.htm) (forgive the advertising banners) showing chain stitch and lock stitch styles with the threads in colour. ---
**Author:** ![KenGr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecc23a/32.png) [@KenGr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KenGr)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/6 "2003-12-01T06:43:47Z")
Just a note for Netscape users. The link posted by by Q.E.D. is not HTML compliant and will not display in current Netscape browsers (and probably a lot of others). You will need to use Internet Explorer. You’d think people at M.I.T. would be on top of these things. (Sigh) ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/7 "2003-12-01T18:31:04Z")
- - - The way most sewing machines work is not that they tie two ends together, but that they stick one loop through the fabric, and then stick another loop through the first, and then pull the first loop tight. That is the reason that under some circumstances one end of the thread can break, and the entire seam can be pulled out one stitch after the other. - I dunno what it’s called, but there is one type of sewing machine that has a small spool of thread (shuttle) and throws it back and forth underneath the fabric, as the loops of thread get pushed through from the top–so that the bottom thread gets inserted through all the loops. It is far more resistant to unraveling than the regular home-type sewing machine stitching. You normally only see this type of stitching in heavy-duty critical applications; I noticed once that my climbing harnesses used it. ~ ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/8 "2003-12-01T19:02:23Z")
DougC: that sounds like a serger. Most home sewers don’t have them because a good one is very, very expensive. A serger is used to hem invisibly, among other things - check out a skirt hem for instance; most of them are serged rather than sewn. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/9 "2003-12-01T19:57:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KenGr \* > \*\*Just a note for Netscape users. The link posted by by Q.E.D. is not HTML compliant and will not display in current Netscape browsers (and probably a lot of others). You will need to use Internet Explorer. You’d think people at M.I.T. would be on top of these things. (Sigh) \*\* Yah. Here’s the cause of the trouble: \ \ \ Sorta makes you want to run out and buy some Microsoft -software, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/10 "2003-12-01T20:10:24Z")
Side note - if you want to consider machines which actually do tie knots, get some farmer to let you look a hay baler which makes twine-tied bales. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/11 "2003-12-01T20:59:21Z")
For me the problem is the file is name \*.htm-1. If I save it to disk and rename it to \*.htm it works fine. So I do not think that the page is incorrect html. ---
**Author:** ![boofy\_bloke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@boofy\_bloke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofy_bloke)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-sewing-machines-work/216176/12 "2003-12-02T00:33:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by raygirvan \* > \*\*There are other animations [here](http://home.howstuffworks.com/sewing-machine2.htm) (forgive the advertising banners) showing chain stitch and lock stitch styles with the threads in colour. \*\* Is the shuttle hook attached to anything? If so, how come the cotton doesn’t get caught on the “axle”?