A Hilarious & Dramatic History of the Sewing Machine
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
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Have you ever wondered about the invention of the sewing machine? Who invented the sewing machine? Why is Singer the most famous brand of sewing machine? Why did Elias Howe sue everyone who made sewing machines in the 1800s? Did Singer really look like Daniel Day Lewis from Gangs of New York?
Well, today, we're answering all those burning questions, that I know keep you up at night. The history of the sewing machine is dramatic (to say the least), extremely interesting (i mean, who doesn't love American Patent Law History? I know I do!), and frankly, hilarious (bad acting aside).
References:
The History of the Sewing Machine, 1872, James Parton: quod.lib.umich...
Scientific American: www.scientific...
americanhistor...
patents.google...
And assorted historic newspapers from different newspapers databases (best ones are New York Tribune via ProQuest)
Singer Sewing Machine Database: ismacs.net/sin...
The absolute shade: www.singer.com...
If you don't get the French Tailor movie reference: • Office Space - Printer...
if you don't get the @ComedyCentral Drunk History rip off format: • Coca-Cola Was Invented...
Thanks to Gretchen for giving me that wee little sewing machine that never worked properly so I could beat it with a baseball bat for RUclips clout. (with a Louisville Slugger cause I will always represent my hometown)
@CurioByBSpokeDesigns is my favorite channel for Singer Sewing Machine restorations and I followed his guidelines as best as I could while fixing up my machine.
PS. My machine is a Singer 27 from 1898 w/ the Sphinx decals and I got it at a thrift store in Ohio.
*No functional sewing machines were harmed in the making of this video.
#fashionhistory #sewingmachine
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I had way too much fun filming this video 🤣🤣 @CurioByBSpokeDesigns was the channel I used for helping know how to clean my machine! He's the expert - not me! References are in the description if you're interested, and the machine I was working on is my new (to me) 1898 Singer 27 vibrating shuttle treadle machine. I got her in Ohio for a steal of a deal! Let me know if you all want a video about the different feet and accessories that came with it! Also - because I can't tell hear tone in comments - the toy sewing machine *never* worked - my neighbor gave it to me instead of throwing it in the trash, and I *obviously* cleaned up the plastic - why would I leave plastic chunks all over my yard? 😂
"damn it feels good to be a gangsta" : )
Yes please! I would love a video about the accessories.
Your freaking funny as hell an cute as f*** lol
Heck yeah
This couldn't have come in a better time. I'm only 2 minutes and 33 seconds in and I am laughing. Hilarious. This is hilarious. Walk on French, all.. Rock on..
This is like watching a one woman drunk history and I‘m here for it. Well played.
That’s what I was thinking too, and it’s brilliant! Great job Abby!
I was also thinking about Drunk History 😂🤣
Love that show and loved this too.
Make this a series! One Woman Drunk History, I'd watch the heck out of it!
My thoughts exactly! I love it!!
Made my night 😊
I'm 58 and been hand sewing all my life, and only last year tried a machine. I borrowed a simple brother machine from a friend because I wasn't sure I would like it. My grandmother, who lived with us,hand sewed a lot of clothes for herself and my mother and me. This went on until about 1972 when she bought a machine. She liked it and it helped her make a lot more pieces, but she was also slightly wary of it and I was never allowed near it because she thought I would sew my fingers lol. She taught me to hand sew pretty young and I still prefer that method, but if I have a lot of long, boring, simple seams, I will use the machine.
Also, last week I somehow managed to sort of sew one finger. My grandmother was obviously right.
That's basically what terrifies me, lol! And I can barely sew at all!!!
I remember my mom sewing into her finger with the machine once. But she didn’t quit, and she taught me to sew on that old Singer, which I still have. And I’ve never sewn my finger, but I’ve stuck myself plenty of times sewing by hand.
I’d like to try hand sewing a garment or maybe a bag sometime.
I was forbidden from using my aunt’s sewing machine for the same reason lol
@@carolynworthington8996 it's good fun!
So funny, this video came out during one of the biggest protest I have ever been in, in my home town (In France, obviously), where the Police went all out on the tear gas and the flash ball guns. Thank you Abby for supporting our national habit. We will keep on protesting :) Great video, as always ❤
Also our revolutionary ways is what gave us that great modèle social. People like to paint us as angry lazy people, but we do have social security. The British for example, like to turn up their noses at our supposed lack of work ethic, but a lot of them flock to Britanny and Normandy to get their teeth fixed.
@@lililangtry1881 I think a lot of leftist british peeps view you more highly than you think, the comments under a lot of the uk political content I see on social media is full of comments with people saying things like "when will we finally take a leaf out of Frances book" and "this wouldn't bloody happen if people got off their bloody arses and did something like the french". Admittedly that's sadly not many of us and protests/strikes are increasingly demonised in this country, it's really depressing. Even when there is a good turnout it's either barely reported or its majorly biased reporting and the Tories ignore the actual issue raised to instead push their agenda of more restriction on protests/strikes by going on about how disruptive they are.
Anyway, good luck with your efforts to stop the retirement age being changed, I'm hoping it might inspire more people over here to be a bit more radical.
Honestly, I found the intro rather distateful and inappropriate (I'm thinking about hte people who sadly got hurt in the process, there is nothing funny about that), but I couldn't watch the video past 1 minute, so maybe I fail to understand the humor in this particular video 🤨.
I'm visiting France now and the train strikes have made us get creative with our transportation. We usually rely on the French train system. I support the workers though and wish I was French rather than from the US. Vive la France!
@@lililangtry1881Honestly, as a Brit, I wish we were more like you!
As a owner (hoarder) of 10+ antique Singers, all ranging from 1871 to 1957, thank you this! I’m currently working on my wedding dress using my trusty 66-1 Red Eye from 1913. These machines are eternal!
When I quit drinking, I needed a new hobby and somehow landed on vintage sewing machines. I started with a Husqvarna Viking 21E; and now I have like 60 of the stupid things. Mostly Japanese and European all-mechanical domestics. Oddly? I don't have a 66, and my 15 is a 15-125 'facelift' model in mint green with a potted motor.
I learned to sew on a circa 1940 Ruby treadle machine and loved it. I still have it, though it needs a service. I hope to sew on it again one day.
Congrats!
My husband stopped on the side of the road to grab some pegboard that was on the curb being thrown away, and he sent a video of all the junk on the sidewalk and I saw a hinged cabinet…
…
And so I did a screen cap and he grabbed the cabinet and opened it and it was an electric 1946 Singer 15 model!!!
The old man who lived in the house came out and basically told my husband that he was super happy someone was gonna be able to use the sewing machine. And that it was a “good beginner machine”
Which… maybe in the 40s it was a good learning machine, but it’s significantly more temperamental now, lol
I couldn't agree more!
The reenactments are just ✨Chef's kiss✨ There's nothing I love more than people fully acknowledging how silly people in history are and have always been.
My 94 year old grandmother had an antique Singer she inherited from her mother in law. It got “lost” after Grandma died and no one has confessed to taking it. I’m still mad!!
You may not be able to get her specific Singer back, but if you have any photos of it (even if it's kinda blurry and in the background) there are people out there who can probably identify it. Old Singer sewing machines never break down, which means they're not rare enough to be expensive. You can get a 110-year-old treadle in working condition for a lower price than a Singer Featherweight.
Please more Drunk Abby History Lessons! Pick any topic you’d like, we’ll all love it and learn something!
Totally agree! I could watch her do any topic like this. She rocked this one for sure!
@sarahallegra6239 - I hope not. She has been in therapy and seems to have conquered her depression and tendecy to self-medication. Honor her struggle and triumph.
@@MossyMozart “Drunk Abby” = “in the style of the show Drunk History,” which is what she did in this video. I don’t think Abby or anyone else familiar with the show took it as a suggestion to actually drink, especially since she wasn’t drinking in this video :)
The difference between fathering the child and raising the child. Howe may have been the father of the invention but Singer raised the interlock sewing machine and informed its growth & future decisions.
Well put 🙂
In this analogy, Singer kidnapped the child and raised it well but kidnap he did.
@@miipmiipmiip did he? Singer made key improvements & marketed the crap out of it while Howe was busy being supremely litigious rather than actually building a business. Howe is the father who sued for visitation and then dumped the kid on a relative during visitation. Meanwhile, Singer is the step parent who coached little league.
@@Chaotic_Pixie You're forgetting the decades of struggle after inventing the child, trying to sell it honestly to businessmen who claimed to his face that it was too expensive to manufacture, but immediately - immediately- began reverse engineering it from his presentations and/or copies of the patent itself. Remember, when he came back after losing everything and having to pawn the patent to survive, his machines were everywhere - it wasn't only Singer. Creative genius rarely comes with the worship of money that is at the soul of an entrepreneur - that's why entrepreneurs always have to steal it.
The costumes! 🎩
The drama! 🎭
The storytelling! 📖
This was incredible!🙌
Being a digital artist and hearing you compare the sewing machine with AI made my heart drop. Like I had never thought of it this way. But it made the "threat" very relatable all of a sudden.
Oh and as a french person the whole bit at the beginning made me laugh so much. It even reminded me of things that have happened in my discord friend group when my friends would sometimes tell me "Pingu, your french is showing again." when I got too rebellious 🤐
An absolutely hilarious - yet accurate history of the sewing machine. Isaac Singer's adventures are a whole other video! Oh and I love that wallpaper (I work at a decorators centre so will be scouring our mountain of pattern books as soon as I get a chance!)
Thank you for the mention. I'm so glad you like my restoration videos (even though they aren't as amusing as yours - Reserved Englishman) x
Thank you for you’re great restoration videos!!
@@AbbyCox>>> A am about halfway through this video. Is the footage of the foot treadle sewing machine being cleaned your video?
I ask because I have a foot treadle sewing machine that belonged to my maternal grandmother.
My great grandma, was 95 in 2003 for reference, was a quilter who thought using a sewing machine was blasphemous 😅. She got paid to travel across the country teaching her hand sewing techniques. Her quilts were displayed at Minetrista in Muncie, IN after she passed. I want to visit the quilt museum in Marion, IN and see if she is mentioned there.
Her family was chosen to be drawn and painted by Norman Rockwell back in the 40s/50s when my grandma was a little girl. My great grandfather was in a huge painting colloquially called 'The County Agent'.
When the Hollywood movie version of this story gets made, Abby shall be the technical supervisor AND the acting coach!
Plus, Abby Cox will direct the film, provide the costumes and act all of the parts. All she needs is Steven Spielberg to be the producer (i.e., the Money).
I was not prepared for how much Abby's character acting would suck me into the history of sewing but boy howdy was that as enjoyable as it was informative.❤❤❤
To be honest, that toy sewing machine had it coming. Garbage. I love your storytelling, btw. Giving Drunk History.
Thought the same thing! I think I tried to learn years ago on that exact model and it was infinitely harder than my mom's old babylock.
I had one of those and quickly begged to go use my mom's machines like a "big girl"
Having attempted to use the Toy machine successfully... that Dramatical re-enactment was so Cathartic! Was it so to you as well, Abby?
Great video. Singer also came up with a payment plan so even more people could afford his machine. He was definitely brilliant
I was about to say! I learned about that from reading a novel actually; Belle and the Beau, set in the US just before the Civil War. Belle is a former slave who escapes to Michigan and after she's settled in and starts to do sewing for enjoyment, rather than because she had to as a slave, orders one of the Singer machines towards the end of the book. At the end of the novel, there's even some sources about the Singer machine and other topics too. Pretty neat!
When I first started my history course in university we studied the French Revolution, nearly everyone in my class thought oh great we had a little background knowledge due to Les Mis or at least an idea of the time - nope it was a lesson to learn that that was actually the second revolution and we were looking at the first one 😂
Les Mis is not even the 2nd, more like the 4th (1789, 92, 1830, 32)... ;) One can argue it was even more.
@@am17frans always learning!
Tbf I'm French and probably learned about the Commune at school but didn't realise for a long time that's when Les Mis was set 😅
Didn't they have a revolution at some point in the 100 year war and stopped for a bit to revolt before continuing to fight the English?
French citizen here, just wanted to say we are indeed pretty revolutionary people. Always angry, always marching, striking for something, the cliché is mostly true.
Then again we have decent social security, paid leave, parental leave, minimum wage, unemployment benefits, the list goes on. We are currently trying to save our retirement plans. It seems to me more countries should be a little more revolutionary themselves🤷🏼♀️
😂 I talk about this with my grade 7 students when I introduce the sewing machine. It blows their minds that Singer was basically the publicist for the sewing machine.
I have a Singer Featherweight from my 13th birthday (1972) an older machine at the time. It still works perfectly with new belts and has been serviced and is a delight. It is probably at least 20 years older than I am and is a great travel machine for going to cons and vacation and finishing last minute projects. I simply love it and have kept it all these years. I love my machines (own 7 different machines) and use them all of the time. I NEVER knew there was so much controversy over the invention of the original machine. Your video as always over the top, and a hoot to boot. I love that the price of basic machines has leveled out and the more elaborate machines are cost attainable in this day of resurgence for the creator. I do however do as much handsewn parts to my projects as possible especially the historic one. Thank you for sharing this information in such a whimsical way...oh and Viva' La France'.....
"Really important THREAD throughout the story of the sewing machine"- ouch! Between that pun and Les Miz and the striped shirt and seeing someone else who has read some French history and/or news, this is my favorite video in ages, and I'm only 5 minutes in.
Your portrail of the french is absolute chef's kiss gold! I live in France and can attest that yes as soon as the gouverment make any suggestion of a contentious reform (especially about retirement like at the moment) all hell breaks loose. No one protests like the french!
One of the first musicals I was ever in, during my middle school years, had a song about “the great new safety pin!” The script must have actually said Hunt’s name because when you said he was “more famous for inventing…” my mind automatically supplied “the safety pin”! I was shocked to be correct. :)
EDIT: Turns out the musical was “Rough N Ready” by Benjamin and Leyden, published in the early 60’s. Haven’t been able to find a libretto or anything about it beyond a list of musical numbers. I played Rosie Pickins in that production in 1974 or so, in a suburb of Rochester NY. I figured this out looking at a Yearbook from Paramus NJ in 1971. This was NOT my school, and several years before our production. But weirdly enough, I lived near Paramus just a few years later, for one year in 1976-77. After that, I moved to California, where I’ve been ever since. California being the location of the musical.
The internet is a strange place, and everyone and everything in the world is connected, if you keep looking long enough …. 😮
Kudos to Abby not sounding moralistic and preachy when tackling social justice issues. I MEAN it, I'm not being sarcastic.
Agreed!
I was gonna say “I want a movie about this” but honestly no one in Hollywood could make a piece of media as good let alone better than your video
We need to get a pareon together... lets fund Abbie and BB to make the film.
I just bought a 1947 Singer with her original cabinet (my first sewing machine), and she is a WORKHORSE. I'm so happy there's such a large community of vintage machine sewers! More history lessons please.
I inherited a machine a year newer than yours, and it had like 10 different feet with it! There is one for almost anything I can think of (the one that makes ruffles is a monstrosity)
Another great one, Abby. The Mass. connection may be due to the extensive clothing industry in New England (lots of small rivers, watermills run machines, cheap child labor at the time,. etc.,...).
I totally agree!
Underwood Typewriters and Royal Typewriters were both manufactured in Hartford, CT. Pretty close by. Though the Remington seems to be an upstate New York and Milwaukee, Wisconsin venture.
Those mills in New England and most industries in America and England were only possible because of my family and thousands of other American families who were American chattel slaves. Cotton was king. Read the book "The Half Has Never Been Told" by Edward E. Baptist to learn more.
I live next door in RI, and there was a thriving textile industry here too. We have the first cloth manufacturering mill in the US (Slater Mill) and there were many other weaving mills and clothing factories. My mother and my aunts all learned to sew from working in these places. I learned from my mother. I'm not surprised that the men involved with inventing the sewing machine were in MA.
None of these places exist anymore. The Slater Mill is a museum. All the industries went to China. Yes, the contributions of the wrongly enslaved people in the south do need to be acknowledged. The northern industries did rely on poor immigrants and children in their factories. They worked very hard and were paid very little.
Love the historical re-enactments! This is another of the many cases where the inventor isn’t the one getting the credit for the invention, rather it goes to the one who’s better at manufacturing, marketing and selling the invention. Even in cases like Apple where there was a true partnership, the inventor didn’t get the credit he deserved.
Yes, let’s see more about your treadle machine! Purely mechanical machines are ingenious and we should appreciate them in our computerized age.
I recently semi-impulse purchased a 1904 singer treadle machine. The decals were so dirty, the ones on the back were literally invisible and now they have the chance to shine again. I’m looking forward to restoring the desk and drawers this summer so I can really start using her 🎉 These machines are juggernauts and just so bad ass for surviving so long and still sewing perfectly with a bit of cleaning and futzing
I actually wrote a college paper on the history of Singer sewing machine's marketing so I'm weirdly obsessed with this topic. Loved learning even more, great video!
We do small revolutions to remind the president that if he behave like a king he end up like one 😅
I’m just over here watching it happen wishing the us had the same vibes 🥹
@AbbyCox after we take down macron we come to the rescue ( and bring cheese )
That Office Space copier scene reenactment with the little sewing machine was perfection. This video was as hilarious as it was informative and the sewing machine restoration was soothing
The chaos of this video is speaking to me. All history should be taught this way!
One thing that I loved when doing research on art history (19th) was uncovering the personal stories of who hated who and who trash talked who, and other little things like this. Newspapers are a great source for historians!
This! This is exactly why history is so hard to follow in a single tread! It's is so nuanced.
Thanks Abby for sharing (and dramatizing) the history of the sewing machine 🧵🪡
*reinvented the safety pin
Romans had brooches that are almost exactly like safety pins.
Abby! More historistical stories in this format please. Very entertaining
This is exactly the controlled chaos I needed. Someone needs to turn this story into a musical.
How is it that I'm watching this on the EXACT day of my saturn return? I wondered what that was so I looked it up from an article from 2019... and it's literally today. I'm spooked now, thanks abby
1st off the very beginning shot referencing Office Space was friggin hilarious! Also, Abby, I heard you on an interview over the radio NPR recently! It was so great to hear your insights. ❤
I love this video so much! 😂 It reminds me of exactly how I would “explain” history in a loose summary to my friends when I was in university, and of how I would look at old newspaper articles in archives when I was doing my research for some of my history classes and getting excited by the little drama tidbits in the papers! Thanks for bringing back the nostalgia, Abby :)
Love watching the restoration of that beautiful Singer in the background. I have a 1923 Singer 15-88 treadle machine. No fancy decals on that era, but she works like a champ. And the best part is that it takes modern bobbins, needles, and feet. I added a quick release foot to it and now I can use the zipperfoot from my Babylock on it. I can use a 1/4 inch / 1/8 inch foot if I'm quilting or sewing doll clothes. Buttons and zigzag are even there with a little care using the most amazing geared "feet" I inherited from my grandmother for her long gone 15-91 electric machine (same exact head but with a potted motor hanging from the back.) And I love that I can get rubber belts to replace the old leather ones which had a tendency to stretch and slip. New ones are a tube. Trim it and insert the connector into both ends. Adjustments are a 5 min process and only require scissors. The old leather belt needed a pin vice to drill the hole in the belt, a wicked staple, and a pair of needle nosed pliers to crimp it. Lots of holes in my fingers for that.
that's so wonderful that you can use the modern parts with a 1923 treadle machine!! thanks for sharing 😊
Were your neighbors a bit concerned. Like who hurt you with a sewing machine 😂
Nah my close neighbors know what I do and the broken toy sewing machine was from one of them lol
I just love the papers for printing Howe and Singer so close to each other
Greetings from East Kentucky! This was a great and fun video! The sewing machine war is such an odd bit of history. My dad's retirement hobby has been restoring antique sewing machines and making quilt tops on them. My sisters and I tease that he runs a home for wayward sewing machines, lol! He owns about 30 including a few Howe machines. Dad has said that someone in Howe's family was a weaver and watching them weave is where Howe got the idea for the shuttle, but I'm not sure how true that actually is.
I've always thought that story at least felt true. It's not a big jump from a loom shuttle to a lockstitch shuttle.
As the owner and restorer of 100+ (both lockstitch and chainstitch) antique and vintage machines, I will always stand by these machines as being to any of the modern, plastic, computerized machines. They were built to last generations.
Thank you Abby for this mini history lesson.
It must've been an absolute hoot to play with all those moustaches 🤣 Howe had great OFMD Calico Jack vibes
I really do love how much I learn from you. The fun, the knowledge, and the sass. I can’t tell you how much you lift up my spirits. My dad passed in December and it’s been tough some days. On the super rough days I just watch your videos!
I don't have to be jealous of Abby anymore. Because I'm adopting my own DOG!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
I clocked your Office Space destruction of the printer reference, even including the awkward axe kicks!!! I love it!!! Well done!!!
I can't believe you talked about the grills, haha. The CGT which is a union, has cooked merguez and sausages at the end of protests for years. It seemed some people couldn't wait until the end of the walk lol
The subtitles 'people singing' during 'do you hear the people sing' are a level of comedic genius I can never hope to match.
I’m just restoring an 1881 Singer fiddle base. She was rusting in a junk shop but now she’s working again. This is my fourth vintage Singer machine. I’m kinda addicted to rescuing them & bringing them back to life. 🧵❤️
Victorian era sewing machines are my favourite. I have a 13k new family (singer fiddle base) treadle and she is beautiful. Sadly it's difficult finding replacement sewing needles 😢
@@mandya9x934 I love how people are still caring for these machines. I need a replacement Feed dog, Bobbin winder & Needles for my 12! Wish me luck! 😄
@@ClockworkFaery Lol, I think we have the same addiction! I have a fiddlebase wertheim also and the great thing about it modern round shank needles fit it and it looks similar to the fiddlebase singers. Best of luck with with your 12k! I am sure you if you got it working it won't be long until you have it restored 🤞👍
Abby, what an amazing video! I always tell a bit about sewing machine history in my sewing classes (btw, Singer also invented payment plans, this was another amazing marketing and sales strategy of his), but your video is packed with information, gossip and super fun impressions! 😂 I Will recommend it to my english speaker students! I love the way you express yourself creatively, such an inspiration, thank you for being just the way you are (and sorry about my english, kisses from Brazil😘)
You English is excellent!
@@m.maclellan7147 thank you, dear! 😊
My dad once told me the story of one of our ancestors who, when the sewing machine was just starting to become popular, was contacted by his southern cousin who suggested that they should go in business together to start a factory to make sewing machines. The northern cousin agreed, and took a train down south. The southern cousin met him at the station, robbed him, and left him on the platform!
Okay that’s some family drama 😭 I can’t imagine doing that to any of my cousins!!
I love the Drunk History and the footage of your Singer maintenance. It reminds me of when I disassembled and cleaned mine. I do believe you were more thorough than I was. 😊
Thanks for another amazing video
Welp, adding the whole sewing machine debacle in there with the Bone Wars for weird 19th century American drama.
I have a singer 201 from the 40s and it's still in it's original wood cabinet with the little stool and it still works flawlessly 🥰 I love how durable this machine is, and how i can still buy parts for it even all these years later. This was a very informative and hilarious video. Well done
As a sewist for 51 years, I found this video to be very informative. I love when I see something new. I own a Singer 99k. The old singers are made of iron, and don’t break like the ones today. You have maintain them of course.
"the French government was basically like 'Le Oops'"
I can vouch for Native. I'm on medical leave due to cancer, and with all the things needed to beat this, I like natural stuff and LOVE their products. LOVE your videos, too. I own my mother's Singer Featherweight (circa mid to late 40s) and want to learn how to use it.
As a French person who literally went to a protest yesterday, the beginning of this video amuses me oh so much. 😂
Abby!!! I have a sphinx, too! Your machine is gorgeous!! I just squee'd when I recognized your decals. Mine was manufactured in 1906.
Anyone wanting a breakdown of some of more technical aspects of the sewing machines history I recommend an episode of The Secret Life Of Machines from the early 90s, the original creator (the same man behind the strange arcade Abby and others visited last year in London) has uploaded it to RUclips. It contains a giant needle used to demonstrate lock stitch, as well as a look at a collection of antique machines including one shaped like a lion.
The Office Space a la Peaky Blinders moment and Ylvis Brothers (I live in Norway) sent me. There's so much we'll never know how something, even with some foresight and inclination, is going to affect the patterns of society until enough time has passed. The sewing machine is definitely a double edged sword in society.
Anyone here remember The Inventors Song? "Howe knew how to make the sewing machine |The Wrights learned the right way to fly| So when you're spelling the word "America" don't forget to dot the 'i' for the inventors| Don't forget to dot the 'i'"
Shout out from Spencer, Massachusetts here the birthplace of Elias Howe! My sister told me before we moved here which only made me love our home even more!
Would love to have you do the history of the industrial chain stitch embroidery sewing machine. Similar history of early machines getting destroyed by the tambour seamstresses! I wanted one of these machines since I was in grad school cataloging pieces and saw the beautiful embroidery done by these machines. Finally got one and I'm totally "hooked" 😂
I own a Singer sewing machine from around 1918 to the 1940s (the documents were destroyed during WW2, so I don't know for sure) and it is in extraordinarily good condition, looks and runs just as it was new with the original instructions, sewing needles, oil and sewing foots. Got it for free from the ex boyfriend of my mum and I love this thing to death. If my apartment building would burn down I would literally try to get this thing down from the second floor, that's how amazing it is. I also have a modern singer machine, but the antique one is just... Love.
Abby, you’re a blast! Never has sewing machine history been presented so magnificently!
I have 4 Singers, they are awesome little work horses and I am so glad that I can still get parts for them!
This was a super fun and interesting video to watch. I was also really interested in the things you were doing to clean and maintain your Singer sewing machine. I have a Singer 27 from the early 1900s that I got in almost pristine condition. I gently cleaned it with sewing machine oil and a soft cloth and I oiled it and it runs perfectly, but I'd love to learn more about antique machine maintenance.
Massachusetts is also the birthplace of the tissue paper pattern. Ebenezer Butterick was inspired by his wife Ellen's frustration with patterns that they developed the multi size tissue pattern and started selling them out of their house in Sterling MA.
Within a year they were in NYC and Butterick Patterns was born. (And The Delineator...)
Fantastic video! I loved this newer format you have gone with! The reconstructions are hilarious and made the story ever more dramatic! Men being petty as always!
Loved the history. I have a "New Home" sewing machine that my grandmother bought back in 1901 when she got married. She sewed on it until her death. (She lived to be 91 years old.) It is in storage now, but watching you restore your old machine gives me hope. Thank you for the video and interesting history on sewing machines.
I laughed so hard at the first story! I am French btw. And then you made a wonderful point balancing the story with social and economic background. This was such an interesting and well done video - thank you very much for this!
I own two vintage Singer 201k, a French labeled antique sewing machine from the beginning of 1900´s (but apparently made in Germany) and I love them. I have heard of Howe before but yes, Singer definitely won the final battle. 🤷🏻♀️😅
I loved this historical piece, but also loved you clean and restore the treadle machine at the same time. So satisfying!
That was a fantastic history story! But.... I kinda want to know more about your refurbishment of that old antique Singer you were doing in the background. What products were you using and how on earth did you know and have the confidence to take it apart? I have an old one like that. It used to work 20 years ago. It would be nice if it worked once again, but I'm not brave or knowledgeable enough to take it apart to clean and oil all the parts. Not sure I could get it back together properly again. Kudos, Lady!
I have links to the video and channel I watched that helped me do mine!
@@AbbyCox Just caught this reply! I found the link in the description! Thanks!!
@@SarahGreen523Have you gotten your machine to work?
Can I just say, the dollar shooter with the “all I do is win” track is pure fire, love it.
Always happy for geeky history! This was cool.
i have an early 1900s singer and i cannot express enough how much a love it. i plan on fixing her up all nice and pretty soon to make her look like new.
Thanks for presenting to us this fascinating slice of history!
I have possession of my great-great-grandmother's Singer sewing machine. Up until the cable to the treadle broke 15 years ago, it worked just fine. I need to work on restoring it.
Thanks for this fun and interesting video!
Okay, please more of the one woman historical reenactments of drama! That was brilliant and hilarious and wonderfully informative!
(Also, thanks for including the sneaky "tolling of the belles" pun)
Antique sewing machines is a rabbit hole. I bought my first last year (a treadle Husqvarna CB) and my second just last week (a hand-cranked Husqvarna Freja). Although we do have a fair share of Singer machines here too I really enjoy having machines manufactured in my home country. Thank you for this entertaining and educational video!
This is awesome! If only all history lessons were this entertaining. 😂The parody with the French tailor beating the $&!@ out the toy sewing machine. And the top hat plus editing between Howe and Singer was chefs kiss. Also, your hair in your narration shots is so pretty!!! 😍 (On a side note; I recently chucked my cheap ass sewing machine out of sheer frustration and decided to sew myself a brand new wardrobe almost entirely by hand. There are a few pieces I am sourcing from verifiable slow fashion but, the majority I am making myself, without a sewing machine.)
Also, I just shared this video with a lot of friends and family. 😊
Thanks for the video! History is fun. I would love to see you do a video on the history of "Duck Tape" which was actually invented by a woman named Vesta Stoudt. Yes, the original was called duck tape not duct tape. It would also be extremely fun to see you attempt to recreate the original duck tape with materials that were actually used historically to produce the sturdy multi-use tape that we still turn to today to "repair" almost anything.
oh my god, I hope you had as much fun as it seems you did bashing that lil sewing machine! 😂
I only ever knew that Elias Howe invented the sewing machine because I loved the movie Help! as a child and as a joke at the end they dedicate the movie to Elias Howe while panning out on a Singer machine while the Beatles fight on the beach.
This is also how I know it was Howe.
And this is why I love You Tube. And I love teachers like you. Thank you for this video, Abby!!!
+abbycox *I did my own research, ran across a "Sewing Machine Combination" incorporated 1856 at Albany, NY, USA, and decorporated 1877.* Hunt, Howe, Singer et al. ran a patent pool under specific regulations.
i'd love to hear more about whatever was up with the lockstitch vs. chainstitch sewing machines later in the century. it seems that chainstitch has all but disappeared from our machines today and i wonder why, as i've heard it works pretty well
I thought it's less favourable to lock stitches as it unravels easier.
I have a Singer 401g from the early 1960s - which can actually do both. Very cool and unusual machine. Not very pretty, though!
It must have been one of the last machines with that feature for the domestic market.
If a chainstitch breaks, though, the whole seam will just unravel. You do not want that for structural seams on your garments! It's great for basting, though
We still use chainstitch machines for agriculture... if you buy a large bag of animal feed and pull a single thread to open it it was a chainstitch machine.
My mother, both grandmothers, great grandmothers and even some family friends all owned “antique” singers and one of them had even had a motor added at one point when that became something that was a possible option. Many of them have travelled back and fourth around the country and all are still in perfect working order. My dad still loves to get ones that have had a rougher time and restore them to fully working order and he has done a pretty great job even painting much of the ironwork where the gold paint was at one point. He also has built tons of sewing machine cabinets where the machine can drop down for safe storage and come back up for use. I’ve just been around them all my life that it’s always funny to me when people are so in awe or excited about an older Singer sewing machine like it’s a rare find. They aren’t terribly rare as Abby even mentioned and can be restored because of that. Parts are still being made for the older ones as well as the original decals, etc.
Henry Ford took a lesson from Singer!
This bit of history should be turned into a mini-series.
Your representation of the French mind set is heartwarmingly hilarious - loved it - like the rest of your video - wonderfully done and informative - greetings from Germany!
I absolutely love the pettiness of these guys and how you make history fun to watch about
14:58 anyone else wondering whether Abby had it already or actually bought that thing for the video. And if she had it, why?
I suspect if she bought it, it was second hand
Actually she said in her question about neighbors; that a neighbor gave her that broken toy sewing machine
I learned to sew on a Singer treadle machine many years ago. I've often wondered if I could still sew with a treadle or whether the machine would go backward and break the thread. Those old Singer machines are treasures.
omg a rogue abby cox video!!
Thursdays are my new upload days 😂
@@AbbyCox What a nice surprise! ❤
I recently received my grandmother's old hand turned singer sewing machine. The serial dates it to 1936!!