Sewing machines

[major bill]

To be fair, Sykes & Co. not only made the jackets and trousers but also the shirts and under garments and I can not break down the 400 workers and 100 sewing machines in to how much each particular garment was made. However, if a reenactor depicts a soldier of The Fifth Michigan wearing all hand sewn garments, they would not be completely accurate right?

 

[donna]

Allie the photo of the Singer is exact machine my Granny had. I remember her sewing and trying to teach me.

 

[Dave Hull]

I found this nifty site on sewing machine history. They also talk about machines which did buttonholes.

http://www.sewalot.com/newton_wilson_sewing_machine.htm

This is from Wikipedia and has a creative common license. This is the exact machine I used to use sometimes. It wasn't much different from modern sewing except that you had to "push" the fabric through and your leg got tired. Some of the photos on the other page show factory workers using similar table machines.

View attachment 63197

We had two of these on the old farm, which ended up in the dump when we moved. One was my Granny's and the other was my Grand Mother's. They were still in use into the early 70's.

 

[thomas aagaard]

I checked my notes....

Thanks. Just so we are clear, Iam no expert in this.. just repeating what I have read about this on the authentic campaigner forum, where it have been debated a number of times.

The big question is what did they used the machines fore.

Schuylkill Arsenal had a few, but they where likely used for tents. One of the suppliers used them for hats, but not sack coats.

 

[major bill]

Sykes & Co. at this time made jackets, trousers, shirt and underwear. He did not make hats, overcoats or tents. Detroit merchant tailors made about 25,000 sets of uniforms for the state, (Sykes made perhaps 22, 000 the sets) about 25,000 sets of uniforms for the Federal government (mostly from Sykes) and 1,000 sets for another state.