Stitching questions

Because of the way the lockstitch is made, there is no way to tell if it was done by a long bobbin (transverse or vibrating shuttle) machine, or by a round bobbin machine. The same with the power source - whether motor or treadle (or handcrank) the stitch is still the same. The only different stitch would be a chainstitch such as that produced by a Willcox & Gibbs (or Singer 24 or W&G clone), that is clearly different from a lockstitch since it is made with one thread, not two.

Now, on my sewing, you might guess that a long straight seam was done on a treadle if it is straight. The ones I do on an electric seem to waver. ;-)

This question aroused my curiousity, so I took out my 1898 Singer hand-crank that has a long bobbin and tried it, I hadn't used it for a couple years. The stitches look the same on both sides. Emily

Very early sewing machines had various ways of attempting to make a reliable stitch, but when the lockstitch was invented, it was the clear winner. There are examples of the earlier ones in the Smithsonian, and they look very strange to us today. Some had curved needles. The standard lockstitch which all modern machines use, has been the standard for 150 years now without being improved on. The chainstitch, as well, although there are fewer applications.

Our fancy modern machines swing the needle back and forth to make a zig-zag stitch, with various swings in various directions, with various lengths of stitch on the top of the fabric, but it's still just a lockstitch. This is made possible by reducing the tolerances to accept the thread and form the stitch when the needle drops into the race in different places, instead of the single spot used by the older machines. Any difference in the quality of stitch is from this built-in "slop" and you can often see it in a slight slant to the stitches when doing a straight stitch on a zigzag machine. But it's still a lockstitch.