50 Fun Facts About Sewing

A bird-bone needle found in Denisova Cave, attributed to Denisovans, is estimated to be roughly how old?

Early humans across Europe and Asia sewed fur and leather with needles of bone, antler and ivory, threading them with sinew.

The Inuit traditionally made sewing thread from the sinew of which animal?

Their needles were carved from bone; elsewhere early sewers used catgut and veins as thread.

Which English inventor produced the first sewing machine design, in 1790?

His design was for leather and canvas; a working replica built decades later needed modifications to sew at all.

After Barthelemy Thimonnier patented his sewing machine in 1830, what reportedly happened to his factory?

Tailors saw the machine as a threat to their livelihoods; Thimonnier's machines were meant to make military uniforms.

Who invented the first American lockstitch sewing machine, in 1832?

He never patented it, reportedly worried it would put seamstresses out of work; he did patent the safety pin.

Elias Howe's 1846 lockstitch patent placed the needle's eye where?

Family legend says the idea came from a dream about warriors whose spears were pierced near the head.

Besides the sewing machine, Elias Howe patented which zipper ancestor in 1851?

He never marketed it; Whitcomb Judson's clasp locker came four decades later.

Isaac Singer's machines were driven by which device, freeing both hands for the fabric?

The treadle had been converting foot motion into rotary motion since the Middle Ages.

Singer and partner Edward Clark pioneered which way of selling sewing machines to ordinary households?

Clark also accepted trade-ins, and sales soared.

Before becoming an inventor, Isaac Singer ran away at 12 to join what?

He fathered 26 children by five women and split his fortune among 20 of them.

After the 1856 sewing-machine patent pool, what did other makers have to pay per machine?

The Sewing Machine Combination was one of the first patent pools in American industry.

A lockstitch, the stitch most home machines make, uses how many threads?

One passes through the needle, the other comes up from the bobbin or shuttle underneath.

What is the main drawback of a chain stitch?

That is why it turns up on feed sacks, where you want to pull one thread and open the bag.

An overlock stitch, made by a serger, can be formed with how many threads?

It uses one or two needles and one or two loopers, trimming and finishing the edge as it sews.

In which year did the Singer company introduce the first electric sewing machines?

Household electricity was still rare, so treadles stayed common for decades.

Ebenezer Butterick, who began selling graded tissue-paper patterns in 1863, worked as what?

The idea reportedly came from his wife's frustration that patterns were sold in only one size; within a year they had a factory on Broadway.

Which magazine did the Butterick company publish from 1873 to promote its patterns?

It grew into one of the biggest women's magazines in America before folding in 1937.

Which sewing tool is worn on the finger to protect it from the needle?

Examples from the 10th century have been found in England, and collectors of them are called digitabulists.

What is a collector of thimbles called?

The thimble was also one of Monopoly's original metal tokens from 1935 until it was dropped in 2017 and later restored.

In hand-sewing needle sizes, how does a size 12 needle compare with a size 9?

So a size 12 sharp is finer than a size 9, the same backwards logic as wire gauges.

Which English town began making needles in 1639 and became the centre of the trade?

The drawn-wire technique developed there is still in common use.

Which type of hand-sewing needle is traditionally used for quilting?

Sharps are the general-purpose needle, embroidery needles have larger eyes and tapestry needles suit loose weaves.

Whitcomb Judson patented which zipper ancestor in 1893?

Gideon Sundback redesigned it into the modern zipper, which went on sale in 1913.

Which company coined the word 'zipper' in 1923, using the fastener on rubber boots?

The zipper then beat the button in 1937's 'Battle of the Fly' after French designers embraced it for men's trousers.

The oldest known button, about 5,000 years old, was found at Mohenjo-daro and is made of what?

It was an ornament rather than a fastener; buttonholes only appeared in 13th-century Germany.

On classic clothing, women's buttons sit on which side?

Men's sit on the right, a convention often attributed to drawing a weapon from left to right, though nobody is sure.

Swiss engineer George de Mestral was inspired to invent Velcro by what?

The name blends the French 'velours' and 'crochet'; the patent was granted in 1955.

Which two French words combine to make the name Velcro?

Velvet and hook: the fasteners flew on every Apollo mission, on suits, sample bags and lunar vehicles.

Quilting joins at least how many layers of fabric?

Top, batting and backing; the Tristan quilt from 14th-century Italy is the oldest surviving European bed quilt.

Where is the Tristan quilt, the oldest surviving European bed quilt, kept?

It was made in late-fourteenth-century Italy from linen padded with wool.

Which of these describes traditional Amish quilts?

Construction is simple and the stitching is done entirely by hand.

The Bayeux Tapestry, nearly 70 metres long, is technically not a tapestry at all. What is it?

It is stitched onto linen rather than woven, and is thought to date to within a few years of the 1066 battle.

Opus Anglicanum, a celebrated medieval needlework style used on church textiles, came from which country?

Professional workshops used it to decorate church textiles, and it was exported across Europe.

Crewelwork is decorative stitching done with what kind of yarn?

It is typically worked on linen twill using chain, stem, satin and seed stitches.

In a French seam, what happens to the raw edges of the fabric?

The seam is first sewn wrong sides together at a quarter inch, trimmed to an eighth, pressed and sewn again.

A true flat-felled seam is most often found on which part of a garment?

It is produced on a double-needle machine and shows two parallel rows of stitching from the outside.

Pinking shears cut a zigzag edge. What does this achieve?

The most famous design was patented by Louise Austin in 1893.

Fabric cut on the 'true bias' runs at what angle to the warp and weft?

Cloth is more elastic and fluid in that direction, which Madeleine Vionnet exploited in her 1930s gowns.

Which French couturiere is credited with popularising the bias cut in the 1930s?

She had championed the technique since the 1920s, and it defined the slinky gowns of the era.

The word 'denim' is a contraction of a French phrase meaning serge from which city?

In classic indigo denim only the warp threads are dyed, which is why the inside of your jeans is pale.

Which tailor invented riveted denim trousers in 1873, before partnering with Levi Strauss?

Denim's twill weave produces the diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck.

On which London tailoring street is Henry Poole credited with creating the dinner jacket?

The Beatles moved Apple Corps into number 3 in 1968 and played their rooftop concert there the next January.

Which two judges presided over the first series of The Great British Sewing Bee in 2013?

Esme Young joined in series 4, and Claudia Winkleman presented the first four series.

Which of these is one of the three rounds on The Great British Sewing Bee?

The others are the Pattern Challenge and the Made-to-Measure Challenge.

Project Runway premiered in December 2004 on which network?

Heidi Klum hosted until 2017 with Tim Gunn as mentor; season 4 winner Christian Siriano later took over Gunn's role.

What are the test garments sewn before cutting into the final fabric commonly called?

A couture design may be drafted and refitted dozens of times, taking around 40 hours to reach a final pattern.

A tailor's ham and a seam roll are pressing aids used for what?

A velvet board does a similar specialist job, letting velvet be ironed without crushing its pile.

Which birds sew leaf edges together with plant fibres or spider silk to make nest cavities?

The common tailorbird of Asia belongs to the genus Orthotomus, and some related genera sew as well.

Which sewing technique let traditional Japanese garments be taken apart for laundering?

The tight lockstitch of home sewing machines helped push Japan toward Western-style clothing in the early 20th century.

What 19th-century clamp-on gadget, a popular gift for seamstresses, served as a 'third hand'?

The clamp gripped the fabric taut while both of the seamstress's hands stayed free for the needle and thread.