Love Your Sewing Machine!

Today we're celebrating National Sewing Machine Day! 

(read why below in the fun facts)

Fun facts about sewing machines:

• When sewing machines were introduced to the public, "lady demonstrators were hired to disprove suggestions that women were too fluffy and incompetent to work a machine." (source)
• Sewing machines were first mass produced in the 1850s. (source)
• Sewing machines introduced Americans to the concept of installment plans, as the price of the first machines produced was approximately $75. (source)
• "In 1790, that the first workable sewing machine was invented and patented by the British inventor Thomas Saint. Earlier, in 1755, Karl Weisenthal, a German inventor, devised the first sewing macine needle, but did not produce a complete machine. Saint's machine, which was designed to sew leather and canvas, mainly on boots, used only a single thread and formed a chain stitch." (source)
• American Walter Hunt designed a double-thread sewing machine in 1834 but  "abandoned the project, convinced that his invention would throw impoverished seamstresses out of work." (source)
• Elias Howe was granted a patent for his sewing machine design on September 10, 1846 (which is why we are celebrating today, 167 years later!). (source)

Share your sewing machine love! Head over to our Facebook page and post a photo of your sewing machine.

For more in-depth information on the history of sewing machines, check out these links:
Museum of American Heritage
Machine History
Cambridge History
About.com
Wikipedia (neat animations that show how sewing machines work)
History Today