Did You Know
DID YOU KNOW?
Sewing machine accessories, like the machines themselves, had their successes and failures. One gadget that never quite caught on was a musical sewing machine cover, patented in 1882, that held a player-piano roll and was run by treadle power. The treadle also activated a sewing machine fan patented in the 1870's and marketed for a dollar. It must have constituted the greatest advance toward summer sewing comfort since the invention of lemonade.Among the wackier devices was one that actually was used in the 19th Century England - that is until the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals stepped in. It was a sewing machine powered by small leashed dogs on a kind of treadmill!
Thomas Edison supposedly invented another sewing machine - though his biography discreetly makes no mention of it- that worked on voice power; a membrane mounted level with the operator's mouth transformed sound waves into energy. The principle itself was valid, but Edison-who was deaf-overestimated women's ability to keep talking! Imagine that! :)
Believe it or not - one pair of scissors invented in France, boasted 18 different uses besides being a sewing accessory! It supposedly served, among other things, as a straight edge and ruler, a nail file, screw driver, a pen knife, a glass cutter, a wire cutter, an ink eraser, a pattern perforator and a cigar clipper-presumably for the rare seamstress who enjoyed a cigar while she sewed! :)
Source: The Art of Sewing, Shortcuts to Elegance, Time-Life Books
Are you unsure which is the lengthwise and crosswise grain of the fabric? The way to tell is to let the fabric "sing" to you. Here's how: Place one edge of the fabric in each hand with some slack in the fabric. Pull the fabric taut. It will make a sound. Listen to the pitch of that sound. Now repeat in the other direction. You will notice a difference in the pitch of the sound. The higher pitch is the lengthwise grain, the lower pitch is the crosswise grain.
Source: Patsy Shields from Sulky of America
Here is an actual label instruction on the packaging for a Rowenta Iron: "Do not iron clothes on body." Oh, come on now!!