Seminole Patchwork

 

 

Here is my good friend Julia of Basya Berkman Vintage.  She usually is behind the camera photographing her models, but this time, I took the camera and photographed her in this great Seminole skirt.   As an anthropology major way back when who long ago became a quilter and then much more recently took on vintage clothing, mending this skirt was a real treat!

This is a patchwork style created and stitched by the Seminole Indians of Florida.  After the sewing machine and cotton fabrics were introduced to the Seminoles in the late 1800s, they developed their own patchwork technique by the 1920s.

Zig-Zag Sewing Machines

I recently posted about a blouse I repaired, dating to the 1920s or 30s.

I became curious about the dating of the blouse relative to the seam finishing techniques.  They are French seams, finished with a machine zig-zag stitch.  

outside

inside

Davis Vertical Feed Sewing Machines

As I said in the previous post, I've been having a great time looking and reading my way through Janet Finley's book of antique photos, Quilts in Everyday Life.  

Last night, I read about something completely new to me, the Davis vertical feed sewing machine.  The photo in Finley's book shows a mother and her little daughter sitting at a Davis machine with a 4-patch quilt.  Finley dates the photo to 1895-6.  It is labeled by a photo studio in Afton, Iowa.

So I poked around this morning to see what I could learn.  "Vertical feed" means there are no feed dogs.  The fabric is advanced by the action of the needle and presser foot.  The Davis machine was patented and came into production around the same time as the early Elias Howe and Singer machines.  It's touted as being able to sew cleanly without pre-basting, to sew all sorts of various thickness of fabrics including leather very well, etc.  It looks like the company produced machines between 1868 and 1924 or so.  They are treadle machines.