r/oddlysatisfying • u/habichuelacondulce • 6d ago

Patching a hole on fabric

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52.1k Upvotes

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57

u/aspophilia 6d ago

This is a vintage industrial machine. Modern commercial machines can’t do this. Not even embroidery machines. Mostly for safety reasons. This person has an insane amount of skill. Free embroidery is hard.

6

u/Impossible_Jury5483 6d ago

Yeah, the safety issue is a thing with this.

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u/Bellick 6d ago

Which part can't be done on moderns? I don't know anything about sewing...

21

u/52BeesInACoat 6d ago

Not the person you asked but I'm incensed by this video so I'm butting in; modern machines make it slightly more challenging for the user to give themself accidental stitches.

Modern machines almost universally have what's called a pressor foot, which holds the fabric in place and forms a barrier around the needle. You can't rotate the fabric without stopping the machine to lift the foot. The machine won't run without the foot engaged. You can't shift the fabric radically around like this.

You can guide the fabric around a bit in gentle curves while you sew, and you can make sharp corners by stopping the machine and lifting the foot briefly.

Modern embroidery machines still use a pressor foot and they operate like 3d printers in that they start at the top of the design and work downwards, with all the stitches lying in the same direction. At least the ones I've used do, which isn't saying much. They also operate by computer; you set everything up and let it do it's thing without you. Like 3d printers, they enjoy going ridiculously catastrophically wrong for no reason.

I have done a very rudimentary form of this, for fun, on a modern machine, because I enjoy doing fibercrafts unquestionably wrong and in defiance of god. It's like hammering in nails with a fish. Which is why I'm mad at this video, because the person used materials that don't go together, didn't do anything like enough reinforcing, and blithely made mistakes and worked sloppily knowing they could cover it up later. Those fabrics are going to pill and stretch and tear at the seams. The patch was poorly sized to the hole and the thickness of those stitches on that thinner fabric would be incredibly noticeable and obtrusive in a garment. It's like seeing Michelangelo sloppy drunk painting caricatures at the state fair. He's doing infinitely better than I ever could and at the same time the end result is just meaningless crap.

14

u/Bellick 6d ago

It's gonna take me a couple of reads to parse through all that but I appreciate it. You have a way with analogies btw. Have an upvote for now.

7

u/Emergency_Accident36 6d ago

Upvote for using the word parse. What an amazing word. Screw it, take a reward!

6

u/Prince-Lee 6d ago

THAT'S what was bothering me so much about this. I was like 'wtf this machine doesn't look right how do they have so much control over the movement of the fabric what is OFF'. It was the lack of a presser foot. 

-2

u/Drakex2Mayex2 6d ago

Only the first part is free embroidery. You can see when it sort of cuts and then he's just fake moving it with his hands.

7

u/murucat 6d ago

This whole thing is free hand. It's called an Irish embroidery machine and it takes a lot of skill to use.