Hand sewing is an art form that is over 20,000 years old. The first sewing needles were made from bone or animal horn, and the first stitches were made from animals. The iron needle was invented in the 14th century. The first eyed needle appeared in the 15th century.
The first possible patent related to mechanical sewing was issued in 1755 by the British to Charles Weisenthal of Germany. Weisenthal received a patent for a needle designed for the machine. However, the patent did not describe the rest of the machine. It is unknown whether the machine ever existed.
The first patent for a sewing machine was received in 1790 by Thomas Saint, an English inventor and cabinetmaker. It is unclear whether Saint built a working prototype of his invention. The patent describes an owl that punches holes in leather and passes a needle through the hole. Saint’s invention was later copied based on his patent drawings, but it did not work.

In 1810, German Balthasar Krems invented an automatic machine for sewing hats. Krems did not patent his invention, and it never worked very well.

Austrian tailor Joseph Adelsberg tried several times to invent a sewing machine, and was granted a patent in 1814. All of his efforts were considered failures.

In 1804, a French patent was granted to Thomas Stone and James Henderson for “a machine for imitating hand sewing”. That same year, Scott John Duncan received a patent for a “multi-needle embroidery machine”. Both inventions failed and were quickly forgotten by the public.

In 1818, the first American sewing machine was invented by John Adams Dorge and John Knowles. Their machine failed to sew any useful fabric before breaking down.

The first functional sewing machine was invented by French tailor Barthelemy Thimonnier in 1830. Thimonnier’s machine used only a single thread and a hook, making embroidery with the same chain thread. The inventor was nearly killed by a group of angry French tailors who burned down his clothing factory because they feared they would lose their jobs due to his sewing machine invention.

Walter Hunt built the first (somewhat) successful sewing machine in the United States in 1834. He later lost interest in patenting it because he believed his invention would lead to job losses. (Hunter’s machine could only sew straight steam.Hunter never received a patent, and the first U.S. patent was issued to Elias Howe in 1846 for a “process of using threads from two different sources.”

Elias Howe’s machine had a needle with an eye. The needle was pushed through the cloth and created a loop on the other side; a shuttle on the track then slid a second thread through the loop, creating what is called a lock stitch. However, Elias Howe later had problems defending his patent and marketing his invention.

For the next nine years, Elias Howe struggled, first to get interest in the machine, then to protect his patent from imitators. His locking mechanism was adopted by others who were developing their own innovations. Isaac Singer invented the up-and-down motion mechanism, and Allen Wilson invented the rotating hook shuttle.

Sewing machines did not begin mass production until the 1850s, when Isaac Singer built the first commercially successful machine. Singer Made the first sewing machine where the needle moved up and down, rather than sideways, and a foot-operated wheel powered the needle. Previous machines were hand-operated.

However, Isaac Singer’s machine used the same lock mount that Howe patented. Elias Howe sued Isaac Singer for patent infringement and won in 1854. Walter Hunt’s sewing machine also used a lock stitch, had two bobbins, and an eye-point needle; however, since Hunt abandoned his patent, the court upheld Howe’s patent.

If Hunt had patented his invention, Elias Howe would have lost his case and Isaac Singer would have won. Since he lost, Isaac Singer had to pay Elias Howe’s patent royalties.

Note: In 1844, Englishman John Fisher patented a lace-making machine identical to the one built by Howe and Singer, and would have been part of the patent battle if Fisher’s patent had not been lost at the patent office.

After successfully defending his right to share in the profits of his invention, Elias Howe’s annual income jumped from three hundred dollars a year to over two hundred thousand dollars. Between 1854 and 1867, Howe made nearly two million dollars from his invention. During the Civil War, he donated part of his wealth to equip an infantry regiment for the Union Army and served as a private in the regiment.
Walter Hunt’s 1834 eye-pointed needle sewing machine was later reinvented by Elias Howe of Spencer, Massachusetts, and patented by him in 1846.

Each sewing machine (Walter Hunt’s and Elias Howe’s) had a curved eye-pointed needle that moved through the fabric in an arcing motion; a loop was created on the other side of the structure; a second thread was threaded back and forth through a track that passed through the loop by a shuttle, thus creating a lock stitch.

Elias Howe’s design was copied by Isaac Singer and others, leading to extensive patent litigation. However, a court battle in the 1850s ultimately awarded Elias Howe the patent.

Elias Howe filed a court case against Isaac Merritt Singer, the largest sewing machine manufacturer, for patent infringement. In his defense, Isaac Singer sought to invalidate Howe’s patent by showing that the invention was 20 years old and that Howe should not be able to collect royalties for S’s work from anyone who used S’s design based on S’s.

Since Walter Hunt abandoned his sewing machine without patenting it, Elias Howe’s patent was upheld in an 1854 court decision. Isaac Singer’s machine was also somewhat different from Howe’s. Its needle moved up and down, rather than sideways, and it was powered by a pedal, rather than a hand crank. However, it used the same lockstitching process and a similar needle.

Elias Howe died in 1867, the year his patent expired.

On June 2, 1857, James Gibbs patented the first chain stitch single-thread sewing machine.

Helen Augusta Blanchard (1840-1922) of Portland, Maine, patented the first saw stitch machine in 1873. The saw stitch better sealed the edges of the seams, making garments stronger. Helen Blanchard also patented 28 other inventions, including a hat sewing machine, a surgical needle, and other improvements to sewing machines.

The first mechanical sewing machines were used on clothing factory production lines. It wasn’t until 1889 that a sewing machine for home use was designed and marketed.

By 1905, electric sewing machines were in widespread use.