Hand Stitching vs Machine Work

Why should anyone care?

I love my sewing machine. For much of our history, fabric work was women’s work and the work of enslaved people, and it was all done by hand until sewing machines were invented. They were officially invented in 1790, and were improved relatively quickly then began to be mass produced. In 1856 Singer introduced one that was designed for domestic use, although pricey, they allowed people to pay on credit. Here’s a really cool article also mentioning how doctors would suggest that sewing machines for women would interfere with their capacity to bear children. (Lies just meant to keep women “in line” are not a new thing, y’all.)

In the quilting world there is not quite controversy, but we do have our preferences when it comes to when or if we use our machines for piecing¹ , quilting, or to sew on and/or close the binding on a quilt. Some quilters look down on others that choose to use machines for their work, for whatever bullshit reason (tradition and our capacity to bear children I guess), and some quilters like Tula Pink do a lot of hand piecing just because she’s really fast with it and prefers it but she doesn’t judge others! I use my machine from start to finish, and I’m not ashamed.

Sewing machines are tools.

Let me break it down. We maintain our machines, we select our thread, wind our bobbins, pick a type of stitch (if applicable on your machine), pick a stich length², fiddle with the tension until it’s just right, guide our fabric through the designated area at the desired seam allowance³. If we make a mistake or something isn’t right, we seam rip and fix the issue. We say some bad words and maybe abandon the project for a while until we’re mentally ready to get back into the stitch-uation. The most important thing is that sewing machines are designed to do specific things and we know the end product each time. We are in control, humans as flawed and petty and everything that we are are in control of every aspect.

Fuck AI, and fuck the concept that AI “is just a tool.” From evil CEOs, to the methods which it is “trained”, to people putting out slop for profit, to fake videos of people being made in their images without consent, to people losing their minds to it, destruction of books to “train” it, and of course to the environmental impacts. AI can not revolutionize our way of life in anyway close to what the real tool sewing machine has done.

I can hear some of you now, but what if it can cure cancer? Guess what? There are dozens of types of cancers and they all have different types of treatment with differing levels of effectiveness. And there’s a possibility that those in charge of AI companies don’t want all cancers cured, also I’m not going into any rabbit holes on cancer today, so please don’t comment about it at all.

I know that the garment industry is rife with modern slavery and the toxic effects of clothing dyes, the ever increasing levels of microplastics from polyester and poly-blend fabrics, but we can still change that. We have the power to slow that shit down, just like our plastic use. There are already so many things bombarding our environment, the creation of AI is like a poor family with six kids suddenly birthing triplets also these triplets are homicidal and born with a full set of teeth.

1. Piecing (as it pertains to quilting) is the act of sewing together pieces of fabric to create blocks, and sewing blocks together in the quilt top making process. Source- https://thequiltshow.com/quiltipedia/what-is-piecing

2. Literally the length if stich, from hole to hole. ;)

3. The distance from the edge of the fabric to the thread of the stitch.