There are so many parts of a sewing machine that all come together to make sewing possible, some parts you’ll automatically use each time you sew like the hand wheel to lift the needle and ...

The nuanced movements required in hand sewing, like the eyes on my doll demanded, represent the most critical design problem of the early sewing machine: what parts should and shouldn’t move.

First, he shows the intrinsic problem: sewing by hand requires you to reverse the direction of the needle, and it isn’t clear how to make a simple machine to do that.

The sewing upon a gentleman's shirt can be accomplished with ease in one hour upon a first-class sewing machine. It would take 14 hours of close and weary application to do the same by hand.