Single-needle Stitching

[Biggs]

1.  Single-needle stitching versus double-needle stitching for dress shirts.  If what I've read is correct, the easy way to tell is to examine the side seam of the shirt.  Double-stitched will have two parallel stitches running on the outside whereas single-stitched will have one stitch and a fold with the other stitch on the inside of the shirt.  Is that accurate?  Do manufacturers stitch different parts of the shirt together differently?


Be sure to examine both sides of the seams.  On a single-needle seam, one side should have two rows of parallel stitching, while on the other side there should be only one row of stitching.  Most shirtmakers put the side with only one row of stitching on the outside, and the parallel rows on the "inside" area of the seam, but Marol is an exception.  Marol sews single-needle seams, but the parallel rows are on the outside while the single row is on the inside.
On double-needle seams both the inside and the outside will have two parallel rows of stitching.

Can anyone show me some actual pictures?  Thanks.

 

[Alexander Kabbaz]

Do you have a picture you could post of single-needle versus double-needle sewing?

Regretfully, I cannot post a photo because I do not have a normal double needle machine and shirts with double needle seams entering my studio are immediately burned. However, viewed from the outside of the shirt, the seam will appear as follows:

------------------ = Single needle stitch

------------------
------------------ = Double needle stitch

 

[Nonk]

I am not coming to your studio then.

 

[FIHTies]

I am not coming to your studio then. Â

I think they let you take it off before they burn it...

 

[FIHTies]

Single Stitching. Â Note there is almost no puckering on the seam

Double needle stitching, there is puckering on the shirt between the two seems after washing

JJF

 

[Horace]

I like double-needle look for button-down shirts, like some of the old Brooks.

 

[Alexander Kabbaz]

I think they let you take it off before they burn it...

FIH Ties - Think again.

BTW, the puckering does not directly correlate with the presence of the double needle stitching. A good double needle seam, made with the appropriate thread and correct thread tension, will pucker no more than a single needle one. Conversely, a poorly made single needle seam can also pucker. What is the usual downside with most (virtually all) double needle work is that the stitch is a chainstitch rather than a lockstitch. Single needle stitching is invariably lockstitch. An entire chainstitched seam can open if even one link breaks (hence the name) whereas a lockstitch will open only one or two stitch lengths if broken. P.S.: Nice manicure.

 

[leroy]

How is chain-stitch sewing method differentiated from a lock-stitch? Can you provide a simple illustration?

 

[either/or]

Originally Posted by leroy

How is chain-stitch sewing method differentiated from a lock-stitch? Can you provide a simple illustration?
necro-post in case someone finds in here (like me): howstuffworks animations of both. ...and FIHties' pix (damn you imageshack) singlestitch doublestitch