Union Special for lapped seam sewing VOL.1

We’d like to introduce the vintage sewing machines that TCB owns and uses and the sewing techniques used on our products.

For our first episode of the sewing machine explanation, we'd like to talk about the lapped seam sewing machine: Union Special 35800G.

When sewing the back yoke on jeans or armholes on jean jackets, we use Union Special 35800 from the 50’s in which two fabrics are overlapped and on top of the overlapped part the needles go in and out. TCB owns 6 of this sewing machines with each seaming width set for a different width: 1/4, 9/32, and 5/16 inches. If you put them into mm, it’s 6, 7, and 8 mm as you might find there being no big difference but when you look at the product in person, the seaming width does make a big difference. Therefore, we use the same machine with a different setting, depending on which vintage we give a birth to again in this world. 

This sewing machine is used only for the lapped seam method. Back in those days, in order to increase the production efficiency to the fullest, each production procedure used to be separated and each sewing machines got streamlined for each process. That’s why these sewing machines were developed even though they were not versatile at all.

Then, why do we still need to make jeans with the vintage machines?

One of the reasons is attributed to the difference in the threads used.

When these Union Special machines were used, cotton threads are the majority one used for any clothing production. Nowadays, chemical fiber yarns are definitely the major one which is so thin, durable and smooth enough for the sewing that the sewing machines are not really required for any strong machine power.

On the other hand, the cotton yarns are weak so the yarn count needs to be bigger and they are not smooth because the spinning method was not fully developed. All of those reasons led to that the sewing machines themselves needed to be powerful enough to sew the thick and hard denim fabric.

Therefore, the unique puckering on the hems or the back yoke are brought to our jeans all thanks to the sewing methods, the threads and the sewing machines used back in the era, which is also what TCB does want to recreate and make as a company.   

Thanks for reading!