Sewing Machine Operator Operate or tend sewing machines to join, reinforce, decorate, or perform related sewing operations in the manufacture of garment or nongarment products.
Sewing Machine Operator is Also Know as
In different settings, Sewing Machine Operator is titled as
- Line Closer
- Machine Operator
- Prototype Sewer
- Sample Maker
- Seamer
- Seamstress
- Sew On Operator
- Sewer
- Sewing Machine Operator
- Zipper Machine Operator
Education and Training of Sewing Machine Operator
Sewing Machine Operator is categorized in Job Zone One: Little or No Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Sewing Machine Operator
Little or no previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, a person can become a waiter or waitress even if he/she has never worked before.
Education Required for Sewing Machine Operator
Some of these occupations may require a high school diploma or GED certificate.
Degrees Related to Sewing Machine Operator
Training Required for Sewing Machine Operator
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few days to a few months of training. Usually, an experienced worker could show you how to do the job.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Sewing Machine Operator in different industries are
- Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders
- Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials
- Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
- Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Sewers, Hand
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers
- Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers
- Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing
- Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers
- Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders
- Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers
- Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Print Binding and Finishing Workers
- Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
What Do Sewing Machine Operator do?
- Monitor machine operation to detect problems such as defective stitching, breaks in thread, or machine malfunctions.
- Position items under needles, using marks on machines, clamps, templates, or cloth as guides.
- Place spools of thread, cord, or other materials on spindles, insert bobbins, and thread ends through machine guides and components.
- Match cloth pieces in correct sequences prior to sewing them, and verify that dye lots and patterns match.
- Guide garments or garment parts under machine needles and presser feet to sew parts together.
- Start and operate or tend machines, such as single or double needle serging and flat-bed felling machines, to automatically join, reinforce, or decorate material or articles.
- Record quantities of materials processed.
- Inspect garments, and examine repair tags and markings on garments to locate defects or damage, and mark errors as necessary.
- Select supplies such as fasteners and thread, according to job requirements.
- Mount attachments, such as needles, cutting blades, or pattern plates, and adjust machine guides according to specifications.
- Cut excess material or thread from finished products.
- Fold or stretch edges or lengths of items while sewing to facilitate forming specified sections.
- Perform equipment maintenance tasks such as replacing needles, sanding rough areas of needles, or cleaning and oiling sewing machines.
- Examine and measure finished articles to verify conformance to standards, using rulers.
- Turn knobs, screws, and dials to adjust settings of machines, according to garment styles and equipment performance.
- Repair or alter items by adding replacement parts or missing stitches.
- Cut materials according to specifications, using blades, scissors, or electric knives.
- Remove holding devices and finished items from machines.
- Position and mark patterns on materials to prepare for sewing.
- Position material or articles in clamps, templates, or hoop frames prior to automatic operation of machines.
- Attach tape, trim, appliques, or elastic to specified garments or garment parts, according to item specifications.
- Perform specialized or automatic sewing machine functions, such as buttonhole making or tacking.
- Attach buttons, hooks, zippers, fasteners, or other accessories to fabric, using feeding hoppers or clamp holders.
- Baste edges of material to align and temporarily secure parts for final assembly.
- Tape or twist together thread or cord to repair breaks.
- Draw markings or pin appliques on fabric to obtain variations in design.
Qualities of Good Sewing Machine Operator
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Tools Used by Sewing Machine Operator
- Ball point bodkins
- Bobbins
- Buttonhole makers
- Clothes pressing irons
- Cutting pads
- Double needle sewing machines
- Drawstring threaders
- Flatbed felling machines
- Fur sewing machines
- Hand sanding blocks
- Hoop frames
- Measuring tapes
- Multi-needle sewing machines
- Pattern plates
- Portable electric fabric cutters
- Programmable sewing machines
- Quilting rulers
- Rotary fabric cutters
- Scissors
- Seam rippers
- Seam rolls
- Sergers
- Serrated pattern tracing wheels
- Sewing awls
- Sewing clamps
- Sewing machine needles
- Single needle sewing machines
- Spindles
- Stitch bonders
- Straight pins
- Tackers
- Transparent rulers
- Utility knives
Technology Skills required for Sewing Machine Operator
- Email software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Word
- Web browser software