Industrial Sewing Machine Operator

Works safely at a powered sewing or cutting station: keeps the needle and finger guards in place, keeps hands out of the needle and blade path, knows where the E-stop is, handles and disposes of broken needles and blades correctly, and wears the eye, hand and hearing protection the station calls for.

Sets up the seat, table height, foot control and light at the station to the ergonomic checklist so that a full shift of seated repetitive sewing does not produce hand, wrist, neck and back injury.

Reads the production ticket, style sheet or spec notes that travel with the job to work out which style is running, which operation this station does, and which thread, trim and fasteners to pull for it.

Reads a tape, rule and seam gauge to the sixteenth of an inch and measures the finished article at the points of measure the spec sheet names, so anything outside tolerance is caught at the station rather than downstream.

Tells the shop's materials apart by hand, weight and construction and knows how each one behaves under the needle, including which way it stretches, which way the nap runs, and what needle and thread it wants.

Takes in and stages incoming fabric and leather after the dock check, records the roll and dye-lot identity on the roll tag, and keeps the same shade with the same job so two rolls of one SKU do not get cut into one order.

Rolls the fabric out before it is cut, looks it over for holes, slubs, misweaves, stains and shade bars, checks the face and the direction, and flags what is there so the cut works around it.

Pulls up the marker or pattern set for the style and positions it on the spread so the nap, grain and flow match run the right way and the fabric yield is as good as the marker allows.

Cuts fabric and leather to the marker by hand using a straight knife, round knife, electric shears or scissors, following the line accurately through the full ply depth without pulling the plies out of register.

Tends a computerized fabric or leather cutting table: loads the marker file someone else made, positions and covers the spread, runs the cut through multiple plies, and changes blades and drills when they dull.

Works the bundle queue in a progressive bundle system: takes the next bundle in order, keeps its ticket and coupon with it, verifies the part count before starting, and re-bundles and stages the work for the next operation when the station's job is done.

Gets the cut parts into the right sequence and register before sewing by reading the notches and labels, confirming the dye lot and pattern match across the pieces, and basting or pinning them so they stay lined up for the seam.

Threads the machine correctly: mounts the cone, runs the thread through every guide, tensioner and take-up in the right order, winds and seats the bobbin, and clears a mis-thread or a thread nest.

Fits the machine with the hardware the job calls for, meaning the right needle, presser foot and edge guide or cutting blade, and sets the guides to the specified seam allowance.

Dials the machine in for the material and style by setting stitch length or stitches per inch, thread tension, presser foot pressure, differential feed and speed, then sews a test piece and adjusts until the stitch is right.

Sews the seam: guides the parts under the needle and presser foot along the marked line or seam allowance, easing, folding or stretching the material as needed to make the seam lie right, turns square corners, and clips the threads at the end.

Runs one of the shop's specialty heads at a time, after station training and to a setup someone else prepared, meaning the overlock or serger, double-needle, post-bed, bartack, buttonhole, flat-bed felling or zipper station, and knows what each one is for.

Attaches the trim and hardware the style calls for, meaning tape, binding, elastic, welt or piping, zippers, buttons, snaps, hooks and appliques, placed where the spec says and secured to standard.

Presses and finishes the sewn article with a steam iron or press, opening or setting seams, pressing hems and creases, and using the right heat, steam and cloth for the material so it is not scorched, glazed or shrunk.

Turns the sewn part right side out and checks the seam, the stitching and the piece itself against the workmanship standard, looking for skipped or loose stitches, puckering, pleats, exposed stitching, wrong seam allowance, open seams and damage or stains on the piece; reads the repair tag on anything that came back marked, marks or tags the error found, and tells the supervisor when something is wrong.

Fixes what came back: unpicks and re-sews a rejected seam, replaces missing stitches or a damaged part, and reties or splices broken thread, then re-checks the repair before returning the piece to the queue.

Watches the machine while it runs and catches trouble early, meaning defective stitching, thread breaks, skipped stitches and mechanical noise, then stops, clears the routine fault (a thread nest, a broken needle, a mis-thread), and reports anything beyond that to the supervisor or mechanic.

Does the daily upkeep the machine needs, meaning changing and dressing needles, oiling and greasing on the posted schedule, clearing lint from the hook and bobbin area, and cleaning down the station and the floor at shift end.

Records what the station actually produced, meaning quantities processed, ticket or coupon counts and scrap, accurately and at the time the work happens rather than reconstructed at the end of the shift.

Tends running weaving looms that someone else has warped, tied in and set: operates the assigned looms safely, performs the loom creeler duties (identifying and locating yarns, reading pick cards, checking the filling row, ordering yarn and creeling new warp, tying on with a weaver's knot), and performs the loom doffer duties, doffing the full roll off the loom and emptying the selvedge, trash and lint cans.