Cloth stitching apparatus and method

Apparatus for forming finished sewn and hemmed edges around the border of a piece of cloth material utilizing a conventional overlock sewing machine comprising:

• a main housing having a fixed top wall supported by side walls;
• a rotary turntable mounted in said fixed top wall for rotation therewith;
• an overlock sewing machine mounted to said turntable for rotation therewith, said sewing machine having means associated therewith for selectively hemming, stitching and cutting off excess material from a sewn piece of cloth and material;
• motor means operatively coupled to said sewing machine for actuating the same:
• cloth moving means associated with said housing and said turntable for selectively moving a piece of cloth material along X and Y axes over the upper surface of said top wall over to and on the upper surface of said turntable and into a position on said turntable adjacent the sewing machine;
• cloth movement stopping means associated with said housing and said cloth moving means for stopping movement of a piece of cloth material when said piece of cloth material has been stitched by said sewing machine and said stitching is adjacent a corner of the cloth material;
• and
• sewing machine turning means on said housing for turning the sewing machine about said corner of said cloth so that the stitching portion of said sewing machine stitches an arcuate seem about said corner while movement of said cloth material along the upper surface of said turntable is stopped;
• said cloth moving means including means for moving said cloth at a predetermined rate of surface speed across the upper surfaces of said turntable and said top wall and said sewing machine turning means including means for turning said sewing machine at the same predetermined rate of surface speed of said cloth moving means after stopping of said cloth moving means.