Waist band attachment system

A method of attaching an uninterrupted loop waist band to the waist edge of a shirt body of an approximately tubular garment comprising the steps of:

• placing the waist band about a plurality of support spindles with an edge of the waist band aligned with the sewing path of a sewing machine,
• placing the waist edge of the shirt body of the garment about the waist band with the edge of the shirt body substantially matched with the edge of the waist band and aligned with the sewing path,
• advancing the waist band and the waist edge of the shirt body along the sewing path,
• removing any curl in the edge of the shirt body and the edge of the waist band at a position along the sewing path upstream of the sewing needles of the sewing machine as the waist band and shirt body move toward the sewing needles of the sewing machine,
• after the portion of the waist band and waist edge of the shirt body which have the curl removed therefrom have reached the needles of the sewing machine, initiating the sewing function of the sewing machine to connect the uncurled and matched edges of the waist band and shirt body together, and
• as the waist band and the waist edge of the shirt body are advanced along the sewing path, engaging the shirt body with wheel means and rotating the wheel means to urge the waist edge across the sewing path toward alignment with the sewing path.

A process of connecting edges of curled edge plies of tubular material comprising the steps of:

• placing an edge portion of one ply of material beneath a separator plate in alignment with the sewing path of a sewing machine,
• placing an edge portion of a second ply of material over the separator plate and in alignment with the sewing path of the sewing machine with the edge portions of the plies of material laterally matched with each other and in contact with each other on opposite sides of the separator plate,
• advancing the edge portions of the plies of material about the separator plate and through the sewing path of the sewing machine,
• uncurling any curl in the plies of material at the separator plate as the plies of material pass about the separator plate and toward the sewing machine,
• initiating the sewing together of the edge portions of the plies of material after the plies of material have been uncurled, and
• as the edge portions of the plies of material are advanced through the sewing path, engaging at least one of the plies of material with wheel means and rotating the wheel means in a direction so that the wheel means urges the engaged ply of material toward alignment with the sewing path.

An attachment for a sewing machine for guiding a stretchable loop waist band and the waist of a tubular garment part to the sewing machine comprising:

• spindle means for holding the edges to be connected of the waist band and the tubular garment in side-by-side matched relationship in the sewing path of the sewing machine,
• drive means for moving the matched edges along the sewing path through the sewing machine,
• decurling means positioned in the sewing path upstream of the sewing machine for removing curl from the matched edges of the waist band and the waist edge of the tubular garment as the matched edges move toward the sewing machine,
• means for actuating the sewing function of the sewing machine to sew the matched edges together only after the matched edges of the waist band and tubular garment part have been decurled by the decurling means and have been moved to the sewing machine, and
• guide star wheels positioned adjacent the sewing path for engaging and moving the tubular garment across the sewing path to align the waist edge of the tubular garment with the sewing path.