US3311979A - Hem marker - Google Patents

Description

April 4, 1967 s. o. ORTHWIN 3,311,979

HEM MARKER Filed April 28, 1965 FIG-l 5 JRRZI INVENTOR. SI DNEY O. ORTHWIN United States Patent G 3,311,979 HEM MARKER Sidney 0. Orthwin, 3665 Seiber Ave., Dayton, Ohio 45405 Filed Apr. 28, 1965, Ser. No. 451,396 Claims. (Cl. 33-9) The present invention relates to a device for use in homes, dress shops and other establishments for marking the hem of a garment, such as a skirt, dress, coat, and the like.

Various types of devices of this kind, commonly called hem markers, have heretofore become known. One type of hem marker for marking the hem line on womens wearing apparel establishes a chalk mark at the desired height on the wearing apparel. Such chalk marks, however, while being easily removed and brushed from many materials are rather difficult to remove from other types of materials. On the other hand, chalk marks are difficult to see on light-colored materials, especially white materials, whereas it is difiicult to completely remove all traces of the chalk marks from dark-colored materials. When a hem line marked by chalk is pressed, the heat may seal the chalk in the material, and sometimes it is totally impossible to remove the chalk from the material.

Another type of hem marker which is well known and widely used consists of a stand placed on the floor which stand supports a ruler having an adjustable slide member thereon adapted to be arrested in any desired position in conformity with the height of the hem to be marked. This slide member comprises an integral head and an anvil in form of a lever pivotally connected to said slide membet and adapted together with said head to receive therebetween and fold a garment section on which a hem line is to be marked. The said head and the adjacent anvil portion are provided with guiding means which together confine a definite passage for a pin used for pinning a hem line so as to assure that each pin introduced through said passage into the fabric of the respective garment will be perfectly horizontal and thus make a straight hem line. A hem marker of this type enables any unskilled person in a fool-proof manner to mark a perfectly straight hem line. After the hem line has been pinned on the respective garment, the garment is folded along the marked line and pressed. However, before the hem line can be pressed, it is necessary to remove the pins.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention further to improve a hem marker of the last-mentioned type so as further to facilitate the hem marking operation.

It is another object of this invention to provide a hem marker which will enable any unskilled person to mark a perfectly straight hem line without the aid of pins.

Still another object of this invention consists in the provision of a hem marker which will permit any unskilled person to mark a hem line with the aid of needle and thread to thereby do away with the heretofore necessary operation of withdrawing the pins prior to the pressing operation.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved hem marker which will permit any unskilled person selectively to mark a hem line with thread or with pins.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side view of a hem marker according to the present invention with the clamping lever in nonclamping position;

FIGURE 2 is an isometric view of the upper portion of the hem marker of FIGURE 1 but with the clamping lever in clamping position;

ice

FIGURE 3 is a section taken along the line III-III of FIGURE 2 with a thread passed through the device;

FIGURE 4 is a section similar to that of FIGURE 3 but with the thread passed through the: device in clampedin position;

FIGURE 5 is a section taken along the line V--V of FIGURE 2 with the needle and a portion of the thread passed through the device and a fabric;

FIGURE 6 shows an exploded view of the elements making up the thread cutting device of the hem marker shown in FIGURES 1 and 2;

FIGURE 7 illustrates a piece of fabric with a hem line indicating thread passed therethrough in conformity with the present invention.

The hem marker according to the present invention differs from the above-outlined heretofore known hem marker employing pins in that, while making use of a guiding passage which will permit the passing of a needle and thread therethrough, it has a thread cutting member and is provided with thread holding means for holding the trailing end of the thread the front portion of which has been passed through said guiding passage, so that another portion of the thread which has been passed through said guiding passage can be cut by the thread cutting member.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, the hem marker according to the present invention comp-rises a stand generally designated 1 which is composed primarily of a base 2 and a vertical height indicating member, for instance a ruler 3, connected to said base. Base 2 may be of any desired type, for instance, it may be a three-legged base, while the height indicating member may be provided with any desired markings, for instance inches and subdivisions thereof, or may be provided with indices of the metric system. Adjustably mounted on said height indicating member 3 is a sliding member 4 adapted to slide upwardly and downwardly on said member 3. Sliding member 4 has a front portion 4a, side portions 4b for engagement with the side surfaces 3a of height indicating member 3, and also a tongue portion 4c (see FIG. 2) which extends along the back side of height indicating member 3 and ends in an ear 4a. Front portion 4a of sliding member 4 has an ear 4e opposite ear 4d. Sliding member 4 may be held in any adjusted position by a screw 5, passed through ears 4d and ie, and a wing nut 6 threaded on said screw 5. It will be appreciated that when wing nut 6 is tightened, sliding member 4 will be clamped to the height indicating member 3.

The upper end of sliding member 4 has an anvil 7 which is W'shaped in cross-section (see FIG. 2) and has two horizontally aligned grooves 8 for a purpose to be referred to later. Sliding member 4 has near its lower end at both sides thereof forwardly protruding ears 4 through which extends a pin 9 pivotally supporting a lever It) with a head 10a at the upper end thereof. Said head 10a is of a W-shaped cross-section corresponding to that of anvil 7 so that when lever 10 is pivoted in the direction of the arrow A of FIG. 1, head 10a will nest in anvil 7. Head 10a is provided with an ovalshaped opening 11, a groove 12 horizontally aligned with opening 11, and a cutout 13 horizontally aligned with said groove 12 and oval opening 11. The location of opening 11, groove 12 and cutout opening 13 is such that when lever it! is pivoted in the direction of the arrow A so that lever head 10a engages anvil 7, the grooves 8' and anvil 7 will be in horizontal alignment with the parts 11, 12 and 13 of lever head 10a so that together they will confine :a horizontal passage which will guide a pin or a needle to be passed therethrough. Slidably mounted on lever 10 is a slide 14 which is guided on lever 10 in any convenient manner, for instance by cars 15. To facilitate the guiding of slide 14 on lever 10, it is advantageous to design the lever so that it has a W-shaped cross-section throughout its length, and to design slide 14 likewise so that it has a W-shaped cross-section along its length which matches the W-shaped cross-section of lever 10.

The upper end of slide 14 has at its left-hand side (with regard to FIGS. 2 and 6) a lateral protrusion 16 to which is connected a cutting arrangement generally designated 17. This cutting arrangement comprises the cutting blade proper 18 which has a vertical oblong slot 19 therein. The cutting arrangement furthermore comprises a guard 20 with one or more openings 21 therein to permit the use of fastening means such as one or more screws for fastening guard 20 to protrusion 16 with cutting blade 18 therebetween. To this end, protrusion 16 is provided with threaded bores 16a which are located within the range of slot 19. The distance between bores 21 in guard 20 will, of course, correspond to the distance between bores 16a. Guard 20 is mounted over blade 18 while screws 22 are passed through openings 21 and slot 19 and are threaded into bores 16a so as to firmly hold the members 20 and 18 on lateral protrusion or projection 16. Blade 18 has, of course, a width such that its cutting edge will protrude below the valley portions of cutouts 20a of guard 20 but will not protrude beyond the peaks or adjacent left-hand edge (with regard to FIGS. 2 and 6) of guard 20.

A cutting arrangement as just described has the advantage that blade 18 can be turned end for end so as to fully exploit the entire length of its edge if one edge portion should become dull. However, it is to be understood that if desired, the left-hand edge (with regard to FIGS. 2 and 6) of protrusion 16, as far as it is covered by guard 20, may form a cutting edge 160, in which instance a separate blade, i.e. blade 18, will not be necessary.

Slide 14 has its upper right-hand portion (with regard to FIGS. 1 and 6) provided with a further lateral projection 23 for cooperation with the upper right-hand portion of lever 10. As will be seen from FIG. 4, lever has its upper end portion provided with an abutment 24 which may be formed, for instance by lancing. This abutment, which limits the upward movement of slide 14, has a purpose which will become apparent further below. When lever 10 is in its non-clamping position shown in FIG. 1, slide 14 will, due to its own gravity, have slid downwardly so that its lower edge will rest on edge 25 of bracket 26 connected to the lower end of lever 10 and penetrated by pin 9. Slide 14 may selectively be moved upwardly toward abutment 24 on lever 10 when the latter is in its clamping position so as to lock the trailing end of a thread passed through anvil 7 and head 10, between said abutment and the upper edge of protrusion 23, as shown in FIG. 4. However, as will be evident from FIG. 4, the trailing end section T1 of thread T is also clamped between the upper inner face section of slide 14 and the upper outwardly facing section of lever 10. Therefore, abutment 24 is not necessary under all circumstances for clamping and holding thread section T1.

For purposes of facilitating the grasping and moving of slide 14, the latter may be provided with bores 27 (FIG. 2) into which a finger or the nail of a finger may press so as to get a firm hold on said slide.

Operation The operation of a hem marker according to the present invention is as follows: It may be assumed that a skirt 28 is to be marked with a hem line at the level 29. To this end hem marker 1 is placed on the floor, and sliding member 4 is adjusted in such a way that notches 8 will be at the level of the hem line 29 to be marked, while slide 14 is in its lower position as shown in FIG. 1. After anvil 7 has been brought into close engagement with skirt 28, lever 10 is pivoted in the direction of the arrow A so that its upper portion of W-shaped crosssection engages and presses the respective adjacent skirt portion into anvil 7. While lever 10 is held in this position with one hand of the person using the hem marker, the other hand of said person then passes a needle 30 with thread T through the passage confined by opening 11, grooves 8, notches 12, and cutout opening 13 as shown in FIG. 5, so that the needle 30 pulls the thread through the respective skirt material. The thread is preferably threaded through the eye of the needle in such a way that one thread section is shorter than the other. The needle is passed through said passage to such an extent that a short end of the longer thread section, for instance from /4" to /2", remains outside the oval opening 11. Thereupon slide 14 is moved upwardly so as to cover the oval opening 11 thereby clamping and holding the trailing end of the longer thread between protrusion 23 and the adjacent upper end portion of lever 10. It will be appreciated that with the particular arrangement shown in the drawing, slide 14 will be moved upwardly until it is stopped by abutment 24. However, as mentioned above, abutment 24 is not, under all circumstances, necessary.

When the said trailing thread section has thus been clamped and is being held fast, needle 30 is moved toward the right (with regard to FIG. 2) of slide 14 in such a way that the longer thread section extending from the cutout opening 13 will be pressed against the cutting edge 18a of blade 18 and will be cut thereby. The person operating the hem marker then releases slide 14, whereupon the latter, due to its own weight, drops to its downward position, and lever 10 pivots outwardly, likewise by its own weight, into non-clamping position. In this way, a thread section will remain in the skirt material precisely where the hem line is to be made. The hem marker is then moved to a new location, and the hem marking operation as described above is repeated.

If no needle and thread are available, or if for other reasons it sufiices to mark a hem line by means of pins, the arrangement according to the present invention likewise permits such operation. The difference over the operation described above, consists merely in that slide 14 is not actuated, in other words, remains in its lower position, and the pins for marking the hem line are inserted in the same way as the needle with thread was passed before. It is to be noted that the pins have to be put through the device so that the head of the pin will be in the opening 11 in order to permit lever 10 to pivot outwardly after the pins have been inserted.

It is, of course, to be understood that the present invention is, by no means, limited to the particular construction shown in the drawings, but also comprises any modifications within the scope of the appended claims. 'Thus, the cross-sectional shape of anvil 7 and the head 10a cooperating therewith is by no means limited to a W- shape but may be of V-shape, as disclosed, for instance, in my Patent No. 2,446,319, or may be of any other corrugated shape.

What I claim is:

1. A hem marker, which comprises: a stand adapted in its effective position to be placed on a floor and including a height indicating means extending in upright direction when said marker is in effective position, a first slide slidably mounted on said height indicating means and adapted to be arrested thereon in any adjusted position, said slide having a corrugated anvil, lever means having one end portion thereof pivotally connected to said slide at a portion thereof vertically spaced below said anvil when said marker is in its effective position, said lever means having its other end portion corrugated in conformity with said anvil for cooperation therewith, said lever means being pivotable toward said anvil so as to fold and clamp therebetween a fabric placed between said anvil and said corrugated other end portion of said lever means, said anvil and said other end portion of said lever means being provided with guiding means forming a substantially horizontal needle guiding channel when said earners lever means is in its fabric clamping position, a second slide slidably mounted on said lever means and provided with clamping means operable to clamp a thread between said second slide and said lever, means in the vicinity of said guiding channel, and cutting means supported by said second slide in spaced relationship to said clamping means for cutting a thread passed through said channel.

2. A hem marker according to claim 1, in which said anvil and said lever means and said second slide have a substantially W-shaped cross-section.

3. A hem marker according to claim it, in which said second slide is provided with cutout means for engagement with a finger to facilitate manual sliding and hold ing of said second slide.

d. A hem marker, which comprises: a stand adapted to be placed on the door and including an upright height indicating member, a first slide slidably mounted on said height indicating member, said slide having a corrugated arresting said slide in a desired adjusted position on said height indicating member, said slide having a corrugated anvil at its upper portion, lever means including two lateral edges having its lower end portion pivotally connected to said slide and having its upper end portion corrugated in conformity with said anvil for cooperation therewith, said lever means being pivotable toward said anvil so as to fold and clamp therebetween a fabric placed between said anvil and said upper end portion of said lever means, said anvil and said upper end portion respectively being provided with first and second passage means extending at substantially the same level when a fabric is clamped between said anvil and said upper end portion of said lever means and extending substantially horizontally when said height indicating member is in its substantially vertical position to thereby provide a substantially horizontal guiding channel through which a needle with a thread is to be passed, said channel having an inlet near one lateral edge of said lever means and an outlet near the other lateral edge of said lever means, abutment means arranged near said one edge and on the upper end portion of said lever means when viewing the latter with the height indicating member in its upright position, a second slide slidable on said first slide and having clamping means thereon movable toward said abutment means for clamping therebetween a thread portion protruding from said needle guiding channel and pertaining to a thread passed through said channel by means of a needle, and cutting means arranged near said opposite edge for cutting off a thread passed through said channel and deflected toward said cutting means.

5. A hem marker which comprises: a stand adapted to be placed on a floor for placing said marker in its effective position, said stand including a ruler occupying an upright position when said hem marker is in its effective position, a first slide slidable on said ruler and having one and provided with a corrugated anvil, said anvil forming the upper end of said slide when said ruler is in its upright position, lever means having one end pivotally connected to said first slide at a portion thereof which is vertically spaced from and at a lower level than said anvil when said ruler is in its upright position, said lever means having another end which is corrugated for cooperation with said anvil and being adapted to clamp a fabric between said corrugated end portion and said anvil while holding said fabric, said anvil being provided with first guiding channel means extending in substantially horizontal direction when said ruler is in its upright position, said corrugated end portion being provided with second guiding channel means substantially parallel to said first guiding channel means and including an oval opening at one side and a notch on the other side, said second channel means being substantially at the same level as said first channel means when said lever means is in its fabric clamping position, a second slide slidably mounted on said lever means and operable to clamp between said lever and said second slide a thread which protrudes from said oval opening, and cutting means supported by said second slide and movable to a position near said notch for cutting off a thread passed through said notch and deflected toward said cutting means.

6. A hem marker according to claim 5, in which said cutting means includes guard means and a cutting blade interposed between said second slide and said guard means.

7. A hem marker according to claim 6, in which said blade is adjustable relative to said guard means.

8. A hem marker according to claim 5, in which said lever means is provided with abutment means for limiting the maximum sliding movement of said second slide.

9. A hem marker, which comprises: a stand adapted in its eifective position to be placed on a floor and including a height indicating means extending in upright direction when said marker is in effective position, a first slide slidably mounted on said hei ht indicating means and adapted to be arrested thereon in any adjusted position, said slide having a corrugated anvil, .lever means having one end portion thereof pivotally connected to said slide at a portion thereof vertically spaced below said anvil when said marker is in its effective position, said lever means having its other end portion corrugated in conformity with said anvil for cooperation therewith, said lever means being pivotable toward said anvil so as to fold and clamp therebetween a fabric placed between said anvil and said corrugated other end portion of said lever means, said anvil and said other end portion of said lever means being provided with guiding means forming a substantially horizontal needle guiding channel when said lever means is in its fabric clamping position, and a second slide slidably mounted on said lever means and provided with clamping means operable to clamp a thread between said second slide and said lever means, said second slide being provided with a cutting edge arranged in spaced relationship to said clamping means for cutting a thread passed through said channel.

in. A hem marker, which comprises: a stand adapted in its elfective position to be placed on a floor and including height indicating means extending in upright direction when said marker is in effective position, a first slide slidably mounted on said height indicating means and adapted to be arrested thereon in any adjusted position, said slide having a corrugated anvil, lever means having one end portion thereof pivotally connected to said slide at a portion thereof vertically spaced below said anvil when said marker is in its effective position, said lever means having its other end portion corrugated in conformity with said anvil for cooperation therewith, said lever means being pivotable toward said anvil so as to fold and clamp therebetween a fabric placed between said anvil and said corrugated other end portion of said lever means, said anvil and said other end portion of said lever means being provided with guiding means forming a substantially horizontal needle guiding channel when said lever means is in its fabric clamping position, the other end portion of said lever means being provided with abutment means, a second slide slidably mounted on said lever means and provided with clamping means movable toward said abutment means for clamping a thread between said second slide and said abutment means, and cutting means supported by said second slide in spaced relationship to said clamping means for cutting a thread passed through said channel.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,446,319 8/1948 Orthwin 33-9 2,502,287 3/1950 Stewart 33-40 3,122,834 3/1964 Bukovsky 33--9 LEONARD FORMAN, Primary Examiner.

L. ANDERSON, Assistant Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. 5. A HEM MARKER WHICH COMPRISES: A STAND ADAPTED TO BE PLACED ON A FLOOR FOR PLACING SAID MARKER IN ITS EFFECTIVE POSITION, SAID STAND INCLUDING A RULER OCCUPYING AN UPRIGHT POSITION WHEN SAID HEM MARKER IS IN ITS EFFECTIVE POSITION, A FIRST SLIDE SLIDABLE ON SAID RULER AND HAVING ONE AND PROVIDED WITH A CORRUGATED ANVIL, SAID ANVIL FORMING THE UPPER END OF SAID SLIDE WHEN SAID RULER IS IN ITS UPRIGHT POSITION, LEVER MEANS HAVING ONE END PIVOTALLY CONNECTED TO SAID FIRST SLIDE AT A PORTION THEREOF WHICH IS VERTICALLY SPACED FROM AND AT A LOWER LEVEL THAN SAID ANVIL WHEN SAID RULER IS IN ITS UPRIGHT POSITION, SAID LEVER MEANS HAVING ANOTHER END WHICH IS CORRUGATED FOR COOPERATION WITH SAID ANVIL AND BEING ADAPTED TO CLAMP A FABRIC BETWEEN SAID CORRUGATED END PORTION AND SAID ANVIL WHILE HOLDING SAID FABRIC, SAID ANVIL BEING PROVIDED WITH FIRST GUIDING CHANNEL MEANS EXTENDING IN SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL DIRECTION WHEN SAID RULER IS IN ITS UPRIGHT POSI-

Images