Ross of Ottawa

There are machines these days that make creating sewn patches as easy as using an inkjet printer, but when they created #NASA mission patches in the 1950s and 60s how were they made?

Can't imagine they were hand sewn – tedious but possible. Likely some sort of punch card system? Would like to see the machine.

#missionPatch #sewing #askfedi

Jan 9, 2025 at 2:22pmTusky
Show threadRoss of OttawaJan 9, 2025

I can see pics of machines that look like this, but this feels like maybe '70s or '80s or to me.

Shown here is the business end of the embroidery machine. I'm wondering more about the data input and control in that era. What was the pattern format, I wonder, in this and in earlier versions?

#embroidery #askfedi

Show threadLANJan 10, 2025

@ottaross I have always stuck to hand embroidery, but I remember an acquaintance of mine showing me her business' fancy embroidery machine using punch cards.
They looked similar to the ones shown in this article: https://www.kreationsbykara.com/why-do-colors-come-in-looking-funny-on-dst-and-other-embroidery-files/

There's also a video here using a different system: https://youtu.be/sAc07ATNvhI
I've never seen that one outside a museum.

Why do colors come in looking funny on DST (and other) embroidery files? Machine Embroidery Designs Kreations by Kara Embroidery Designs

This is a great question and has a really fun technical answer! The short answer is that DST files, and some of the other embroidery files are very old file formats. As such, they don’t have the same amount of information in them that the newer embroidery file formats have. Let me explain, this is ...

Kreations by Kara Embroidery Designs
Show threadRoss of OttawaJan 10, 2025
@lan aha! That is informative. Thanks for passing that along!
Show threadJay BaltzJan 9, 2025
@ottaross I don’t know the answer but that type of patch was very common back then when I was a kid. There must have been companies that specialized in making them.
Show threadRoss of OttawaJan 9, 2025
@jaybaltz Indeed - you'd see them on hats a lot of course too. Must've been cheap and common, not specialty NASA hardware.
Show threadSarah E BourneJan 10, 2025
@ottaross @jaybaltz Girl and Boy Scout merit badges come to mind - they've been around forever.
Show threadJay BaltzJan 10, 2025
@sbourne @ottaross I was thinking of them too!
Show threadMamiyaMan 🇨🇦 🇺🇦Jan 9, 2025
@ottaross
Show threadRoss of OttawaJan 9, 2025
@mamiyaman deep thoughts.
Show threadFreeman CrouchJan 9, 2025
@ottaross really good question -- and Mr Internet isn't giving a great answer. It appears there were hand operated embroidery machines and this was kind of a standard way to do US military patches, but exactly what the machines were like isn't clear on a cursory web search.
Show threadRoss of OttawaJan 9, 2025

@freemancrouch Yeah did a bit of duck-searching too, and don't see much.

Were probably all just simple designs and done by hand when you go back 100yrs, but there must've been some later, automated way to make 100 police, military or trucking-company patches.

Show threadFreeman CrouchJan 9, 2025
@ottaross They may literally have been made on jacquard looms in some cases. Those were in service in some places until amazingly late in the day, like 1960 or something.
Show threadRoss of OttawaJan 9, 2025
@freemancrouch Perhaps. The Jacquard punch-card precursors to early computers must've kept evolving in parallel too. Maybe there were embroidery versions later on.
Show threadWasted RadianceJan 10, 2025

@ottaross

"…as easy as using an inkjet printer…" Guys, I think he's an alien spying on us (and not doing a very good job, apparently). /j

I would like to know more about these patches, though. /srs

Show threadRoss of OttawaJan 10, 2025
@WastedRadiance 😂.
Those patches are a screen shot of the NASA "mission patches" page. If you search on their website or do a duck-search for 'NASA mission patches" you'll get directly to that page. :)