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Title: Sewing
Original Title: Coudre
Volume and Page: Vol. 4 (1754), p. 323
Author: Denis Diderot (biography)
Translator: Audra Merfeld-Langston [Missouri University of Science and Technology]; Rachael McClaskey [Missouri University of Science and Technology, rnmd2r@umsystem.edu]
Original Version (ARTFL): Link
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This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction.

URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.231
Citation (MLA): Diderot, Denis. "Sewing." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Audra Merfeld-Langston and Rachael McClaskey. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2021. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.231>. Trans. of "Coudre," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 4. Paris, 1754.
Citation (Chicago): Diderot, Denis. "Sewing." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Audra Merfeld-Langston and Rachael McClaskey. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.231 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Coudre," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 4:323 (Paris, 1754).

Sewing is assembling two materials that can be pierced, either with a needle, or with an awl or punch, using thread, or some other analogous material, with which the needle is threaded, and that follows the needle through the holes that it makes in the materials being assembled, or that are passed through the holes made with an awl or other similar instrument. Tailors sew with a needle threaded with thread or silk. Upholsterers use a needle with silk or wool. Gut string makers use a needle threaded with gut strings. [1] Shoemakers, bootmakers, etc., use a punch, awl, and waxed thread. Waxed thread is reinforced at its end with a bristle from a boar or pig that is passed easily through the holes that the instrument point made and that the waxed thread must follow when it is pulled. One can also sew with brass wire.

1. See Plate I: Gut string maker.