Prototype. Chapter text drafted from the research notes and not yet checked at the archives. Images awaiting permission are marked.

Sims Textile Co., "The Chenille Center," Dalton, Ga.: Electric Chenille Machine sheet, yarn price list and "Miscellaneous Information"

Trade catalogue · not yet checked at the source

Made by: Sims Textile Co.
Date: after 1945 (the company was founded in 1945)
Place: Dalton, Georgia
Held by: Bandy Heritage Center, Dalton State College
Collection: Photo: Tuft the World, taken at the Bandy Heritage Center, Dalton State College, Dalton, Georgia. The photograph is yours; the sheets belong to the center, so check its photo policy before publishing outside the database.
Themes: Machine tufting & Dalton, Chenille & candlewick, Trade catalogs & marketing, Tools & equipment

Cited in chapter 4, note 22

Cite this source

Sims Textile Co. “Sims Textile Co., ‘The Chenille Center,’ Dalton, Ga.: Electric Chenille Machine sheet, yarn price list and ‘Miscellaneous Information’,” after 1945 (the company was founded in 1945). Photo: Tuft the World, taken at the Bandy Heritage Center, Dalton State College, Dalton, Georgia. The photograph is yours; the sheets belong to the center, so check its photo policy before publishing outside the database., Bandy Heritage Center, Dalton State College.

Research notes

Seen at the Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia, on the Dalton State campus (https://www.bandyheritagecenter.org/). Three mail-order sheets selling everything needed to start a home chenille business, with a small tufted sample and a yarn tassel. As read from the photo (check against the originals): - "The Electric Chenille Machine Complete With Table and Motor. Ready to plug into your light circuit and operate." A labelled drawing of a sewing-machine head (needle, presser foot, stitch adjuster, yarn tension, chenille yarn on a stand) on a table with motor, clutch and stop-and-start treadle. $150.00 complete, F.O.B. Dalton. - Heads only: 1-needle $75, 2-needle $85, 4-needle $95, 8-needle $100. Complete with table and motor: $150, $160, $170, $180. - Extra needles 15¢ each ($1.75 per dozen); extra "hooks" and "cutters" priced separately. $25 deposit per machine, balance C.O.D. - Yarn list: retail orders of any quantity; wholesale only in 200-lb case lots; direct mill shipments in 75 standard colours, minimum 300 lb per colour, F.O.B. the mill at Carrollton, Ga. - "Miscellaneous Information": advice on mark-up and profits, making good products, and the cost of producing a 1-needle bedspread (sheeting per spread, then a few cents each for tearing, hemming and stamping the pattern). It mentions the highway "Spread Line". Why it matters: shows the post-war home-industry stage, when a household could buy a motorised single- or multi-needle chenille machine by mail and plug it in. This is the bridge between hand tufting and the factory multi-needle machine. Company: per a Dalton business history, Pete Sims started Sims Textile Company in 1945, making single-needle tufting machines and selling yarn, sheeting and a mail-order catalog of bedspread patterns; it later became a warehouse (incorporated 1972). Source: https://www.fsw.cc/?p=873