Women have amazing hand eye coordination examples making shoulder seams 2per Garment 250 doz garments in 8 hours,setting collars 130 doz in 8 hours,setting sleeves (2)80 doz,set pockets 80 dozen in 8 hours.Hemming bottom of dress 100 doz in 8 hours. YES it all averages at 25 pieces per minute and more ! button holes 100 doz in 3 hours with 5 holes per dress,button sewer the same ..they were fast machines She never touched the button ..dropped a 500 box of buttons into a hopper ,they get turned right side up and automatically slide down a chute ,all she does is press a petal and line things up…
I always had the fastest machines available..strength was not a factor ,just “good hands”…women were 50 % faster than men…The fastest women were Italian,Portuguese,Cuban…Blacks were great button Hole and button sewers ..their hands were too big for fine work like Collars ,pockets…..My skill was matching the employee to with the job..people are very different…sometimes a job required a “crazy” person to do a “crazy job” example I had a girl that sewed a round collar all the way around without stopping at 1/4 inch seam . making 100 doz in 8 hours …boy could she focus ,she was slightly autistic …..average person couldent do that …The trick is matching each person to each job ,I could tell who could do what by looking at their handwritting when they filled out an application ! Yes I could !
The machines were just as amazing sewing SINGER 3000 -5000 Union Special 3000 stitches a minute and one machine made by Rimoldi in Italy sewed 8000 stitches per minute .and I would change the pully on each machine to the fastest speed that the women could handle ,sometimes I slowed it down to match the skill of the women …too fast causes errors ..