Abstract: A conventional ruffling machine, which contemporaneously receives a forwardly moving strip of base material (a.k.a. dust ruffle platform) and an overlying flat faster moving strip of stock material to be ruffled, whch progressively forms a succession of ruffles in said ruffling stock material along a given line and which immediately sews the ruffles to the base material, is provided with one or more (length or speed) measuring rolls engaged with and rotated by said fast moving ruffling material and an indicator actuatable by at least one roll and operative, when actuated, to indicate the actual (length or speed) ratio, between a given length of ruffling material fed rapidly to said machine and the corresponding smaller length of sewn ruffled material delivered more slowly from said machine, and its relationship to a desired ratio.

Abstract: An improved thread-tensioning mechanism for the stop motion means of a multi-needle machine of a well known type wherein each needle thread, in extending from its supply spool to its needle, normally travels through a thread-tensioning section at a speed and tension which varies in proportion to its rate of variable usage within a given operating or usage range. Its tension variations are sensed by a sag sensor that shuts down the machine when the tension falls below said given range. In our improved thread-tensioning mechanism, a group of independently rotatable idler wheels is provided, one for each needle thread of a corresponding group of individual threads. The periphery of each idler wheel gravitationally engages and presses its needle thread against the periphery of a rotating shaft common to all wheels. Through this engagement, each wheel is rotated by and at the varying speed of its thread.