Abstract: A sewing-material holder for an automatic sewing machine and its method of operation. Two or more sewing-material parts to be sewn, once they have been aligned, can be reliably clamped together and not inadvertently displaced when they are clamped. The upper plate of the sewing-material holder closes over the lower plate by first swinging about an axis of rotation and then lowering vertically. The upper plate of the sewing-material holder is thereby lowered into a position where it contacts a large area of the workpiece which has been placed and aligned on the lower plate, so that uniform clamping takes place instantaneously. The sewing-material holder is advantageously adaptable to being closed automatically, and furthermore is easier to operate even if this is done non-automatically, so that the throughput times are shortened.