vertically disposed front edge 70 the upper end portion of which terminates at the edge 66 in a corner 73 forming an obtuse angle with edge 66 the lower portion of the front edge 70 terminates at a lower edge 71 which protrudes rearwardly to merge with the front edge of the shank 51 the upper edge of the throat portion or bill supporting 68 is essentially convex at numeral 72 all loopers 50 face the forwardly in the machine that is in a direction opposite to the direction of movement of the backing material 15 this enables the loops 44 44a which are collected on the bill 67 to be pulled inwardly along the bill 54 toward the edge 70 and corner 73 in operation the needles 20 sew yarns 40 through the backing material 15 to form transversely spaced rows of successive chain stitched loops 44 44a in fig4 through 13 the action of a typical needle 20 and looper 50 is depicted for producing the chain stitch for a single longstiched row of tufts in fig4 through 7 looper 50 is in its forwardmost portion and is at dwell in fig4 it is seen that when the needle 20 has been reciprocated and is retracted a first loop 44 is formed in the backing material 15 the bight of the loop 44 being received and then moved slightly forwardly of the needle path by on the bill 64 of the looper 50 this loop 44 forwardly migrates to the corner 73 formed by.