to drive the carriage 6 the caster 18 raised under the action of lever 17 is passed over rod 19 and guides the comb element 8 in its right to left displacement towards the initial position a fresh workpiece 23 is supplied from the first station and the cycle resumes the process and installation according to the invention are particularly adapted to the closure of short sleeves such as tee shirt sleeves as shown in fig3 in that case the workpiece 23 is a sleeve coming from a finishing station having effected for example hemming or cording of the sleeve bottom 25 then folding 26 of the sleeve along an axis of symmetry 27 so that there is exact overlapping of the two parts of the sleeve on the other once folded the workpiece 23 must be closed this closure is effected by stitching the two edges 28 matched and superposed taking into account the shape of the sleeve 23 it is then necessary to guide the line of stitching 28 under the sewing machine 29 in a direction and position which are different from those that it had on leaving folding 26 as shown in fig3 it is necessary to both transfer the sleeve 23 from the folding station to the stitching station 30 and to subject it to a partial rotation on itself so as to place the line of stitching 28 exactly in position and in direction under.