the height adjustment mechanism is operated to raise the height of the lower dead point of the presser foot 128 when the sheet of cloth to be sewn is relatively thin the height adjustment mechanism is operated to lower the height of the lower dead point of the presser foot 128 a program can be used to automatically control the drive motor 140 according to the thickness of the sheet of cloth to be sewn for example in the case where a sewing pattern is inputted an embroidery stitch frame to which fabric is fixed is slightly moved in x axis and y axis directions followed by manually determining the position at which the thickness of the sheet of cloth is changed then the determined position and the height of the presser foot 128 from a needle plate not shown at the determined position or the number of drive pulses inputted to the drive motor are inputted as data or rather than the input data the number of needles up to the position where the thickness of the sheet of cloth changes is set accordingly in a sewing operation when the position where the thickness of the sheet of cloth changes is reached the number of pulses or the number of needles is supplied according to the height inputted to the drive motor 140 so that the lower end point of the presser foot 128 can be automatically controlled according to the invention as set forth above the presser foot is driven by a separate drive structure independently from the needle bar so that the moving track of the presser foot can be freely generated and thus the stroke or the.