needle plate in an anti clockwise direction when in the pivot point position 29a shown in fig2 the dogs on the element 12 swing back in the opposite direction when they are below the surface of the needle plate in the pivot point position 29b shown by the dotted line the dogs on the feed dog element 12 are made to perform a swinging motion above the surface of the needle plate in a clockwise direction in a middle position between the two pivot point positions 29a and 29b the feed dog 12 undergoes only a minimum swing or pivot deflection which corresponds approximately to the height of arc of a circular arc of the connecting rod about the middle position of the pivot point 29 that is the pivoting motion is virtually ineffective and the feed motion of the workpiece is in a straight line by altering the positions of the pivot point 29 it is possible to influence the deflection transverse to the direction of sewing the workpiece can thus be moved in an arc to the left or to the right as well as in a straight line in the direction of feed fig1 and 3 show a feed dog drive in which the pivoting or swinging motion of the feed dog element is derived from the feed motion of such element this permits a simply constructed swinging drive a short stitch length produces a small swinging motion of the feed dog element.