copending u s pat no 5 251 557 and reference may be had to that u s patent for a more complete disclosure of the structural components of these devices it should also be noted that in u s pat no 5 251 557 the edge guiding devices are elevated out of contact with the work piece and not actuated until the sewing operation commences and then function to maintain the margin edge of the material in proper alignment and feed the material along the line of feed at the proper rate in the subject application the edge guiding devices perform the function of aligning the plies of material and then locating the aligned plies under the stitch forming mechanism in accordance with this invention when the sewing process begins the edge guiding devices perform the same function as disclosed in the above referenced application the edge guiding device 106 has a first stepper motor 110 for driving the feeding wheel 13 that functions to advance the ply of material in the material feed direction and a second stepper motor 112 for driving the gripper wheels 4 that function to move the ply of material normal to the material feed direction the stepper motors 110 and 112 which are conventional and not a part of this invention can be controlled to rotate a specific number of rotations or fraction of a rotation thus depending upon the diameter of the drive element and the drive ratios a ply of material can.