A rope sole of a shoe or sandal is indexed past a transversely oscillating carriage carrying a pref. rotating piercing neeld and a stitching needle supplied with yarn whereby as the sole is indexed the stitching needle showing one traverse of the carriage inserts a stitching yarn transversely through a hole in the sole formed by the piercing needle during the preceding traverse. A rotating looper hook picks up the loop of yarn pushed through the sole by the stitching needle, and the looper hook rotates once for every two penetrations of the stitching needle whereby the loop of yarn picked up after one penetration of the stitching needle is threaded the loop of yarn picked up after the succeeding penetration in the manner of a chain stitch. Pref. the carriage, rotating looper and indexing system for the sole are driven from a common motor via separate drives and pref. the sole is clamped to a support plate during each penetration of the needles. The use of a shuttle and shuttle yarn is eliminated thereby speeding up operation of the machine.
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