PURPOSE: To provide an automatic holder for a knitted shirt or the like hard to fold by a method wherein a shirt folded across the width and along the length thereof is supported with a lower support plate, and then put into a bag being held on the machine and then to be withdrawn.

CONSTITUTION: A receiving plate 5 having a shirt carried thereon is inclined forward at a specified angle and a left folding plate 7 and a right folding plate 8 advance to the tip part of the receiving plate 5. At this point, while sleeve rolling hands 9 below the right folding plate are kept open, the right sleeve of the shirt is hung between them. The sleeve rolling hands 9 catch the intermediate part of the right sleeve of the shirt and move right below the right folding plate 8. At the same time, the left folding plate 7 and a sleeve folding plate 17 therebelow move to the left end of the receiving plate 5. The left folding plate 7 and the sleeve folding plate 17 get together and turn by 90° upward to the right to fold the left side of the shirt on the rear side of the receiving plate 5.