Anyone into Sewing?

Alex Fischerwrote:

Speaking of balls. I made a PokeBall chalk bucket for a bombing buddy.

Made this bag for another friend heading to Iceland. Ive made roughly 15 chalk bags so I finally have a design I like and is easy to repeat

Made lil ice screw roll!
Don’t love the colors I chose and definitely learned a lot about the limits of my little Singer with X-Pac :) 

Alex Fischerwrote:

Yep, the attachment point is intentionally very low. Caving harnesses have a low attachment point to increase the efficiency of ascending rope. When falling upside down is a possible concern (such as when aid climbing underground), we will generally pair it with a chest harness to keep us upright. The chest harness is next on the list of things to sew!

This is pretty impressive stitching - what machine do you have?  Industrial, right?

Nolan Nolanwrote:

Post some photos of the pack, but a 1/4" of this foam folded in half would probably work well. I have used this in the past. If you want it a little less firm you could use the 3lb density.

The foam arrived.  As recommended, I used the 1/4" in 4 lb density -- folded in half.  I've only tried it out with a couple of ropes so far, but I think it is just about perfect.  Many thanks.

Matt Spethwrote:

This is pretty impressive stitching - what machine do you have?  Industrial, right?

Nope, it's a regular old brother domestic sewing machine. Size 18 needle and T70 thread. It sews thru 2 layers of seatbelt webbing like a champ, no problem. 3 layers is a little trickier but it works.

Working on the colorful tacks on the daisy chains, inspired by Matt Z, a few posts up.

It was harder than I expected to get it right, this is my second attempt at a front panel.

We'll see how it goes.

Wrong side

I think it turned into a really cool little pack. Thanks again for the inspiration! 

24 liters, 295 grams/10.48 Oz.

Mike Jwrote:

I think it turned into a really cool little pack. Thanks again for the inspiration! 

24 liters, 295 grams/10.48 Oz.

That’s super cool. I wouldn’t have the patience to rethread my machine that many times!

Sewing this thick fabric will be the death of my machine, but I do love how stiff the bags turn out. Makes them easy to load and unload. 

Sweet little pack Mike! The full color swap on each tack is impressive and looks awesome!

For my multi-color tacks, I use variegated size 69 bonded nylon thread. It's nylon thread that's dyed in a rainbow pattern, so I don't need to swap thread each stitch to get different colors. What's even more fun is the repeating color spectrum isn't the same length as a bartack, so each one is different every time. Here's the link:

https://www.thethreadexchange.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=nylon-thread-069-col

It only comes on a cone, so for a home sewing machine you'll need to get a stand-alone cone holder. It's also size 69/Tex70 which is pretty much the biggest size most home machines will take without significant adjustment, and even then it's best to go slow to make sure to not overwork the machine and have skipped stitches. I find a size 18 needle is the smallest I can use and get consistent stitches with the size 69 thread while sewing backpacks and other heavy material, any smaller needle and the needle hole is too small for the thread to tension smoothly and the thread ends up shredding. A size 20 needle tends to be even smoother on packs, but for lightweight material the hole is then too big and the fabric starts puckering and tearing.

@Matt Carroll

Nice little hauler Matt! What's your thoughts on those load lifters? I never really felt the need for them.

@Matt Z

That's awesome! And it explains a lot, I thought I saw the color shift in the bar tack but figured it was the light in the photo.

And thanks for the info on thread and needles. I'm self taught so definitely have some knowledge gaps. I mostly use the Gutermann Tera 40 thread, as it was recommended to me, and it seems to work well on my old Bernina but I need to have the the thread tension set to max with it.

Very amateur seamster here with maybe a question possibly beyond my pay grade. I’m modifying a tattered old Atom jacket for my dog, and am needing to make a cut out on the bottom so he can wear it without pissing himself. I’d love to be able to use the zipper because it will look so much slicker than adding buckles, but when I make the cutout it’ll take off the bottom of the zipper. Is there a piece that I can put on the bottom of the zipper to basically make a new bottom, or will I basically have to remove the whole zipper and slide it up, removing the top?

null

Mike Jwrote:

Nice little hauler Matt! What's your thoughts on those load lifters?

Yeah I think I agree that they aren’t really that useful at least on a pack this size. I’m still trying to dial in the fit of the straps, and that seems like one thing that could be improved. The lifters didn’t make much of a difference, but they don’t hurt I guess.

wrt dog jacket: 
I think you can just cutsew straight through the zipper, just hand crank the machine so if you hit the plastic you can move around it. 

Nick Niebuhrwrote:

Very amateur seamster here with maybe a question possibly beyond my pay grade. I’m modifying a tattered old Atom jacket for my dog, and am needing to make a cut out on the bottom so he can wear it without pissing himself. I’d love to be able to use the zipper because it will look so much slicker than adding buckles, but when I make the cutout it’ll take off the bottom of the zipper. Is there a piece that I can put on the bottom of the zipper to basically make a new bottom, or will I basically have to remove the whole zipper and slide it up, removing the top?

null

I've never seen the separate-able parts of a jacket zipper sold individually.  I think it would be damn near impossible to modify a zipper in that way; that type of mechanism is pretty finicky with tight tolerances. Shifting the entire zipper up seems like the way to go.  That's a pretty stylish dog, nice work so far! 

Are you going to make some sort of cross-belly strap at the bottom after you move the zipper up?   Does his, ahem, anatomy allow for such a thing?

Keeping dog jackets from riding up their torsos is tricky, I almost wonder if some fur-colored around-the-back-legs elastic straps would work, kind of like the way the back of a jock strap works. 

First larger project

I'd like some fabric recommendations.  I need to make an elongated zippered duffel for carrying canoe paddles, shotgun, etc. through the airlines (yeah, I know all about airline requirements for firearms).  I need it to survive airlines, but also light/supple enough to stash in the bottom of my pack for portages, it disappearing there for 6 weeks until I fly back.  It does not have to be waterproof.  What fabric would you recommend?  I'm mostly old school and think of 400 denier pack cloth and Cordura (prob 500 denier).  I know there are a lot of fancier fabrics out there, but I don't know them.  It'll be about 55"x18" with a full length zipper.  I used some heavier curtain material last time (it's what I had), and it probably isn't abrasion resistant enough, and seems heavy.  Thanks.

Michael Buterawrote:

First larger project

Niceeee. I‘ve had that pattern sitting around for almost a year and haven’t made it yet. What fabrics did you go with?

Skibowrote:

I'd like some fabric recommendations.  I need to make an elongated zippered duffel for carrying canoe paddles, shotgun, etc. through the airlines (yeah, I know all about airline requirements for firearms).  I need it to survive airlines, but also light/supple enough to stash in the bottom of my pack for portages, it disappearing there for 6 weeks until I fly back.  It does not have to be waterproof.  What fabric would you recommend?  I'm mostly old school and think of 400 denier pack cloth and Cordura (prob 500 denier).  I know there are a lot of fancier fabrics out there, but I don't know them.  It'll be about 55"x18" with a full length zipper.  I used some heavier curtain material last time (it's what I had), and it probably isn't abrasion resistant enough, and seems heavy.  Thanks.

I needed to make a super quick "sock" for a rifle and used waxed canvas. It's cheap and turned out pretty well. Not water proof but definitely water resistant and has a kinda cool retro look (cause that's really all that matters ;-) )...