Mechanized Shirt Making, test 1

Made a quick (and rough) work shirt today using four of my new machines. It's a good start, but I've still got some techniques to learn with these industrial machines. Also need to get the Reece buttonholer to work properly. It was functioning this morning, but then stopped making buttonholes after the pockets were done.







You can see where the edge came out of the feller in these two images. I choose a fabric that was too slick to easily stay in the lap seam feller attachment, not to mention my need for more practice.




I got the button sewer working the other day. Haven't hooked it up to a motor yet, but it seems to be working fairly well just turning by hand. At the moment it's only set up for two hole buttons.

Door to Door Maniac a.ka. Five Minutes to Live

Starring Johnny Cash! It's not as bad as you'd think, but it's not so hot either...

A message from the designer behind Mister Freedom

Mister Freedom - no fake fades advocate. Agreed!

Safety Stitch

Working on the safety stitch machine today. It's pretty much there, but the underside of the chainstitch (white stitching, on the right piece) isn't forming right - arrghh...

Selvedge Denim Shop Apron

I finally got a chance to make something the other day. I needed to test out one of my machines, and realized I should have made one of these a long time ago.

Ingredients: two kinds of vintage selvedge denim from my humble little stash, unbleached muslin ties. No way to make bartacks, so it's got the old school back-and-forth straight stitch tacks. Chest pocket fits a phone or a mapple mypod. Center waist pocket has an additional inside pocket for smaller things.

Basement Shop (work in progress)

Finally got the Reece buttonholer working, it was very gunked-up and stuck. Still has a few issues (like sometimes unraveling the buttonhole after it's made).

I don't have all of the machines going yet, but I do have the one's that I need for shirt-making working. This week I'll make one and see how it all turns out.

Asheville

Well, this sewing blog is kind of becoming my personal blog since I haven't been able to do any sewing. So, we went to Asheville, NC for my birthday and ate some great food, visited some cool shops, and got to spend a little time with some really nice folks that Katie knows from Maui.

Also attended the Organic Growers School classes on Sunday - good stuff! I made a kudzu basket, and learned a lot about the principles of forest gardening, among other things. And we got to test out our new thrift store jackets. Which for me led to some ideas about making my own cold weather gear.


snow!


cold!

Marietta, GA

So, we've had to move up to Marietta, GA. It's northwest of Atlanta. The traffic is crazy! But it's a free place to stay, and I'm able to set up sewing machines in the basement.








Kind of hard to tell from the photo, but the jeans that I made for Katie are wearing in well. Did have to do a little reinforcement work, but otherwise good.

Wekiwa Springs State Park

searching for the Florida skunk ape...