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Z Is Overrated posted:I'm glad this thread came up, because I've been interested in learning how to sew, even if I am too lazy to go out and get a machine. That's a beautiful scarf! I have a question about cable needles actually that I've never quite understood. I get the concept of cabling fine, but do you have to match a cable needle to the size of your straight needles? I've never seen cable needles come in a variety different sizes, is it something you don't have to worry about?
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Dec 18, 2007 18:30
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Google Embryo posted:That's a beautiful scarf! I have a question about cable needles actually that I've never quite understood. I get the concept of cabling fine, but do you have to match a cable needle to the size of your straight needles? I've never seen cable needles come in a variety different sizes, is it something you don't have to worry about? Apparently they do come in different sizes, but to be honest I've never seen them either. I just picked up whatever they had from the store and it works fine, even though it is quite a bit smaller than the straight needles I'm using.
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Dec 18, 2007 18:44
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RichBomb posted:Can anybody recommend fabric shops in NYC? A-train to Canal street. There are a lot of fabric stores on Broadway if you walk in the opposite direction of SoHo. P&S and the Fabric Warehouse are my favorites. Also, the garment district. (Take the train to Times Sq.) The garment distrct is along 7th avenue and stretches from 36th street to 40th street. Mood and NY elegant fabrics are great.
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Dec 18, 2007 20:21
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Z Is Overrated posted:I'm glad this thread came up, because I've been interested in learning how to sew, even if I am too lazy to go out and get a machine. Can a girl get an invite to Ravelry? Is anyone on Iqons.com? I'm on there! It's for fashiony people in all areas of the arts. It's kind of awesome. I can browse the 15 minutes of fame section for hours. Edit: Oooh, and can we talk about dress forms? Ebay and Craigslist are two places to look, but they can be a little expensive. Any other places?
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Dec 18, 2007 20:55
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RedFish posted:I'd like to get into painting designs on fabrics, but all the online resources I have dug up so far all seem obsessed with puff paint. Not my style. Is it better to look into silk screening? I've been wanting to do this for a long time; specifically, hand painting doodles/designs on my favorite jeans, to spice them up a bit. I haven't been able to find good paints, either.
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Dec 18, 2007 21:07
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I read a thread in Creative Convention about mixing textile medium and acrylic paint to do t-shirt stencils. I haven't tried it out yet, though.
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Dec 18, 2007 21:14
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hand painting is more special than silkscreening. silkscreening is very cool if you want to produce massive amounts of something, but in general, it's nicer to hand paint things since it makes it more valuable. i use jacquard fabric paint. there are textile mediums that you can mix with acrylic paints, but i don't recommend it. jacquard fabric paints look the best imo. the paint is very fluid and applies very smoothly.
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Dec 18, 2007 21:25
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Pegacorn posted:Can a girl get an invite to Ravelry? I would if I could, but I think the only way to get invited is to sign up on the waiting list.  I do know that there's gonna be an open house-type thing next month, so if you haven't been invited by then you'll at least be able to look around.
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Dec 18, 2007 21:27
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ElanoreMcMantis posted:I read a thread in Creative Convention about mixing textile medium and acrylic paint to do t-shirt stencils. I haven't tried it out yet, though. I tried it with a stencil I made, and it actually came out really well. The medium will make the paint bleed through the shirt to the other side when you're initially painting, but aside from that I've washed and worn my shirt multiple times and the paint hasn't cracked or anything yet. It's worth a shot, considering the paint stuff I found was really cheap.
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Dec 18, 2007 21:53
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ElanoreMcMantis posted:I read a thread in Creative Convention about mixing textile medium and acrylic paint to do t-shirt stencils. I haven't tried it out yet, though. If you've got money to burn go for it, but it didn't work out so well for me. Next time I think I will stick to fabric paints. And as much as I love Craftster, it would be really nice to get proper feedback on things instead of just "ooooh so cute!" type of stuff. Compliments are nice, but they also don't really help you get better. Just don't be an rear end in a top hat about it. I will post some stuff soon, hopefully.
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Dec 19, 2007 05:09
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4R7 THi3F posted:jacquard fabric paint awesomeness  This looks perfect! Is there a specific brand that you use? I am so excited, I plan to make plain wrap skirts and then paint them. And hunt down plain cheap skirts online and paint them as well.
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Dec 19, 2007 05:34
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ooh I am so excited! I got an early christmas gift in the post today - my brother bought me a Lilypad circuit board, light sensor, and power supply!  These are little sewable Arduino components that you can program to do lots of fun stuff based on the inputs. I already bought some conductive thread this summer but haven't got around to doing anything with it yet, so I'm rather excited to get a bunch of LEDs and start experimenting... 
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Dec 19, 2007 13:17
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squirrellypoo posted:Lilypad My mind just weird places with that, bad-touch-o-meter? Or a "that's the spot" register? Okey, back to lurking... At least untill I liberate a sewing machine.
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Dec 19, 2007 13:21
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Nerobro posted:My mind just weird places with that, bad-touch-o-meter? Or a "that's the spot" register? I just have the light sensor to play with, really, but it says it takes anywhere from 0-5v input (daylight is 5v, darkness is 0v and indoor light is 1-2v) so I could have a variety of LEDs come on depending on the level of input. Shame I won't get to play until after christmas as having LEDs as an accent instead of sequins might be cool and not *too* tacky. Hopefully. Maybe.
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Dec 19, 2007 13:31
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Z Is Overrated posted:Apparently they do come in different sizes, but to be honest I've never seen them either. I just picked up whatever they had from the store and it works fine, even though it is quite a bit smaller than the straight needles I'm using. Awesome, that means cables are in my near future!
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Dec 19, 2007 13:35
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RedFish posted:
there isn't. i just buy primary colors under the jacquard textiles label and mix the colors that i need. i also add a bit of golden gel medium to it to make the color even smoother. remember to iron it when it dries to set the color.
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Dec 19, 2007 22:03
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I know that we've been all about the sewing, which is excellent. However we've got to pay attention to our tools, too. I have a pair of Gingher scissors that are dying and I'd like to replace them. What's everyone's experience with their scissors? I have to say that I have some Fiskars but use them only when I'm making jewelry (cutting flex wire). So you get an idea of what I think of those. Should I get another pair of Gingher's or should I branch out? [Ed: Way to be late to the party. I see we're already on printing and painting. Man...] Beebubbles fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Dec 21, 2007 |
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Dec 21, 2007 05:37
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Z Is Overrated posted:By the way, is anyone else here on Ravelry? It's kinda like a pattern/yarn manager, but you can also see what everyone else is doing with their yarn and projects. I didn't think it'd be that interesting when I first joined, but now it's taking up a pretty big chunk of my day. Ooh, I'm on Ravelry! Look me up, I'm knitterrobot on there. On sewing knits with home machines -- I do it all the time, and I don't even have zigzag or stretch stitch, just a 80 year old machine that only goes straight and forward. Nothing of mine looks homemade, at least not in a bad way. If you look at the hems, sure you can tell that it's turned and straight stitched rather than coverstitched, and the seams are raw and pressed open. But from the outside, it's fine -- and these are plain hoodies and long sleeved t-shirts, where any sort of puckered seam would absolutely stand out and ruin the look. I just used a relatively short stitch, and on an edge like a necklinethat had to stretch I stretched the fabric and then blocked it back into shape with the iron the same way I would a handknit. It's a little more effort, and I'd never sell a knit garment I made that way, but it turned out fine for wearing, held up to machine washing, etc. I mean, if you think about it, back in the day they didn't have sergers and coverstitchers and merrowers, and they still worked with knits all the time. Jersey is huge in garments from the 20s and 30s, for example, and the dresses from that time that I've seen were all sewn with straight stitch plain seams. It's definitely not something I'd use on a swimsuit, of course, but you definitely can produce good results on most knits without specialty machines. I also have a project to show off! Here's a scarf I made:  It's not knitted -- my school has a printer that will print your designs on fabric! I designed the repeat print, printed it out onto lightweight china silk, and just did a serged roll hem on the edge. Once classes start up again, I plan to have some more fabric printed up and maybe make a suit with some squids on it or something.
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Dec 21, 2007 05:52
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Strelnikov posted:I also have a project to show off! Here's a scarf I made: i love it!
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Dec 21, 2007 08:17
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Strelnikov posted:It's not knitted -- my school has a printer that will print your designs on fabric! I designed the repeat print, printed it out onto lightweight china silk, and just did a serged roll hem on the edge. Once classes start up again, I plan to have some more fabric printed up and maybe make a suit with some squids on it or something. I think Bountee must use something similar for their teeshirt designs - they're not transfers and they're not screenprints and they say they use a printer there, too... Beebubbles posted:I have a pair of Gingher scissors that are dying and I'd like to replace them.
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Dec 21, 2007 11:41
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Most of my paintball jerseys were printed using dye sublimination printers. If you looked at the inside of the fabric it looked completely normal. But the outside of it was completely printed in the custom pattern. Though the poster didn't show the back of the printed fabric, I'm betting this is exactly the same process. My jerseys are done on several different fabrics. It's some really neat stuff. On the back of one of the jerseys I have my name printed, INTO the fabric. I'll dig up a picture if you're interested.
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Dec 21, 2007 12:09
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It's not limited by the type of fabric per se, but it has to be special fabric that you can only buy from the company that makes the printer. It's treated with chemicals so the dye takes, and backed with paper so it can feed through the printer. I'm not sure how the reverse side would look on heavier fabric, but on the china silk the dye did go all the way through. There's virtually no difference in color on the reverse side of the scarf. Nerobro, I'd love to see a picture! I'm really interested in this kind of technology, because before I took a class in print design I used to hate prints. But after designing a bunch of them, I've realized that I only hate prints because most commercially-availabe prints are stupid. So any way I can get printed yardage without having to pay a fortune or paint it all myself is pretty much awesome.
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Dec 21, 2007 12:26
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I used to work for a company, https://www.screenprinters.net that sold printers that print directly onto fabric. When I first started working there in 2005, they were only using cotton and cotton blends, but they were researching other fabrics. By the time I left, they could print on nearly anything- silks, polyesters, blends, golf balls, hats. I kind of miss working there, I got to make some cool poo poo.
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Dec 21, 2007 18:40
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squirrellypoo posted:Is it something that could be fixed by getting them professionally sharpened? Vintage Ginghers have an excellent reputation and it'd be a huge shame to ditch them. I'm sure that I could take them to a sharpener but I'd hate to leave them in care of the newly trained monkey on his first day and having them ruined. Not 100% sure but I think I can send them to the company for resharpening. Hmm. But yeah, you're absolutely right about keeping them. I'd sooner fall on these babies than have to get rid of them.
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Dec 22, 2007 05:34
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Strelnikov posted:I also have a project to show off! Here's a scarf I made: Fantastic! I thought for sure that it was knitted. And is that a tiny lady in the lower left corner?
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Dec 22, 2007 05:37
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Beebubbles posted:Fantastic! I thought for sure that it was knitted. And is that a tiny lady in the lower left corner? Yes, the television has an old BBC test signal on the screen. I've been wearing this scarf every day so far this winter (draped over my head like an old russian grandma, style goes out the window when it's cold), and I never thought thin silk could insulate so well. I'll definitely have to get a lot more scarves to match pretty much everything I own.My project over winter break is this dress from Pattern Magic, which is an amazing book that anyone interested in patternmaking should have a look at:  I need to figure out what I'm doing for New Years, though, before I decide what fabric I'm making it in. I can't wait to get started~! Edit: I just looked through everything in that book's sequel. I don't think words can even express how awesome it is, and how much I wish it were my idea... Strelnikov fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Dec 24, 2007 |
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Dec 24, 2007 07:24
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I've been teaching myself to knit the past month, and have been trying quite a few new patterns. Recently, I started an afghan pattern that has cables. I've practiced 2 and 3 stitch cables with one of those cable bars before, and they all came out well. What I'm confused by is that this pattern describes a cable as this: quote:...(work Cable, P2) What I do understand is how to K2 tog and P2, the rest is a bit of a puzzle as I don't know how you can cable without taking the stitches off of the left needle. Further, does anyone know what it means by "knit the first st again"? Does it mean the first stitch of the K2 tog or some other stitch I'm overlooking? The pattern is called Golden Tone and out of a book by Leisure Arts, if that helps.
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Dec 25, 2007 22:28
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Strelnikov posted:Yes, the television has an old BBC test signal on the screen. how thorough are the illustrations? i want to get that book but i'm worried that i won't be able to make anything if i can't follow along with the directions
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Dec 26, 2007 07:37
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Zantie posted:I've been teaching myself to knit the past month, and have been trying quite a few new patterns. This is just a two stitch cable, right? The way they describe it, it's not really a cable, it's a crossed stitch. The K2 tog causes the first stitch to 'lean', then you knit the first stitch of the two you just knit together to cross it behind the k2tog. It means you don't have to use a cable needle or deal with raw stitches, so it's a little faster. It doesn't really look different from a normal cable though, so if you prefer making a normal cable you can substitute that. 4R7 THi3F posted:how thorough are the illustrations? i want to get that book but i'm worried that i won't be able to make anything if i can't follow along with the directions The illustrations show the pattern piece with every measurement marked out in centimeters, so even if you don't know anything about drafting patterns you could still figure out how to make the designs they show just by measuring out the lines on your paper. And they have the slopers printed in the back of the book, so if you don't have any of your own or want to test things out in quarter-scale you can just use theirs. I can't read a word of the written instructions, but they illustrate every design and some of them have step-by-step photos, so it's pretty easy to follow along.
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Dec 27, 2007 20:58
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What kind of skill level would be required to make something like fitted t-shirts? Not that I understand anything about sewing, but I'm especially bewildered by the way a single piece of fabric seems to be 'shaped' to a form. If I was to cut a t-shirt up at the seems, the individual pieces wouldn't be naturally flat(I don't think).
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Dec 28, 2007 22:03
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Strelnikov posted:This is just a two stitch cable, right? The way they describe it, it's not really a cable, it's a crossed stitch. The K2 tog causes the first stitch to 'lean', then you knit the first stitch of the two you just knit together to cross it behind the k2tog. It means you don't have to use a cable needle or deal with raw stitches, so it's a little faster. It doesn't really look different from a normal cable though, so if you prefer making a normal cable you can substitute that. Oohhh, ok. I get it now, thanks!
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Dec 29, 2007 04:50
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I just learned how to knit over thanksgiving break since I've always wanted to learn and my grandma was in town. Right now I'm working on my first scarf but it seems to be coming out a bit odd shaped. As I go along it gets wider and wider and I'm not sure why. It has the same number of stitches (can stitches even be added on?) Maybe I'm knitting it looser and looser? For now, I think it has stopped widening but I'm not sure. I don't know what to do about a scarf with a skinny end either. Does anyone know why it's doing this and how to stop/fix it? It kinda looks like this
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Dec 30, 2007 04:29
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I had the same problem when I was playing with knitting. You're knitting looser and looser. My solution was to run the yarn around the same two fingers every time so the tension would remain constant. After I started doing that everything went smoothly.
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Dec 30, 2007 04:33
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Thanks! I think I'm just getting more and more relaxed and "in the flow" with the knitting now. When I started I guess I was just very tense because I don't know how to fix things like a dropped stitch. I still don't know how, but I'm less worried and the scarf has reflected that!
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Dec 30, 2007 04:58
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If you look at the knitting, it's just a bunch of side-by-side slipknots through the last row's slipknots, etc. If you drop a stitch, find the loose loop back where you dropped it and pull the next unstitched row through it the right way - just pull the loop through to make it look like the loops next to it. Dropped stitches get easy to avoid anyway, so you hardly have to worry once you get the hang of it.
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Dec 30, 2007 10:22
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My gf would like to sew more often, but whenever she does, after a little while her back gets really tired. How does one go about maintaining a proper posture while sewing?
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Dec 31, 2007 01:32
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Are there aftermarket pedals you can by for Husky sewing machines? My moms machine seems to have about a centimeter difference between cautious detailing speed and lol imma eat your fingertips. Also, from my extensive internet research I've found there's nothing girly about sewing a grenade pouch.
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Dec 31, 2007 03:05
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Strelnikov posted:The illustrations show the pattern piece with every measurement marked out in centimeters, so even if you don't know anything about drafting patterns you could still figure out how to make the designs they show just by measuring out the lines on your paper. And they have the slopers printed in the back of the book, so if you don't have any of your own or want to test things out in quarter-scale you can just use theirs. I can't read a word of the written instructions, but they illustrate every design and some of them have step-by-step photos, so it's pretty easy to follow along. ooooh! that totally wins! and i wouldn't mind getting a new set of slopers, because i'm not partial to the ones that we're given in school. i'm absolutely buying those two books when i scrap up the money, thank you so much.
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Dec 31, 2007 08:54
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I've been thinking about working with this pattern again, New Look 6244. I've made a few dresses based it and they've come out nicely. This time I don't want to use a silk or silk type as they suggest. I have an awesome cotton knit that's fairly stable. My concern is that because the pattern calls for the cloth to be cut on the bias that a knit will stretch like mad. I've got a knit dress that is bias-cut however so I can't be too far off the mark, yeah? I know to keep my seams as flat as possible. Does anyone have any suggestions besides that?
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Dec 31, 2007 23:59
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For anyone who's in the market for a sewing machine, Dress A Day wrote up a fantastic guide for choosing a machine today.
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Jan 3, 2008 16:06
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