Archive for the 'Tools' Category

“My Double” Instruction Booklet

Published on April 14, 2010 in Tools. 2 Comments

Miss Bedelia was originally shipped with an instruction booklet, which I was lucky to find on eBay.  It’s got very complete directions for fitting the dress form, and is, all in all, a marvel of clear English.  Which is more than I can say for any other instruction manual I’ve seen in, say, the last 30 years or so.

Here’s the cover:

Page One, emphasizing the wide variation of suitable sizes (including the suggestion that “Aunt Jane” may be “a size or two, or even three, larger than you”:

Page Two, fitting the halves to Aunt Jane (the implication here is that you’ll need a helper to fit “My Double”, and that is correct.  Very correct:

Page Three, a description of the two distinct types of meshes, and how to adjust each properly:

Page Four, molding the form to the body in question:

Page Five, fitting the bust, upper back, waist, lower body, and collar

Page Six, double checking and removing the form:

Page Seven, assembling and adjusting the stand:

Page Eight, using the adjustable sliding rods to make the form rigid on the stand:

Page Nine (to be done before the steps on page eight), checking Aunt Jane’s posture to ensure it’s duplicated correctly:

Back Page, attaching tapes for pinning dress material to the form:

Miss Bedelia was unfortunately parted from her internal rods at some point in her life.  I am still debating how, and if, I need/want to replace them, since I suspect there is little or no chance of finding anything like them at this point.  Unless, of course, a miracle occurs, and I run across them in someone’s old donated sewing supplies at a thrift shop.  Here’s what they look like, in a bit more detail:

You can understand, I’m sure, the longing with which I read this note on page ten:

If you want extra sliding rods for “My Double” they are available at 20 [whoa -- there's no cent sign on my keyboard!  talk about extinction! -- ok, read that as 'twenty cents'] each.

That’s the kind of time machine I’m interested in — the one that lets me order from the past!

Related:  Miss Bedelia:  My New Dress Form

Miss Bedelia: My New Dress Form

Published on April 12, 2010 in Tools. 6 Comments

Miss Bedelia is my “new” dress form:  she is a gift from my dear aunt, who was kind enough to name her, too, thus sparing her the ignominy of an anonymous existence.  I’ve always wanted one of these, partly because they are such an artifact, but also because I simply wanted to know how they work — and if they are effective as other types.  Not that it matters — is there anything more iconic than this?

Mr. Noile recently helped me fit Miss Bedelia.  This was a non-trivial operation.  There are snaps down the center front and back, but, if you’re trying to put this carapace on by yourself, wriggling into it is, well, interesting.   Or, in my own case, nearly immobilizing.  Mr. Noile was preoccupied downstairs at the time, playing “Birdie” with our little cat Aldebaran, so rescue was not immediately at hand.  Aldebaran is our very bright, hyper-active young cat, and the entire household’s well-being depends on Aldebaran getting a daily workout playing Birdie.

There are no photos of me encased in Miss Bedelia.  This is at least partly because once Mr. Noile found his way upstairs, he took one look at me, wrapped as I was in a steel cage, and said “so it’s not just kilts, is it, now?”  which was a reference to my affection for men in kilts.  Which I assure you is merely in the interest of their (or, in this case, Mr. Noile’s) well-being, not some random perversion. Who wouldn’t want to wear a Utili-Kilt?  Particularly the one with all the (snap-able! removable! adjustable!) cargo pockets?

But I digress.  Mr. Noile agreeably pushed and pulled and generally mauled Miss Bedelia into (my) shape, and then unsnapped both sides.  That was, itself, a bit of a weird moment, as I shed two halves of myself, and watched them split off, all hollow and, well, empty of what makes me, me.

I quickly reassembled Miss Bedelia, and tried my nearly-finished red dress on her new shape.  Perfect!  Or as near as can be expected — the dress actually fits me a bit better, but Miss Bedelia’s form is plenty close enough  to work with.  Miss Bedelia will be best with woven fabrics, though, I can see.  The lumps and bumps made by her hardware might be a bit distracting, and perhaps cause some distortion, when working with knits.

She originally came with a set of adjustable rods which thread through loops attached to her center support, and with twill-tape-like ties to hold her shell to the shoulder support.  I was able to replicate the ties, of course, but haven’t quite decided what to do about the internal supports, though I’m kicking around a couple of ideas.  If I’m careful, they may not be necessary.

Because Miss Bedelia’s pedestal spelled disaster for my oak floors, I picked up a rolling plant stand from IKEA, guessing that it would work well.  As you can see, it couldn’t have been a better solution.  Miss Bedelia is very light, so moving her around the room is a breeze now, and no floors are harmed in the process.

Related:  Duct Tape Dummy and Easiest Dummy Stand Ever and “My Double” Instruction Booklet

Read the post about the dress here:  Vogue 1088 and Burda 7658

Early Olfas

Published on April 8, 2010 in Tools and Vintage. 0 Comments

The US Park Service maintains a printing office and bindery at 320 Market Street in Philadelphia.  Using replica presses, Park Service employees demonstrate 18th century printing presses and discuss printing in the era of Benjamin Franklin.  It’s a fascinating look at the process, but something that especially caught my eye were these devices:

ps-olf-300Look familiar?  Exactly:  Early Olfas.  These rotary cutters were used to cut paper, though.  It was another 300 years or so before  smaller versions made it into our sewing rooms.

Snap Press!

Published on September 3, 2009 in Tools. 2 Comments

It’s been almost six months since I last posted, and it will be another month before I’m back posting regularly, but I just had to acknowledge the arrival of a tool I expect to be using for the rest of my sewing life.  It’s  KAM snap press, model DK-98:

snp-prs-300

I’ve waffled about getting this for years now, torn because I wasn’t sure I’d use it enough, and because I just didn’t know enough about the people selling them.  Dawn’s experience convinced me that I could order one and expect it to arrive, and I finally had a list of projects-around-the-house that was long enough that I figured it was time.

Mostly, though, I’ve wanted (for decades!) to be able to set decorative cap snaps without smashing the caps,something I’ve never been able to do with pliers.

This thing is a monster:  It’s almost 18 inches tall, and heavy!  See that “bubble” in front, on the base?  That’s where you put a bolt if you’re going to anchor it to a work bench.  There are two other similar holes around the base. The good news is that you don’t have to bolt it down to use it; in fact, although it requires some body language, setting snaps is really easy.

Most people seem to use these in home-based diaper making businesses, and at least one family uses it to make hospital gowns for charity.  (They have a clever foot-pedal rigged up, which you can see here, since they are apparently setting snaps non-stop.) Diapers and hospital gowns both are well-suited to ue the resin (plastic-like) snaps.  They’re softer against the body, and don’t retain heat when taken out of the dryer, the way metal snaps can (if only briefly).  I’ll be using my own snap press mostly for metal snaps; I got the resin ones mostly to experiment with adult apparel.

Here’s what I ordered along with the press:

snp-pts

No the greatest picture, I’m afraid:  The dots are, of course, snaps.  The white ones on the left are resin, and the ones in the upper row are metal, spring-type (more on that later).  The things that look like little tubes or columns are dies.  The snap press is useless without them. You set the dies in place in the press, then put the appropriate snap part into the die, sandwich the fabric or material, and clamp the parts together to set a snap.

The allen wrenches at the lower right come with the press.  They’re used to turn the screws that hold the dies in place.  And that strap at the top?  It’s the first snap I set with my new press:  A size 28 (large!) bronze snap.  I couldn’t believe how easy it was to set!

I got my snap press from The Snap Store.  The service was very good, but ordering was a bit of a frustrating experience.  The web site’s kind of a mess, and unless you already know exactly what you want, it’s a bit tricky determining  how, much less what, to order. I completely gave up on trying to figure out if any of the special combination offers would work for me because I couldn’t figure out whether they were a good deal for my purposes or not.   I’ll have some tips about figuring out what to order  in my next snap press post.

Also, the website doesn’t state what KAM model this press it, which is a bit of a pain if you’re trying to figure out if the Snap Store dies will work with a press you already own, or with snaps you might get elsewhere.  I’m quite sure it’s a KAM DK-98, though.  There is at least one other KAM press out there, which is lighter weight (and a bit smaller), but I don’t know if it takes the same dies or not.

Dies are not necessarily interchangeable between types of presses, and getting any particular vendor to tell you what size shaft your press has (or what size shaft any particular die has) isn’t necessarily easy, so knowing your model is helpful when shopping around.

On the plus side, Wendy S., the Snap Store proprietor, was great about emailing me when one of my items was out of stock, so I was impressed with her responsiveness.  And my order arrived exactly as requested, which is always wonderful!  The Snap Store has by  far the largest selection of snaps and dies compared to any other source I could find, and yes, I’ve already placed an order for another die set.

More about die sets, figuring out what you need, etc. in  a future  post.

Easiest Dummy Stand Ever

Published on January 28, 2009 in Tools. 2 Comments

When I made my duct tape dressmaker dummy, I built a stand for it from PVC pipe:

dtdcover2-200

The pipe is four inches in diameter, and the foot it’s standing on is a toilet flange. (Not elegant, true, but efficacious.)

The ’skeleton’ of my duct tape dummy is made of two-inch PVC pipe. The vertical piece comes out the bottom of the dummy and slides into the lower part of the stand. Here’s an image of just the body and the smaller diameter pipe:

dmbdy-200

Inside the large pipe are two PVC connectors: One is at the bottom, inside the pipe, and one is set into the top of the pipe. You can just see a a bit of duct tape around the top connector; it was a little loose, so I added the duct tape as padding to keep it firmly in place.

whtstndtop-300

I hacked off the top of the upper connector piece to allow the narrower skeleton pipe to fit inside. I put the second connector into the four-inch pipe at the bottom, so that the two-inch pipe wouldn’t flop around inside. Then I set the four-inch pipe into the toilet flange. The flange gives the pipe enough support so that the dummy stands on its own.

whtflng-300

That worked out fine, but a dummy is a whole lot more useful if it can be easily moved, so when one of our desk chairs broke, I put the internal connector onto the stem of the chair’s chassis, like this:

whtadpt-300

Then I just slipped the four-inch pipe assembly and the toilet flange over the connector, which gave me a rolling dummy.

So that’s the old version.

Last month, while scouting out home repair stuff, I noticed that Lowe’s still had some black PVC pipe in stock. Sleek, elegant black pipe! I bought it, and unexpectedly realized that my first stand (the white one above) was a lot more complicated than it needed to be.

At the hardware store, I assembled this kit:

blkstndparts-300

The black pipe across the top isn’t as heavy as my original white pipe: It’s just three inches in diameter. The salvaged office chair base (whoops, not from the hardware store; it’s the one I already had) is on the left, and to the right of it are a PVC ring connector, and a PVC pipe cap (all from the plumbing supplies department).

After removing the old white two-inch pipe from inside the dummy, I slipped the new black pipe into the internal skeleton. Then I placed the black PVC ring on the stem of the chair base. The vertical black pipe fit into the ring, and voilà! my stand rolled again.

As a finishing touch, I removed the neck pipe, cut a new piece in black, attached the PVC cap (just so that it would match the rest of the stand), and that was it:

finstnd-200

I can’t remember why my first version was so much more complicated. Serious overkill! My dummy is just lightweight duct tape and fiberfill, and doesn’t need the additional support of the larger pipe and inserts, although they would certainly be excellent for a heavier or larger dummy than mine.

I’m quite pleased with my new stand. It took only minutes to put together, and the black pipe is so much more attractive. Next up? A new dummy. I think I’ll make it of white duct tape, just so I can enjoy the contrast with the stand.

Pattern Weights

Published on January 23, 2009 in Tools. 6 Comments

Dawn, of Two On, Two Off, mentioned After the Dress in her post today, where there is an interesting post about pattern weights. My weights are the crudest, simplest ones available:

wshrwts-300

Yep, just giant washers from my local hardware store. For years, I’ve meant to cover them with Ultrasuede in a rainbow of colors, but now that they live on a pegboard, that’s not going to happen, because this is the easiest, most accessible way to store them ever:

wshrwlbd-300

After the Dress has an amusing list of things people use for weights, but what surprised me most is that a lot of people use weights only with rotary cutters. Not me!

Of course, I’m not a quilter, and I tend to think of a rotary cutter as being most useful for cutting long strips of fabric for strip quilting or bindings. I’ve used my Olfa for rectangular cutting on occasion, but never really gotten comfortable with it. The control my various scissors offer just works best for me.

So I use my weights exclusively with scissors. After years of practice, I get no distortion at all, but I’m also careful not to use the weights near the cutting edge. Instead, I place them at least an inch (and probably closer to two inches) from where my scissor blade will go.

I use a LOT of weights, too, spacing them evenly across the pattern piece, using different sizes depending on whether the area to cut is large or smaller. Then, as I cut, I put my other hand flat against the fabric right next to where I’m cutting.

This method works much better for me than pinning knit fabric, where inevitably there’s a slight shift as the scissors move from the point where a pin is to the area adjacent, where there isn’t one for a small distance.

I regularly use pattern weights for knits, but find them really indispensable for anything silky. Nothing keeps slippery material from shifting like a few ounces (or even pounds) of strategically placed metal.

After the Dress also mentions Peacock Chic’s pack of adorable owl weights, which wouldn’t be very convenient to store, but would be great to have cheering you on while you work!

Duct Tape Dummy

Published on September 5, 2008 in Tools. 0 Comments

Dawn, the prolific sew-ist of the blog Two On, Two Off has just made a duct tape dummy, which reminded me that I’ve been meaning to get this post up forever. It’s from a small website I started a few years ago; I’m now smaller than this dummy, and need to make another. Not that I have the time, of course. One of these days. Sigh.

Using a lot of information posted by a whole bunch of people on the internet, Mr. Noile and I set out to make a duct tape dummy, or dress model, for me. I needed something to use to photograph my projects, but, even more, I have wanted a dummy for years to make fitting my projects easier.

dtdducttape512.jpg

Here’s my materials list:

* A helper! (Don’t try this alone — it may work, but you’ll go crazy and it will take forever)
* Two rolls of wide silver duct tape (bigger women will need more)
* Two plus bags of firm polyester stuffing (bigger women will need more)
* An old t-shirt, or better, an old turtleneck

I prepared for the taping by wearing my usual undergarments, which was a major mistake! I tend to wear athletic bras, which are not about shaping as much as they are about comfort. It was obvious — too late — that the athletic bra helped the duct tape to squish the area in question. The result was a dummy which resembled — frighteningly — my shape without a bra at all. We’ll be doing this again one of these days, this time with a bra with a superstructure like the ones Jane Russell wore!

Over the undergarments, I wore an old, large men’s t-shirt, to which I’d sewn an extra sleeve to cover the v-neck and my throat area. To eliminate bunching, we slit the t-shirt at the center front and back and sides — later we had to slit the sleeve tops, too. Next time, I’ll use a more closely fitting old turtleneck.

The taping itself is pretty straightforward — long tapes around the broad areas, like hips and back, and smaller pieces (some ripped lengthwise to make them skinnier) for areas requiring contour, like the waist and bust. In addition to wearing a more structured bra, next time I think we’ll take a much more detailed approach to the bust area, beginning with a narrow “x” between the breasts, and then building the bust up from the bottom, putting a lot of structure into the lower bust area (kind of like an underwire bra).

I’ve noticed that lots of people don’t take the tape all the way up the neck, but I’m glad I did. It’s been very helpful to have that additional bit of anatomy to work with.

The taping itself didn’t take us long, but now I think I know why — too little time spent on the curves. I think it was about 45 minutes total. I took everyone’s advice and made sure I wasn’t going to be hobbling off to the bathroom during the taping. The thought alone just makes me shiver.

I made a stand for my double, and then slipped the form over the stand, and proceeded to stuff it, starting at the shoulders. I used firm polyester stuffing (a little over two 20 ounce bags — I’m 5 feet 3 inches, and weigh 122 pounds), and it worked just fine. I stuffed from the shoulders down, and had to rearrange the top of the stand to make sure it stayed in place as I worked, but as soon as the shoulder area was padded, that was no longer a problem. I used a dowel to get bits of stuffing into smaller areas (through the armholes, for example) as I was refining the shaping, and making the dummy firmer.

dtdcover512.jpg

I was worried that the stuffing might fall out as I worked, but that really wasn’t an issue — it seems to cling to itself, and the various curves help to retain it, too.

Once I was through stuffing, I checked the measurements, and made a few adjustments. At some point, we’ll re-do this project, but in the meantime, I got my bra-wearing contours back by putting the bra on the dummy, and stuffing it to my contours –a good temporary fix! The duct tape was just too flat to puff out using stuffing alone.

To make a fast, pinnable cover, I took a large men’s crew neck t-shirt and placed it, inside out, over my double. I pinned down the sides, slipped it off, and sewed each side, turned it right side out, and slipped it over the form. Voila! Many people have noted that it’s possible to pin into the duct tape, but it does make the pins gummy, and I suspect it would limit the life of the dummy. I love the thin cotton cover — it’s pinnable, washable, and easily replaced.

I will want to make a permanent base for underside of the next dummy, though, to give it a little more stability in the hip area. I haven’t decided yet whether I want to cut the base from a light plywood, or try to find a sturdy plastic for the job. In the meantime, the cover is pinned under, basically onto the open stuffing, which keeps it all together while I work.

I was shocked by my duct tape double (am I really shaped like that?!!), but all it took was a good look in the mirror, side-by-side, to realize how accurate it is. Mental note: time for some abdominal exercises! Somehow, the duct tape even captured my posture, and a little bit of asymmetry I’d never noticed. The good news is, of course, that alterations are now faster and more accurate. Hurrah!