Nella categoria: lavoro professionale fatto bene, giusto?
non presente nella foto: la batteria (che sto ricaricando)
Filed under: a well done, professional job, right?
not pictured: the battery, that is currently being recharged.
POLARVIDE modular jacket
Posted on April 28, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing
Years ago I made myself a quick dressing gown from a white fleece IKEA throw and often wore it in the morning between waking up and changing into day clothes.
One day I want to make myself a fancy victorian wrapper, to use in its place, but that’s still in the early planning stage, and will require quite some work.
Then last autumn I discovered that the taxes I owed to the local lord (who provides protection from mice and other small animals) included not just a certain amount of kibbles, but also some warm textiles, and the dressing gown (which at this time was definitely no longer pristine) had to go.
For a while I had to do without a dressing gown, but then in the second half of this winter I had some time for a quick machine sewing project. I could not tackle the big victorian thing, but I still had a second POLARVIDE throw from IKEA (this time in a more sensible dark grey) I had bought with sewing intents.
The fabric in a throw isn’t that much, so I needed something pretty efficient, and rather than winging it as I had done the first time I decided I wanted to try the Modular Jacket from A Year of Zero Waste Sewing (which I had bought in the zine instalments: the jacket is in the March issue).
After some measuring and decision taking, I found that I could fit most of the pieces and get a decent length, but I had no room for the collar, and probably not for the belt nor the pockets, but I cut all of the main pieces. I had a possible idea for a contrasting collar, but I decided to start sewing the main pieces and decide later, before committing to cutting the other fabric.
As I was assembling the jacket I decided that as a dressing gown I could do without the collar, and noticed that with the fraying-free plastic fleece I didn’t really need the front facings, so I cut those in half lengthwise, pieced them together, and used them as binding to finish the front end.
Since I didn’t have enough fabric for the belt I also skipped the belt loops, but I have been wearing this with random belts and I don’t feel the need for them anyway. I’ve also been thinking about adding a button just above the bust and use that to keep it closed, but I’m still not 100% sure about it.
Another thing I still need to do is to go through the few scraps of fleece that are left and see if I can piece together a serviceable pocket or two.
Because of the size of the fabric, I ended up having quite long sleeves: I’m happy with them because they mean that I can cover my hands when it’s cold, or fold them back to make a nice cuff.
If I’ll make a real jacket with this patter I’ll have to take this in consideration, and either make the sleeves shorter or finish the seam in a way that looks nice when folded back.
Will I make a real jacket? I’m not sure, it’s not really my style of outer garment, but as a dressing gown it has already been used quite a bit (as in, almost every morning since I’ve made it :) ) and will continue to be used until too worn to be useful, and that’s a good thing.
In teoria la gonna era quasi finita da un po'. e poi l'ho provata.
Credo che lo si possa sistemare rifacendo solo una parte dell'arricciatura. E al massimo aggiungendo un po' di stoffa sotto. Spero.
In theory, the skirt had been almost finished for some time. Then I tried it on
I think I may be able to fix it by just redoing part of the cartridge pleating. And possibly a bit of a placket. I hope.
È iniziato un nuovo progetto
o forse ho fatto progressi su un progetto esistente? la parte elettronica è stata iniziata qualche settimana fa (e sta bene o male funzionando da un po')
A new project has started
or maybe an existing project is progressing? the electronics bits have been started a few weeks ago (and have been mostly working for some time)
Ho finito di cucire un risguardo all'orlo, e uno in cima perché sono a corto di stoffa, quindi pensavo di essere praticamente pronta per iniziare l'arricciatura.
Il risguardo in cima:
(credo che scucirò solo il pezzetto sopra alle giunte e ricucirò quelle nell'altro senso, e poi riattaccherò il tutto alla gonna)
I have finished adding a facing to the hem, and one to the top, since I'm short of fabric, and I was almost ready to start the cartridge pleating
the facing at the top:
(I think I will just unpick the bit over the joins in the facing, sew it back the other way around, and sew it back to the skirt.)
E tra l'altro, perché ho deciso di rifinire i margini di cucitura con un punto indietro spaziato anziché con il solito punto da orlo che è molto più veloce? Dal dritto l'aspetto è diverso, ma non *così* diverso.
(e sì, non sto usando filo in tinta, perché non ne avevo, e per questo progetto voglio usare solo cose che ho già, anziché la regola che sto usando di recente in cui devo già avere la stoffa principale, ma tutto il resto può essere acquistato)
Also, why have I decided to neaten the edges of the side seams with a prick stitch instead of a much faster hemstitch? The look from the right side is different, but not *that* different.
(and yes, I'm not using matching thread, because I didn't have any and I want to do this *completely* from the stash, rather than my recent rule of “main fabric from the stash, everything else is fair game”)
MOAR Slippers
Posted on March 7, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, FreeSoftWear
A couple of years ago, I made myself a pair of slippers in linen with a braided twine soleand then another pair of hiking slippers: I am happy to report that they have been mostly a success.
Now, as I feared, the white linen fabric wasn’t a great choice: not only it became dirt-grey linen fabric in a very short time, the area under the ball of the foot was quickly consumed by friction, just as it usually happens with bought slippers.
I have no pictures for a number of reasons, but trust me when I say that they look pretty bad.
However, the sole is still going strong, and the general concept has proved valid, so when I needed a second pair of slippers I used the same pattern, with a sole made from the same twinebut this time with denim taken from the legs of an old pair of jeans.
To make them a bit nicer, and to test the technique, I also added a design with a stencil and iridescent black acrylic paint (with fabric medium): I like the tone-on-tone effect, as it’s both (relatively) subtle and shiny.
Then, my partner also needed new slippers, and I wanted to make his too.
His preference, however, is for open heeled slippers, so I adjusted the pattern into a new one, making it from an old pair of blue jeans, rather than black as mine.
He also finds completely flat soles a bit uncomfortable, so I made an heel with the same braided twine technique: this also seems to be working fine, and I’ve also added these instructions to the braided soles ones
Both of these have now been work for a few months: the jeans is working much better than the linen (which isn’t a complete surprise) and we’re both finding them comfortable, so if we’ll ever need new slippers I think I’ll keep using this pattern.
Now the plan is to wash the linen slippers, and then look into repairing them, either with just a new fabric inner sole + padding, or if washing isn’t as successful as I’d like by making a new fabric part in a different material and reusing just the twine sole. Either way they are going back into use.
Hexagonal Pattern Weights
Posted on February 24, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:3dprint, craft:sewing
For quite a few years, I’ve been using pattern weights instead of pins when cutting fabric, starting with random objects and then mostly using some big washers from the local hardware store.
However, at about 22 g per washer, I needed quite a few of them, and dealing with them tended to get unwieldy; I don’t remember how it happened, but one day I decided to make myself some bigger weights with a few washers each.
I suspect I had seen somebody online with some nice hexagonal pattern weights, and hexagonal of course reminded me of the Stickers Standard, so of course I settled on an hexagon 5 cm tall and I decided I could 3D-print it in a way that could be filled with washers for weight.
Rather than bothering with adding a lid (and fitting it), I decided to close the bottom by gluing a piece of felt, with the added advantage that it would protect whatever the weight was being used on. And of course the top could be decorated with a nerdish sticker, because, well, I am a nerd.
I made a few of these pattern weights, used them for a while, was happy with them, and then a few days ago I received some new hexagonal stickers I had had printed, and realized that while I had taken a picture with all of the steps in assembling them, I had never published any kind of instructions on how to make them — and I had not even pushed the source file on the craft tools git repository.
And yesterday I fixed that: the instructions are now on my craft pattern website, with generated STL files, the git repository has been updated with the current sources, and now I’ve even written this blog post :)
Water Resistant Hood
Posted on February 23, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, FreeSoftWear
Many years ago I made myself a vest with lots of pockets1 in a few layers of cheap cotton, and wore the hell out of it, for the added warmth, but most importantly for the convenience provided by the pockets.
Then a few years ago the cheap cotton had started to get worn, and I decided I needed to replace it. I found a second choice (and thus cheaper :) ) version of a water-repellent cottonand made another vest, lined with regular cotton, for a total of just two layers.
This time I skipped a few pockets that I had found I didn’t use that much, and I didn’t add a hood, which didn’t play that well when worn over a hoodie, but I added some detached sleeves, for additional wind protection.
This left about 60 cm and some odd pieces of leftover fabric in my stash, for which I had no plan.
And then February2 came, and I needed a quick simple mindless handsewing projects for the first weekend, I saw the vest (which I’m wearing as much as the old one), the sleeves (which have been used much less, but I’d like to change this) and thought about making a matching hood for it, using my square hood pattern.
Since the etaproof is a bit stiff and not that nice to the touch I decide to line3 it with the same cotton as the vest and sleeves, and in the style of the pattern I did so by finishing each panel with its own lining (with regular cotton thread) and then whipstitching the panels together with the corespun cotton/poly thread recommended by the seller of the fabric. I’m not sure this is the best way to construct something that is supposed to resist the rain, but if I notice issues I can always add some sealing tape afterwards.
I do have a waterproof cape to wear in case of real rain, so this is only supposed to work for light rain anyway, and it may prove not to be an issue.
As something designed to be worn in light rain, this is also something likely to be worn in low light conditions, where 100% black may not be the wisest look. On the vest I had added reflective piping to the armscyes, but I was out of the same piping.
I did however have a spool of reflector thread made of glass fibre by Rico Design, which I think was originally sold to be worked into knitting or crochet projects (it is now discontinued) and I had never used.
I decided to try and sew a decorative blanket stitch border, a decision I had reasons to regret, since the thread broke and tangled like crazy, but in the end it was done, I like how it looks, and it seems pretty functional. I hope it won’t break with time and use, and if it does I’ll either fix it or try to redo with something else.
Of course, the day I finished sewing the reflective border it stopped raining, so I haven’t worn it yet, but I hope I’ll be able to, and if it is an horrible failure I’ll make sure to update this post.
- and I’ve just realized that I haven’t migrated that pattern to my pattern website, and I should do that. just don’t hold your breath for it to happen O:-). And for the time being it will not have step-by-step pictures, as I currently don’t need another vest.↩︎
- and February of course means a weekend in front of a screen that is showing a live-streamed conference.↩︎
- and of course I updated the pattern with instructions on how to add a lining.↩︎
Round 2, FIGHT!
ehm, no, stampa!
no, neanche. attacca?
Indovinate un po' cosa mi hanno appena consegnato?
Abbiamo fatto un ordine di gruppo, quindi una parte non sono miei: nella seconda foto c'è ciò di cui sono colpevole, selezionati in base al principio “ne ho bisogno sul mio portatile” (tranne quello di arch, che è colpa mia, ma andrà su portatile / telefoni di altri, sul *mio* va quello di *debian* :D )
Round two, FIGHT!
ehm, no. print!
no. stick?
Anyway, guess what I've just received
We did a group order, so some aren't mine, but the second picture has the ones I'm guilty of, mostly selected because I need them on my laptop (except for the Arch one, that one is my fault, but will go on other people's laptops / phones, mine will have the *Debian* one :D )
Nella categoria: domande che forse non avrei dovuto pormi.
È possibile #tessere della fettuccia spigata con le tavolette con un telaio a cintura?
È un buon modo di usare il mio tempo, quando posso comprare la fettuccia spigata in merceria? (non in lino, e non nei colori in cui trovo il filo di lino)
Usare del filo Nm 24 vuol dire che non finirò mai?
Nella foto si vede dove ho iniziato con alcuni passaggi 1:1, per stabilizzare il tutto, e poi ho iniziato con il minimo indispensabile per sentirmela di togliere il tutto dalle morse e spostarlo sul telaio a cintura.
E questo filato marrone è cotone, non lino, sto tenendo il filo bello di lino per quando sarò sicura che il tutto effettivamente funzioni.
Filed under: questions I'm not sure it was wise to ask myself.
Is it possible to #weave a twill tape with tablets on a #backstrapLoom? (apparently yes)
Is it a good use of my time to do so, when I can buy twill tape from the haberdasher? (not in linen, and not in the colours I can buy linen thread in)
Does Nm 24 yarn / thread mean that it will take forever?
Note that I've started with a few rows of plain weave, just to stabilize everything, and I've only woven the bare minimum I felt confortable with before removing the warm from the clamps and moving it to the backstrap loom.
Also, this brown yarn is cotton, not linen, I'm keeping the nice linen for when I'm sure that this whole thing can actually work.
Conference Talk Timeout Ring, Part One
Posted on February 4, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms, madeof:bits
A few ago I may have accidentally bought a ring of 12 RGB LEDs; I soldered temporary leads on it, connected it to a CircuitPython supported board and played around for a while.
They we had a couple of friends come over to remote FOSDEM together, and I had talked with one of them about WS2812 / NeoPixels, so I brought them to the living room, in case there was a chance to show them in sort-of-use.
Then I was dealing with playing the various streams as we moved from one room to the next, which lead to me being called “video team”, which lead to me wearing a video team shirt (from an old DebConf, not FOSDEM, but still video team), which lead to somebody asking me whether I also had the sheet with the countdown to the end of the talk, and the answer was sort-of-yes (I should have the ones we used to use for our Linux Day), but not handy.
But I had a thing with twelve things in a clock-like circle.
A bit of fiddling on the CircuitPython REPL resulted, if I remember correctly, in something like:
import board
import neopixel
import time
num_pixels = 12
pixels = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.GP0, num_pixels)
pixels.brightness = 0.1
def end(min):
pixels.fill((0, 0, 0))
for i in range(12):
pixels[i] = (127 + 10 * i, 8 * (12 - i), 0)
pixels[i-1] = (0, 0, 0)
time.sleep(min * 5) # min * 60 / 12Now, I wasn’t very consistent in running
end, especially since I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to run it at the beginning of the talk with the full duration or just in the last 5 - 10 minutes depending of the length of the slot, but I’ve had at least one person agree that the general idea has potential, so I’m taking these notes to be able to work on it in the future.One thing that needs to be fixed is the fact that with the ring just attached with temporary wires and left on the table it isn’t clear which LED is number 0, so it will need a bit of a case or something, but that’s something that can be dealt with before the next fosdem.
And I should probably add some input interface, so that it is self-contained and not tethered to a computer and run from the REPL.
(And then I may also have a vague idea for putting that ring into some wearable thing: good thing that I actually bought two :D )
And we're ready to remote #fosdem
(I know, the couch is not full *yet*, but will be later in the weekend)
A couple of old pictures, because my spinning is currently temporarily on hold
I spin with a medieval-style spindle + friction fit whorl combination, mostly wool (I have a distaff dressed with hemp, but it's going *extremely slowly*), often wool that I've combed myself.
Sono arrivati
Grazie alla persona sul fediverso che ha consigliato pretty good stickers: non ricordo chi tu sia, ma è stato un buon consiglio. :D
They have arrived!
Thanks to the person on the fediverse who recommended pretty good stickers: I don't remember who you are, but it was a good recommendation :D
Winter
Posted on January 10, 2025
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:painting, medium:acrylic
A few days ago1 I wanted to paint, but I didn’t know what to paint, so I did a few more colour tests to find out which green combinations I can get out of the available yellows and blues (and greens) acrylic I have (from a cheap student grade line).
I liked the cool grey tones in the second to last line, from 200 “Naples yellow” (PY3 PY83 PW6) and 410 Ultramarine blue (PB29), so I went up a step on the scale of “things to do when having a desire to paint, but the utter inability to actually paint something ” and did a bit of a study with those two colours plus titanium white.
And btw, painting with acrylics on watercolour paper taped to a sheet of scrap paper works just fine for stuff like this that is not supposed to last, but the work will get glued to the paper below when (not if) the paint overflows :D
- i.e. almost three months, and then I wrote 95% of this post and forgot to finish and publish it.↩︎
Intanto, quando c'è LEI i treni viaggiano in anticipo!
e no, non mi risulta che sia *partito*, è solo l'orario in cui il treno prima (RE 2516) da Milano a Porto Ceresio è arrivato a Gallarate. e lì si è fermato in attesa di ripartire, causa guasto ad uno scambio
(e adesso posso riaprire il tracking dei treni che volevo veramente tracciare, dopo averli chiusi tutti per fare lo screenshot buffo senza perdita di privacy :D )
TFW you have to reflash a device on site, and forgot home the mini-breadboard and jumper cables that you use to ground pin 9 on the board, but an electrician has just finished working on the 230V lines and they have left droppings (i.e. small bits of electric cable of unknown size)
it worked, the device is now reflashed and safely in position :D
