What did you sew today?

[fjefman]

Wow, many of you are tuning out some really cool stuff. My old singer is too small for dealing with much more than 3 or 4 layers of 1000D cordura. I’d like to upgrade my machine. Any ideas on where to find a good used machine other than the typical, EBay, Craigslist, offer-up?

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Dang, my wife has an Uber Pfaff that she wont let me use. I want to start learning how to sew heavy duty crap. I think this thing could sew sheet metal together. It's got a bottom mounted motor that I believe would power a small car.

 

[Bachto]

Whipped up this shotgun sleeve last night. It has 500D Cordura outside and then I had extra hook and loop compatible fabric that I used as a liner. Pretty stoked on how it turned out for only taking me 2 hours to make.

 

[nnmarcher]

Sewed up a hammock using the hammock kit from Ripstop by the Roll. 1.6oz HyperD custom trout print fabric and it feels great. Really really easy kit for anyone to get started sewing. I need to hang it up and try it next! Also made a little stuff sack with some scrap silpoly.

 

[brhillman]

Not from today, but the new pack bag I made for this hunting season. Fits on a Kifaru frame. Been meaning to make a separate post with the full build on this but haven’t gotten around to it. Included a pic of my vintage treadle used for every stitch on the bag as well for anyone interested. Bag held up great to six days in the backcountry and six days of wall tent camp. Unfortunately no pack out use this season but held up great to plenty of pre-season weighted training.

 

[brhillman]

It’s inspiring seeing all the great stuff others here are making. Here is a simple silnylon bino cover to work with a Rick Young-style shock cord bino harness that I made today. Still kind of messing around with this idea and not totally sold on it, but I am definitely over bulky feature-packed bino harnesses:

 

[Bachto]

I needed a larger shotgun shell pouch for taking into the duck blind. I put this together last night. It velcros shut as well as having a roll top.

 

[Bachto]

I am pretty excited with this project, I needed a good duffle. 500D Cordura with ballistic for the bottom. I will make a shoulder strap and removable backpack straps. The only thing I would change next time is doing rounded corners for aesthetic.

 

[TuckTruck]

I am pretty excited with this project, I needed a good duffle. 500D Cordura with ballistic for the bottom. I will make a shoulder strap and removable backpack straps. The only thing I would change next time is doing rounded corners for aesthetic.
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Where are you buying your materials?

 

[Bachto]

Where are you buying your materials?

Rocky woods, rip stop by the roll, Seattle fabrics, sailrite. I get most of my stuff from Rockywoods but some of it depending on what I need from the other places.

 

[TuckTruck]

Rocky woods, rip stop by the roll, Seattle fabrics, sailrite. I get most of my stuff from Rockywoods but some of it depending on what I need from the other places.

Thanks for the reply. That’s great info. I just bought my daughter a singer patchwork plus machine, it’s not a heavy duty professional model, but I think it will work for us. Honestly, I hadn’t even thought of using it for hunting stuff, but I guess here’s another rabbit hole to venture down…

 

[nodakian]

More sources for hardware, webbing, etc.

- Jontay.
- Camo Fabric Depot. Good variety of cordura, less costly than Rockywoods, at least in the colors I use. Great service.
- Gerald Schwartz. They're a manufacturer of hardware and webbing. Good prices. Minimum order quantity is 25 pieces, but more is better for them, especially if you order a variety of hardware types . You have to email their sales department with requests as they aren't set up for retail. I think Jontay retails some of their stuff.

 

[MightyWhitey]

Not hunting related, but I’ve been building some tool aprons for friends. These are for hanging inside a lineman’s bucket to hold tools. The small ones have magnets on the back to stick to a truck bin door. I stole that idea. It’s been quite a pain in the ass but they get better each one I do. Still trying to learn my machine. Lots of cool stuff on here guys!

 

[FALFA]

I would buy once cry once and get a sail rite if you think you are going to do it all the time. If you want to go cheaper you could probably get away with the singer heavy duty and upgrade later. If you live in a larger city you might be able to find a sail rite used on Facebook and craigslist

+1 for the sailrite. I have a zigzag stitch one that I love. I used to have a big juki that weighed 200 pounds with a clutch motor, that I never enjoyed using. Nothing like the sailrite for what it can do and how small it is.

 

[Mt Al]

That’s cool.

I sell one for the big eyes. I hate zippers and avoid them, lol.

And, it takes forever to prototype stuff out.

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Love that elastic 'flip over' means of holding the cover in place! Very nice.

 

[goathunter.oregon]

I'm new to sewing. I bought a Thompson PW-400 walking foot sewing machine (nearly identical to Sailrite), downloaded a manual, got it threaded up and testing it out. It's working, but I have this recurring problem where I'll end up with more than one thread coming up underneath out of the bobbin. Any idea why this happens?



It starts out okay with one thread through the needle and one coming up from the bobbin, but by the end of the seam, I end up with this.

 

[TaperPin]

I'm new to sewing. I bought a Thompson PW-400 walking foot sewing machine (nearly identical to Sailrite), downloaded a manual, got it threaded up and testing it out. It's working, but I have this recurring problem where I'll end up with more than one thread coming up underneath out of the bobbin. Any idea why this happens?

View attachment 860370

It starts out okay with one thread through the needle and one coming up from the bobbin, but by the end of the seam, I end up with this.

Sewing machines can be head scratchers, but it’s just a matter of sorting it out.

Has it ever sewed correctly since you’ve owned it? If so, when someone is starting out, most odd stitching issues are traced back to the thread path being incorrect or thread tension up top or bobbin tension being too light or too hard.

With any troubleshooting it’s always a good idea to replace the needle of correct size and orientation - slightly bent or improperly installed needles have cause many headaches.

If it’s never sewed correctly, that might be why it was put up for sale. Open up the access door and make an up close video of it making a stitch turning it by hand until the problem pops up. If the hook doesnt cleanly get behind the upper thread weird things happen.

Dull, damaged or improperly adjusted hook or needle timing are a deeper issue - many adjustments aren’t intuitive, so don’t adjust anything you aren’t sure of. As the needle reaches the bottom of its travel and begins to rise the thickness of a nickel, the hook point should be at the middle of the needle if it’s properly timed. The gap between the point of the hook and the needle should be a small gap or even lightly touching, but NOT deflecting the needle. Never adjust needle to hook gap with a used needle.

Unfortunately, old machines have usually been adjusted half ass by a number of people over the years and it pays to work through them to eliminate as many issues as possible - it’s just part of the joy of owning old machines.

 

[hereinaz]

Put different color thread on top and bottom and post up pics and videos.

Also, post up pics of the fabric, showing the top and bottom stitches.

There may be nothing wrong if you are running it with no fabric and not pulling the thread out of the machine.

 

[Dos Perros]

I am sewing up some NRS copy-cat straps in a color of my choosing. It's boring but it's honest work.

 

[goathunter.oregon]

Sewing machines can be head scratchers, but it’s just a matter of sorting it out.

Has it ever sewed correctly since you’ve owned it? If so, when someone is starting out, most odd stitching issues are traced back to the thread path being incorrect or thread tension up top or bobbin tension being too light or too hard.

With any troubleshooting it’s always a good idea to replace the needle of correct size and orientation - slightly bent or improperly installed needles have cause many headaches.

If it’s never sewed correctly, that might be why it was put up for sale. Open up the access door and make an up close video of it making a stitch turning it by hand until the problem pops up. If the hook doesnt cleanly get behind the upper thread weird things happen.

Dull, damaged or improperly adjusted hook or needle timing are a deeper issue - many adjustments aren’t intuitive, so don’t adjust anything you aren’t sure of. As the needle reaches the bottom of its travel and begins to rise the thickness of a nickel, the hook point should be at the middle of the needle if it’s properly timed. The gap between the point of the hook and the needle should be a small gap or even lightly touching, but NOT deflecting the needle. Never adjust needle to hook gap with a used needle.

Unfortunately, old machines have usually been adjusted half ass by a number of people over the years and it pays to work through them to eliminate as many issues as possible - it’s just part of the joy of owning old machines.

Thanks for the tips. This is a machine that's new to me and I'm new to sewing, so that's not a great combo right off the bat! I messed around with the thread tension settings, but that didn't resolve the problem. I called around and found a local shop that actually used to sell these new and the guy knows these machines inside and out. I took it to him and he's going to go through it and get it tuned up and dialed in for me. After a quick inspection, he did say that overall, the machine is in excellent condition, so at least I didn't buy a lemon. I'm looking forward to getting it back and getting to work!