The textiles area is slowly but surely moving forward. To remind everyone, textiles will be taking over half of the coworking space.
In preparation I wanted to let everyone knows the machines we are going to have in the space as we get started. This way, you can find as many YouTube tutorials as you would like so that you’ll be well versed in some of the specifics of our machines.
Sewing and Embroidery: Brother SE600. This machine is a typically powered domestic sewing machine with an embroidery attachment.
Serger: Brother 1034D. Like many sergers, the difficult bit is remembering how to thread it.
Industrial sewing: Juki LU562. An absolute beast. This is only for heavy duty sewing
If you are interested in this space, please get in touch!
I’m really glad this area is getting the attention it deserves. It was highly neglected at the former ATXHS.
As a former costumer for ren faires in California, I’ve done ample sewing and, though self taught, can find my way around a sewing machine. I am very interested in learning the embroidery machine and, well, how to use a serger.
That’s great to hear about. Hopefully this will be a space that is useful to any folks who like to make costumes. Garment construction is not a specific skill I have, so I’m always willing to get feedback about how we’re building out this space that helps us support members who want to work on such projects. I’m hoping we can find a dress form, and some clothes racks for costume and clothing uses.
The embroidery module for the sewing machine is easy to use. It has a set of built in patterns (letters, numbers, etc). @jamesfreeman has said that he found the process of downloading your own designs to use quite easy. Part of the reason i wanted to publicize those model numbers for y’all to learn those processes if it’s an area you want to try out.
Also in regards embroidery - a general thing to learn about is how to use the right stabilizers and interfacing so that the heavy stitching doesn’t just turn into one big puckered mess. I’ve most commonly used a tear away stabilizer, but there are lots of strategies.
Thanks for doing this. Amy has been doing quite a bit of needlepunch lately, including fine detail with thread. We will definitely look into the Brother for embroidery art automation.
I’m excited about the fabric room! I’m an old member that just returned… how do we go about using this room? Are there classes that need to be taken to be able to use these machines? I actually have a brother se625 embroidery machine at home (the same as the 600) may be into teaching a class at some point if need be. I’m also pretty familiar with sergers. Currently I am very curious about getting to use the sublimation printer/printer paper and heat press. As recently I bought a home vinyl cutter and had been pondering buying those two things. Never used a Juki but very excited to… I know they are incredible machines. By the way that room looks fantastic! Also I used to work at a leather armory at AZ Renaissance fair. Do we still have the tools available to hand tool leather?
We don’t have any leather tools that I’m aware of, but we’d be interested in adding them if they were supported by a class or two. I imagine we could do pretty interesting things leveraging tools we have, like cutting patterns on a laser instead of getting a die cutter.
@HelenH - I’m so glad to hear you like the textiles area! Good news, the Open Path lock has been moved, and so the textiles area is ready for your use. The door with the window should be open.
Right now, no classes are needed on the machines. And I’d love to get you involved in teaching, seeing that you’re interested in doing so. We’re going to start with “office hours”, where one of the area stewards is going to be generally available for assistance with the machines.
I’ve not been over to the space for a few weeks because of illness, but I’ll be in sometime this week. The sublimation printer and heat press are brand-spanking new, so I’m excited to learn that one as well.
If you want to DM me, I’m happy to meet you at the space, and we can talk through what you want to teach.
Also, you can 3D print them. A resin print would be more specific dimensions. Laser controls depth indirectly with beam power and you need to dial it in for awhile.
Leather doesn’t require that much force to stamp, I had no problem using acrylic. Resin print might still be strong enough, I don’t know. You can also machine them on the CNC router, but you are limited by the tooling tip size. Delrin is likely the best material at that point. You could also just CNC aluminum on the Tormach the same way.
The best handle is a carriage bolt threaded into the stamp. You’ve got the long unthreaded portion to grip, and the big hex head to hit with the mallet.
There were some leatherworking odds and ends in the old Crafts loft. I had assumed that they would show up in the Textiles room. Seems they were disposed of?
