Fashion Incubator » Machines & Equipment http://www.fashion-incubator.com How to start a clothing line or run the one you have, better. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:36:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Beginner’s guide to sewing with industrial machines pt.3 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/beginner%e2%80%99s-guide-to-sewing-with-industrial-machines-pt-3/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/beginner%e2%80%99s-guide-to-sewing-with-industrial-machines-pt-3/#comments Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:13:26 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9592 pt.1 and pt.2) with a mention of getting electrical service to the machines. If you just have a machine or two, the space is relatively small in that you can locate machines close to outlets, this isn't much of a problem. However, if you have a larger open room, electrical service delivery becomes a bit trickier. For this example I'll use my shop. electrical_service_to_sewing_machines_smEven though my space is small as these things go (less than 3,000 sq ft.), I don't have the option of locating machines next to outlets. In the short term one can use extension cords but that can get you into trouble with the authorities if yours is a commercial venture. Even if it's just you, electrical cords are unsightly and unsafe. You have two basic options; both involve drop down electrical service from overhead. You may not have known that but most of the electrical service in a sewing facility comes from overhead. It makes things much neater and safer. Mr. Fashion-Incubator installed pedestals. From the circuit overhead, he installed junction boxes and then electrical outlets closer to the point of delivery (larger image). We also used the outlets to wire in the overhead lighting for those machines. This type of service is good if you are settled and won't need to shift machines around. Oh and if you're wondering, the brown fabric are covers for the machines and thread stands (again thanks to Stu who sent me the fabric!). It is so dusty in the southwest, I need to do that. You should probably do it too.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/beginner%e2%80%99s-guide-to-sewing-with-industrial-machines-pt-3/feed/ 2 Beginner’s guide to sewing with industrial machines pt.2 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/beginner%e2%80%99s-guide-to-sewing-with-industrial-machines-pt-2/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/beginner%e2%80%99s-guide-to-sewing-with-industrial-machines-pt-2/#comments Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:32:34 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9552 yesterday's promising start, you'll probably be disappointed today except for maybe one of my prize sewing secrets that I will tell you about. I did some follow up to see if there was existing video on the web on how to manage sewing on an industrial -why duplicate efforts? The first source (which had been mentioned on the forum already) was Esther's sleeve setting tutorial. Esther uses a home machine (photographed step by step) but it's no different on an industrial. Another source I found was a quilting video showing the joining of a convex and concave curve, again on a home machine but there are minimal differences to industrial sewing. Caveats on the video are that she is sewing two tight curves so her hands are relatively close to the plate. This is the same for similar curves on an industrial. If sewing longer curves or straight lines, your hands would be farther from the throat plate. The skinny: You use your left hand to manage the top layer of fabric; the right hand to handle the lower layer. You do not use both hands to hold (down) the two layers or your fingers to hold the two edges together -much less pins. You should not be using your hands to push the material into the throat plate; a good machine will feed it evenly. Each layer should be managed independently and separately of the other. You only worry about the seam lines being aligned until just before it goes under the needle.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/beginner%e2%80%99s-guide-to-sewing-with-industrial-machines-pt-2/feed/ 24 Beginner’s guide to sewing with industrial machines http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/beginners-guide-to-sewing-with-industrial-machines/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/beginners-guide-to-sewing-with-industrial-machines/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 23:43:05 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9545 servo machines: Durkopp Adler Lockstitch model 271-140342 (basic sewing machine) Juki DLN 9010 SH Needle feed Reliable 3/5 thread overlock model 3316N GG740H That reminds me, you may ask what is a servo? Servos are relatively new being one of two types of motors used on industrial machines. The other kind you may be more familiar with is a clutch motor. Clutch motors are noisy (I like the sound); servos are completely silent, as quiet or more than a home machine even at top speed. Stuart wrote a review of a servo motor. Industrial machines are set up differently from home machines. With the latter, the motor is built into the machine head itself. The motor on industrials are separate, usually mounted to the underside of the table. This is useful because you can switch them out if they go bad.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/beginners-guide-to-sewing-with-industrial-machines/feed/ 32 The story of Roy or how to learn to sew in 4 months http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/the-story-of-roy-or-how-to-learn-to-sew-in-4-months/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/the-story-of-roy-or-how-to-learn-to-sew-in-4-months/#comments Wed, 25 May 2011 22:00:14 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9488 Danielle reminds me to tell you the story of Roy. Roy makes jeans. Very nice ones; I love his workmanship. There's nothing I can tell you about Roy that you can't read on his site except to say he's a good source of inspiration. He taught himself to sew respectably well within four months. Roy's background is in metal fabrication. Somehow, I'm not surprised. I've said to pretend your pattern pieces are sheet metal many times. If you can fabricate those to match, you can sew anything. I like his shop -which you can see in the videos on his site. It may look messy to you but it's cleaner than a lot of places. I like that he has nice tools and is using proper materials; the genuine stuff. Everything from (real) pattern paper, hooks, spreader to machines. Even his jury rigged, safety-pinned on ironing board cover is the real deal. You could learn a lot about what materials and equipment to have on hand by watching his videos. If you're handy, you could do it very inexpensively. None of it was purchased new; it's mature technology and very low cost. Well, except for maybe the tables if you can't get them local. More than anything, I like to watch his handling of materials as he feeds them through the machines. No one would say his handling is better than a line stitcher with 20 years experience but he has a knack for it. An ear too. In the second video on his site (youtube permalink), he pulls a bobbin before it bleeds out because he can hear the rattle (around min 5:15). I'm curious, can you hear your bobbin rattling before it runs out? I would never have thought to mention it. roy_jeans]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/the-story-of-roy-or-how-to-learn-to-sew-in-4-months/feed/ 31 Manual of Work Garment Manufacture http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/manual-of-work-garment-manufacture/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/manual-of-work-garment-manufacture/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:27:30 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=8332 coverallFor my fourth entry in this vintage book series available for download from the Library of Congress comes Manual of Work Garment Manufacture: How to improve quality and reduce costs copyright 1921 Union Special (Machine Company). I think this is a lovely book (100+ pages) -but then consider the source. Again I direct your attention to front matter of the old texts. Snapshots of life in a seemingly more genteel age is interesting -beyond the hilarity of infighting, feuds and libelous slanders between competing authorities. The second paragraph of this work's introduction is unintentionally a bit sad if not tragic. My comments appear in brackets:
That the sewing machine deserves credit for a good portion of this goes without saying, but it is generally conceded that Union Special machines revolutionized the overall industry [true] by doing away with the old bundle system [not true]. This enables each operator to remain continuously on one operation [this describes a bundle system as we know it today], resulting in greater and better production.
I regret if my comments lend a critical impression of Union Special; my intent is to draw attention to the migration of meaning as it relates to common work practices. The introduction continues:]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/manual-of-work-garment-manufacture/feed/ 5 PSA: Caring for your cutting table http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/psa-caring-for-your-cutting-table/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/psa-caring-for-your-cutting-table/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 02:05:18 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=7810 oiling_tables Yes, I was oiling my cutting table. This is something you need to do every so often; laying down lemon oil helps to maintain and lubricate cutting table surfaces. And it smells nice. Can't speak for your part of the world but it doesn't seem to matter how much you put on in the Southwest, the table surface always wants more.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/psa-caring-for-your-cutting-table/feed/ 6 Keeping stuff can be riskier than getting rid of it http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/keeping-stuff-can-be-riskier-than-getting-rid-of-it/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/keeping-stuff-can-be-riskier-than-getting-rid-of-it/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:32:37 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=7039 Short version: Yesterday I made the weighty decision to break it off with a long time friend. I was pulling all the weight in the relationship, the only one who was growing. Reece was inert and passive, the most active thing he did was collect dust. Truth be told, I wanted to reclaim the space in my life to make a place for a new friend. Conveniently enough, via MR this morning, I find the confessions of a life-long slob who decides to get organized to legitimize my decision after the fact -the best kind. The take away: Saving allows the hoarder to avoid making what they view as risky decisions. That hurt. I'm nothing if not risk averse. I sometimes prefer to make no decision than a potentially bad decision. Truth be told, sometimes the risky decision is to keep it. reece_s2Long version: I took my little Reece S2 buttonholer to the dump on Sunday. It was an old fishtail button holer, so old it had a counter from the days when you couldn't buy the machine, you had to lease it from Reece (now AMF) and pay a royalty for every button hole sewn. Letting Reece go made me feel a little sad but not guilty. I was going to take a picture of it, forlornly strewn on the concrete floor where I'd heaved it (no small feat) in the metals recycling section at the city dump. I think I was sad I'd been so stupid; that machine cost me a lot of money over the years.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/keeping-stuff-can-be-riskier-than-getting-rid-of-it/feed/ 19 SPESA: Murata Shirring, Smocking and Pin-Tucking http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/spesa-murata-shirring-smocking-and-pin-tucking/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/spesa-murata-shirring-smocking-and-pin-tucking/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:00:37 +0000 Stuart Friedberg http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=6875 Murata, a brand of the Weixiang Machinery Company of Taiwan, was showing an entire line of smocking and shirring machines, with pintuck attachments available for many of them. They have machines ranging from 12 needles up to 118 needles, using as many as 354 threads. murata logoFirst, let me give a little background on this kind of machinery. Multineedle machines like this invariably do chainstitch rather than lockstitch. There is one basic thread per needle with no bobbin under the needle. With needles set every 1/4" or 3/16" apart, there is no room for a bobbin. Instead, there is a looper which moves back and forth to form the stitch. Engineers can cram many loopers into a tight space since they all move in unison. To complicate things, there is such a thing as two-thread chainstitch, and many of Murata's machines do it. They still use loopers and unlimited length threads, but there are sets of threads both above (passing through needle eyes) and below (passing through a guide block then around loopers). When you have a multineedle machine, you are not required to install all the needles. If you have seen shirred fabric with a group of lines of stitching, then a gap where the shirring shows nicely, then another group of stitching, that was probably done on a big machine with the needles removed for the gaps. Before I forget, you can do shirring a couple of different ways. You can use elastic thread, or use regular thread and gather the material during the stitch. Most of Murata's shirring machines use elastic thread, either as the upper or lower chain stitch thread or as an additional "captured" thread that isn't part of the chainstitch. They do have one shirring model that does non-elastic gathering.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/spesa-murata-shirring-smocking-and-pin-tucking/feed/ 2 SPESA: Trip report on machines and Lean from Lisa Blank http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/spesa-trip-report-on-machines-and-lean-from-lisa-blank/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/spesa-trip-report-on-machines-and-lean-from-lisa-blank/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:18:55 +0000 Guest Author http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=6860 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/spesa-trip-report-on-machines-and-lean-from-lisa-blank/feed/ 5 SPESA: Industrial sewing machines plus http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/spesa-industrial-sewing-machines-plus/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/spesa-industrial-sewing-machines-plus/#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 00:36:03 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=6819 sirubaWhat do you know about Siruba sewing machines? The first I heard of them was fifteen or so years ago. I didn't pay any attention because I thought these were exclusive to swimwear which is not my area. At SPESA, I learned Siruba (Kaulin Mfg) has been in business about 45 years, starting as a contract manufacturer of machines for Juki and Singer. If you're anything like me and hear "contract manufacturer" and know they're now competing in the same space, your antennae are raised. You have to wonder about the IP back story. At least I do. Judging from the versatility of their machines, the technology is wholly their own (they're ISO 9002 certified). Consider the buttonholer -I have got to annoy these people, their site isn't going to convince anyone to buy anything- the BH790 does 30 different kinds for the unheard of price of $3,000. Or maybe the price was $2,000. My notes are horrible. Considering you're lucky to buy a used machine from someone else that does only one kind of button hole for $3,000, I was sure I misheard the speaker. It has a built in indexer of sorts. Depending on the number of desired size button holes, it'll do three in a row (spacing is configurable from the control panel). They had three machines I looked at. A coverstitch (awesome, $2,000), the button holer ($3,000) and the flatlock machine for $4,000. Yes, only 4K. Better known used flatlock machines run $4,500.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/spesa-industrial-sewing-machines-plus/feed/ 18