Tips and Techniques - a thread for MYOG types

Clare

Thru Hiker
@cathyjc sounds right. That way the bulk of the quilt will be to the left and only the collar will be to the right.

Although I think I would have tried to sew the inner collar to the inner fabric and the outer collar to the outer fabric (with the orientation as Cathy describes) then put the insulation in the collar and then put the insulation in the main part of the quilt and tacked the collar insulation to the body insulation before sewing up the main quilt. In order to avoid a sewn through seam at the lower edge of the collar. For cold spot reasons. But would be more complicated to do it like that.

Where does the drawstring go? At bottom or top edge of the collar?
 

cathyjc

Thru Hiker
That makes sense! Tired brain. Yes, thankfully this machine has a free arm.

However, I'm not sure what you mean by a binding type edge? Like hemming the edge?

Like @Clare suggests above - binding is a narrow edging material - you might want something more like a "collar" - same idea.
 

oreocereus

Thru Hiker
Gotcha. Yeah I initially wanted to imitate the AS tucas poncho design, but felt it might get a bit tricky as a first project.

I saw another design, which looks a bit simpler:
https://liteway.equipment/sleeper-quilt

It’s a bit hard to tell, but it looks like it’s just a flap to cover the drafts/maybe use as a neck collar.
 

oreocereus

Thru Hiker
Hope so too. It’s only really for summer times when I might think about not bringing my jacket anyway, which I’ve done a few times then felt a touch colder than wanted watching a sunset etc.
 

Clare

Thru Hiker
Cuben stress strength: I have some left over cuben 2.92oz and I’m thinking of making a chair sling out of it. The silnylon i used in the last version was too light and tore at the stress point.

Am I right in thinking that cuben, if stitched and under stress would also be weak. I’m thinking of stitching and then taping the stitches to give extra glue over the holes. Is it strong when bonded but weakened significantly by stitching?
 

Teepee

Thru Hiker
Cuben stress strength: I have some left over cuben 2.92oz and I’m thinking of making a chair sling out of it. The silnylon i used in the last version was too light and tore at the stress point.

Am I right in thinking that cuben, if stitched and under stress would also be weak. I’m thinking of stitching and then taping the stitches to give extra glue over the holes. Is it strong when bonded but weakened significantly by stitching?

Cuben has very little stretch. When it's sewn, force is very localised to just a very small area and so it tears. It also suffers from creep (all UHMWPE does). It's the reason why there are no commercial cuben hammocks; back in the day when Cuben first came out, hammock makers scrabbled to make and sell hammocks from it but they all tore and dumped folk to the ground. When bonded, the bonding spreads the force more and the adhesive provides some elasticity, this is why it's a stronger bond.
When sewn and bonded, the sewing helps stop the adhesive creep. The bonding over the top spreads the load.
If I were you, I'd likely look at Cuben sail construction...it uses 'fingers' that radiate away from the high stress points.

Nylon however, has a lot of stretch and spreads the force around more of the stitched area. It also doesn't suffer from creep. Nylon in this application has a lot of benefits over Cuben and I'd look at how you sew it just as much as the fabric weight.
I made a chair sling from Nylon 0.9 6:6, it tore instantly. The same fabric makes some of my hammocks and has done 100's of nights with my fat arse in it. This difference in performance is simply down the spreading the applied load over a large enough area.
 

Clare

Thru Hiker
Cuben has very little stretch. When it's sewn, force is very localised to just a very small area and so it tears. It also suffers from creep (all UHMWPE does). It's the reason why there are no commercial cuben hammocks; back in the day when Cuben first came out, hammock makers scrabbled to make and sell hammocks from it but they all tore and dumped folk to the ground. When bonded, the bonding spreads the force more and the adhesive provides some elasticity, this is why it's a stronger bond.
When sewn and bonded, the sewing helps stop the adhesive creep. The bonding over the top spreads the load.
If I were you, I'd likely look at Cuben sail construction...it uses 'fingers' that radiate away from the high stress points.

Nylon however, has a lot of stretch and spreads the force around more of the stitched area. It also doesn't suffer from creep. Nylon in this application has a lot of benefits over Cuben and I'd look at how you sew it just as much as the fabric weight.
I made a chair sling from Nylon 0.9 6:6, it tore instantly. The same fabric makes some of my hammocks and has done 100's of nights with my fat arse in it. This difference in performance is simply down the spreading the applied load over a large enough area.

Cheers. I’ll try a differently constructed nylon sling then before cutting up my expensive cuben, which is probably enough for another pack. Not that I ever want to make a pack again !!
 

Teepee

Thru Hiker
:biggrin:

Packs are quite labour intensive. I enjoy them up to the point where they need manoevring under the machine and need constant adjustment to avoid a sew through.
 

Clare

Thru Hiker
It has taken a huge amount of time!! Plus waiting for all the extra component bits when the bits I originally got turned out to be not quite right or got used up on my 3prototypes. Now I am so nearly finished and it turns out the extreme tex sent me the hook side but not the loop side for my hook and loop. Aggghhh.
 
Does anyone have any tips for flat felling the curve of the bottom of the internal cavity of the rucksack? I have a 10mm seam allowance and pinned the edges with clips every 5mm or so but puckering is hard to get over as I sew, or try to, around the corner. When I made the shopping bag sack I made square corners and those were easy. I changed to 1-2 mm stitch length and that helped, but wondering if anyone has any tips. Should I just have a square corner? What are people doing on theirs? Even a link to a Youtube clip would help if anyone knows of one. Thanks.
 
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MikeinDorset

Ultralighter
Another question for the thread: I'll soon be making an apex 133 overbag with some light taffeta fabric. Can I apply Kam snaps directly through the taffeta and apex 133? I don't want to use grosgrain tabs like on a quilt.
 

Marco

Ultralighter
Another question for the thread: I'll soon be making an apex 133 overbag with some light taffeta fabric. Can I apply Kam snaps directly through the taffeta and apex 133? I don't want to use grosgrain tabs like on a quilt.

Although it will hold, I recommend backing the fabric with a strip of stronger fabric. This will hold better in the long term, and also makes operating the buttons easier.

Something like this:

IMG_3451.jpeg
 

Clare

Thru Hiker
Does anyone have any tips for flat felling the curve of the bottom of the internal cavity of the rucksack? I have a 10mm seam allowance and pinned the edges with clips every 5mm or so but puckering is hard to get over as I sew, or try to, around the corner. When I made the shopping bag sack I made square corners and those were easy. I changed to 1-2 mm stitch length and that helped, but wondering if anyone has any tips. Should I just have a square corner? What are people doing on theirs? Even a link to a Youtube clip would help if anyone knows of one. Thanks.
I would cut v shape snips into the seam allowance at intervals to facilitate the curve by removing the excess fabric, taking care that the snip doesn’t go right up to the stitch line. If you are going to seam seal the seam or tape it then the risk of water ingress at these points will be eliminated and removing the excess fabric will make it easier to tape anyway.
 

Enzo

Thru Hiker
I've moved from flat fell seams, when you have webbing and or elastic/multiple layers of fabric folding it all is tricky on a straight let alone around curves, and then there is having to avoid pockets etc on the right side. You could cut one panel with 20mm seam allowance and just fold 10mm of that over the stack of other fabrics but that doesn't help going around corners.
I find feeding the top layer not flat against the bottom layer but near perpendicular, as it would be with a loaded pack helps.
 
I would cut v shape snips into the seam allowance at intervals to facilitate the curve by removing the excess fabric, taking care that the snip doesn’t go right up to the stitch line. If you are going to seam seal the seam or tape it then the risk of water ingress at these points will be eliminated and removing the excess fabric will make it easier to tape anyway.
Yes, great idea. Thanks very much. Shall try it.
 
I've moved from flat fell seams, when you have webbing and or elastic/multiple layers of fabric folding it all is tricky on a straight let alone around curves, and then there is having to avoid pockets etc on the right side. You could cut one panel with 20mm seam allowance and just fold 10mm of that over the stack of other fabrics but that doesn't help going around corners.
I find feeding the top layer not flat against the bottom layer but near perpendicular, as it would be with a loaded pack helps.
Thanks, that's exactly how I got them done, but because I'm a novice they are too rough for my liking, but it certainly worked.
 
Just some feedback-I unpicked the curves Clare and Enzo and changing to the 1-2 mm stitch length helped a lot. Taking Enzo's point I will certainly think on a 'curve'. My larger SWD had the squarish corners-so why not? I did notice my other 30L rucksack has the curve but is not flat felled, it has a piece of piping/light webbing sewn over and encloses the the seam allowance to finish the seam.
 

Clare

Thru Hiker
Just some feedback-I unpicked the curves Clare and Enzo and changing to the 1-2 mm stitch length helped a lot. Taking Enzo's point I will certainly think on a 'curve'. My larger SWD had the squarish corners-so why not? I did notice my other 30L rucksack has the curve but is not flat felled, it has a piece of piping/light webbing sewn over and encloses the the seam allowance to finish the seam.

I had squareish corners on a prototype and found that it made a huge difference to the sense of the weight of the pack pulling backwards. So much so that i remade it with a very pronounced curved bottom corner. I know some packs are more square but when I looked closely at the ArcBlast there is a very curved bottom corner. Don't like square bottom corners, me.
 
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