Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

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Sclass
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More sewing trash

Post by Sclass »

I needed a way to get my ipod out of my pocket while riding my ski machine. I made this bag from an old coffee bag. Mylar bags are really tough material. But easy to sew. Be careful, the stitching weakens the material significantly and it rips along stitches. I think fusing by melting is the more appropriate joining tech to use on this stuff. Regardless, an ipod carrier for free.

ETA - forgot to mention. I’ve also sewed some envelopes to carry our RFID enabled credit cards. I’ve heard electronic pickpockets are getting prolific in my area during the pandemic. Several neighbors had their cars stolen presumably by people reading their keyless start fobs remotely. The cars were just gone in the morning. Apparently they were able to pick off the code from the key fob hanging in my neighbor’s kitchen cupboard. I don’t have one of these keyless start cars but I bet this material would stop the signal. It’s basically plastic coated aluminum foil. A tinfoil hat for your cards and keys. You can even superglue or tape one together without stitching.

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Sclass
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by Sclass »

I bought this tiny oscilloscope I've mentioned in the diy electronics thread. I really wanted a nice case for it because I want to take it on the road with me when I do tech support calls.

I sewed up this bag this morning.

Made from discarded vinyl place mats I found in our trash. Our "look" changes every six months and I find stuff like this in our trash. They're durable woven plastic. Found an old zipper. I hoarded some shower curtain vinyl to make a clear pocket for the instruction book. I decided to put in an inner divider to keep my scope separated from my probe clip and charging wire.

Quick project.

Anyhow, here it is.

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nice tidy kit.

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horsewoman
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by horsewoman »

Ha, that's a neat idea with the clear shower curtain! I'm organizing all my music stuff (tuner, tuning wrenches, cables, in-ear monitor... it's a lot of random small stuff) in zipper pouches. I struggle to remember what's in the pouches. This way I could label them easily.

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Sclass
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by Sclass »

I decided to make another knife sheath. My prior experiment came out a little flimsy because I used salvaged upholstery leather from an old couch I found on the curb. It was thin and very pliable. Over the years I watched enough leather craft videos I eventually figured out I wanted vegetable tanned leather. It's what sheaths, gun holsters and tough stuff are made of. It requires some different working techniques because it is tough. I purchased a bag of remnants online for $25 shipped. It had enough little scraps to experiment with. Not sure if it is a great deal. 2 lbs of scrap. But I wasn't ready to buy a big piece of leather and decide not to do this.

The sheath is for my Victorinox Outrigger knife. It is a very big pocket knife. Too big for my pocket. Hence I never carry it. It stays in a drawer all the time and is kind of useless. I decided to either buy a sheath or make one. I like horizontal carry sheaths because I don't like the Batman look. So given the limited number or horizontal models out there and their price/quality trade offs I decided to make.

This took many hours over a two day period. I am not saving money. It was done for fun. I bought a few additional leather punches which cost me $8 online. I bought some wood drawer pulls to make leather slickers for the edge slicking. $4. Overall it was pretty rewarding and relaxing. The stitching had kind of a zen feeling to it. Satisfaction is off the charts. I probably can make another ten sheaths with the remnants in the scrap bag. So it isn't a budget buster.

The knife. Too big. I start by making a mold out of scrap wood from my woodpile. I want to wet form the leather into kind of box shape that is custom fit to the knife. Might as well make it fit perfectly since I'm going to make a bespoke sheath.

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I try to get a rough estimate of how much leather I'll need by folding some paper over the mold.

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Soak a panel of leather in water for 15 minutes and stretch it over the mold. I used staples to hold it down. That was butchery. Most craftspeople have other ways to hold the leather to the mold that doesn't poke holes. I decided I could live with holes on my first molded sheath. Veg tanned leather soaks and molds really well. When it dries it's like a little shell.

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The next day I removed the staples and checked the fit. Very promising.

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I glued my panels together to get ready for stitching. Put in a snap because it would be hard after it was stitched up.

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I started by punching my leather. I bought this cheap set of punches online and made the sewing holes. I learned about this tool on youtube. It nicely spaces the holes and makes big holes that are easy to put a needle through.

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I started stitching with a sewing awl which I documented in the first posts of this thread. It was awkward for this job. It would have worked but I just was fumbling around with it and struggling to get tight consistent stitches. I decided to do it the way the youtube videos do it. Two needle stitching or saddle stitching. Primitive. Slow. Oddly relaxing though.

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stitched and trimmed. I did some sanding and slicking of the edges using a homemade slicker. I used some drawer pulls attached to my cordless drill. Used water as the slicking agent. Worked perfectly.

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colored it with cheap leather dye. oiled with neats oil.

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Done. About five hours of work. Feels stiff which is what I wanted. Not bad for a first project in veg tan. I made the usual mistakes the first time through and learned a lot by doing. I recall seeing men tooling leather on Olvera St., Los Angeles as a kid and I realize it's a hard living.

Next time I'll make a holster for my rose shears. I never have them when I'm working on my shrubs so a molded holster will be wonderful.

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ertyu
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by ertyu »

really cool :D

horsewoman
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by horsewoman »

That's extremely cool #sclass!
I had no idea that leather could be formed that way.

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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by jacob »

horsewoman wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 11:23 am
That's extremely cool #sclass!
I had no idea that leather could be formed that way.
Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcADSpi7kXQ

sky
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by sky »

@Sclass

Really nice work.

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Sclass
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

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Thanks. I made a couple of more. I have a very large collection of swiss army knives. I used to buy TSA seizure lots on eBay. The prices aren't that great anymore but years ago I could get big boxes of Victorinox and Wenger knives for very little money.

Anyhow I have a few of these. These are large sized red handled swiss army knives. A Champion and Explorer if I recall the names correctly. Too heavy to carry around in the pocket.

10 hours of consumed on these. I wonder how people making these on Etsy get by selling them for $50 each. Doesn't sound like a very good hourly wage. Maybe they use cnc laser cutter and mass production techniques.

Well, this has been interesting. I always wanted to work with this kind of veg tanned leather.

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Sclass
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

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many hours later. Pretty good for $25 of scraps. I still have a lot left. I've focused on using the little pieces.
Soul craft. It goes a long way towards making me feel good. Or maybe that's the glue? :lol:

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Sclass
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

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I stopped by my place in LA last night and picked up my Fiskars pruning shears. I have wanted to make a custom molded leather holster for these but they were in a drawer fifty miles away for the last couple of months.

The issue with these clippers is that I never have them when I need them. I'm mowing, strimming or edging and there's a sapling growing right in the middle of the path. And I don't have them. They're 100' away on a post or shelf where I have to walk back, retrieve them, then continue on my way trimming. If I carry them, I inevitably leave them on the ground and they get lost till my mower finds them next month.

While hanging around my favorite taco truck I noticed the yard work guys all had their clippers in leather holsters on their belts. Of course I thought. They need a pair on hand at all times while hedge clipping, mowing and strimming. So I figured okay, just retrieve my pair in LA and sew up a nice leather holster just like the swiss army knife sheaths.

This morning I found my wife had tossed out a thin plastic cutting board. She does this when they get worn. They're a really tough flat plastic sheet that is a shame to toss out. So instead of using leather for my clipper holster I set out to use waste plastic cutting board.

Clippers.
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Discarded cutting board. More than enough material. My plan was to put a little 3D printed blade protector inside a pocket but instead I ended up making a loop to hold the blade. It was more or a minimalist design. I used pop rivets to hold it all together. Easier than sewing.

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Just some strips formed into shapes by folding. Pop rivets and a snap. Could have also been done with a milk carton wall but this cutting board material is stronger. To cut it I used a rotary cutter (also fiskars). I just run it back and forth five times till it cuts through. Detail cuts are done with heavy duty scissors.

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Done. This is a really fast fabrication technique. Cut plastic, drill, pop in rivets.
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mountainFrugal
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by mountainFrugal »

Nice! I really like this technique. I want to make one for our sheers! I often have the same problem as you... they are always 100 feet away.

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Sclass
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

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clippers installment 2. I had that 3d printed insert lying there unused so I decided I could consume the rest of the cutting board.

This time instead of rivets which are kind of hard to set with the rivet gun (especially in plastic) I decided to try something easier that every one has at home. Staples. Kind of. I have this heavy duty stapler for doing those big 100 page documents. I also used a staple gun. But the point is, you can join materials with staples instead of needle and thread or rivets. It's fast. This thing took me 20 minutes to put together. Not counting the 3d modelling and printing which took 3 hours mostly of print time.

Sadly we toss out all kinds of interesting materials that can be repurposed. All it takes is a need and some creativity.

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Staples! This went together so fast it felt like cheating.

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jennypenny
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by jennypenny »

I am really enjoying your posts @sclass. I'm developing a long list of sewing projects for the winter. I might need a stronger machine for some though. :(

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Sclass
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by Sclass »

RFID card protectors from old coffee bags.

Electronic pickpockets are hard at work in my area. I found a good use for this coffee bag material. It is plastic coated aluminum. Extremely tough. It has becoming more and more popular for food packaging. Unfortunately American recyclers haven't figured out how to recycle it because it is neither and aluminum can nor plastic bag. So for now it goes in the landfill or incinerator. I noticed a YouTube video on German recycling showed how they sort and recycle these bags out and separate the plastic and aluminum. But we have a long way to go stateside.

I've been piling these bags up. The coffee ones smell good. I have this vision of making a raincoat out of them. Or maybe a space blanket style quilted top for my bed. :lol: I bet it would really keep the heat in.

For the moment I made two RFID shields for my tap credit cards. I tested it on a payment point of sale at the store and it definitely makes the card unreadable.

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ETA - mistakenly called NFC cards RFID. They’re technically different. I’m trying to protect my cards that are tapped on a vendor’s payment scanner. The kind with the little radio wave symbol.

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Sclass
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Re: Inexpensive way to sew thick stuff

Post by Sclass »

I needed a calculator case for my vintage HP 35 calculator. Mine was taken and repurposed years ago likely for a makeup case. Turns out this size and shape is not easy to source since calculators aren't big and fat anymore. So I looked at the images online of the original HP 35 case and realized I could just sew one up in a hour or two. I have miles of cheap thread, salvaged leather and closures from old stuff I find in the trash. So here's the project.

Dig up and old purse from my junk pile. I recall I got this free on the sidewalk when a neighbor moved. Nice old lady. Alzheimer's disease was my guess. Her son piled all her leather goods out on the curb for trash pickup. Looks like I made a bunch of things already from the purse. Time to take what's left and toss the bones.

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I got a zipper. Some findings. And a magnetic clasp. Neat.

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Best of all I got some leather. A lot of the purse was made of naughahyde in the areas you don't touch or see. This was the only premium calfskin left on the purse.

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A little cutting, patterning, and sewing later.

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A few hours of my life. I could have bought a vintage HP branded case on ebay for $40 or so. But I have all this free material at home and a sewing machine. The case is kind of a box with a zipper going around the upper third. I made it a little big so I could pad it but I am thinking the calculator just sits on my desk so I'll just leave it unlined.

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