Techno Headband

A mildy esoteric project, that isn’t really about sewing as such, but did involve a bit.

I read an article about bone conduction and advertising via train windows (stay with me here) which led me to buying one of these:

http://www.maxvirtual.com/index.html

A bluetooth, headphone free, sound conducting hat!  Sounds great huh?  Perfect for jogging or commuting I thought.

Unfortunately, when it arrived, it turned out to be total rubbish, for a few reasons…

1) When playing it is easily hearable by other people, in fact it is actually louder for other people than a pair of ipod earphones.

2) The sound quality is awful. Very tinny unless you force the pressure pads onto your temples with your hands. Not entirely comfortable that…

3) At top volume the sound massively distorts.

4) At anything other than top volume it is basically inaudible, and even then it is only useable in a quiet room I suspect. It certainly won’t be audible on a train.

5) The build quality is poor to say the least.

In conclusion, not good at all.  Then I had a brainwave!  If it was in a headband rather than a hat, then it would be much tighter on the head so the sound will conduct better, and the material of the headband will muffle the sound a bit more for others.

It still won’t be suitable for commuting, but it might be salveageable for running.

30 minutes with a needle and thread later, and this is the result:

This should be banned

1 roll of black elastic and some black thread was all that was needed.

A couple of pockets on each side for the conductors, closed on three edges and open on the final one to slip the conductors in and out.

Elastic pockets

A larger pocket on the rear to put in the control unit.

And finally a moveable elastic wrap to hold the control unit in place.

Safe and secure

It actually works ok.  Sure I look like an idiot, but that is my default look, so no biggy…

Completely finished tie

Final touch on the tie was to add the holding loop on the back. I tried to make one out of satin, but the edges frayed way too much. A quick trip to John Lewis to pick up some ribbon and this was the result.

Really finished!

Here it is, modeled in inimitable fashion by yours truly.

Don’t worry, this isn’t the shirt for the wedding…

Pocket squares and a new machine

Due to the generosity of my impending mother-in-law, I now have a new sewing machine to play with, after mine died a burny smelling death.

I was going to knock up a couple of pocket squares by hand, and try and roll the edges and slip stitch them so the stitches wouldn’t show, but I wanted to give my new machine a go and I figured that the way you fold the pocket square, no-one will ever see the edges anyway. All I needed was a quick hem to stop the edges fraying, so here we are.

Pocket kinda-square

New sewing machine is pretty nice, but why is every machine a nightmare to thread? There must be an easier solution.
One more tie to go and then I am done with satin for good, too slippy by half.

Also, how the hell do you sew corners without them looking all scrappy? I should probably google that.

Tie number 3!

I think I have cracked it 🙂

Attempt number 3. This time I used the proper fabric and took my time over it all, took about 5-6 hours in total I expect. Same pattern I cut out from my skinny tie last time, but I added on about a centimetre extra one each side, and cut the fabric with the bias this time. Much easier to work with if you do that, there is a reason they tell you to it seems…

Finished!

The finished article, not too bad at all 🙂

Look how neat it is…

The lining was much neater this time, I had the genius idea of turning the tie inside out and sewing it, then reversing it afterwards, which was a lot easier thas the slip stitching I was doing before, especially as satin is a nightmare to work with.

X marks the spot

I even managed to put a little X shaped holding stitch at each end, to give it a little more of a “finished” look.

Seems a good seam

Plus, I managed to do an invisible ladder stitch up the centre line, which I’m very proud of. In fact I very proud of the finished article, not bad for my third ever tie, or even my third ever hand-sewn thing at all!

Ties. Attempt number 2

Ties. Attempt number 2

Pattern? We don’t need no stinkin’ pattern.

Last tie was definitely tie shaped but needed a lot of work for me to be happy with it, onto tie number 2.
This time I threw away the pattern and made my own. I traced round a skinny tie I already own, added on a bit to the sides for the hem, and then half of the tie width again for the fold.
I also cut out the sew in interfacing to the same length and width of the skinny tie.

Also, I just cut it out in one big piece, but against the bias this time…

It’s a tie, just thinner

Lining was a bit better, on the smaller end of the tie I tried a slip stitch, but didn’t hide it enough. On the larger end I managed to run it further under the lining so it is invisible, but couldn’t get it tight enough. Next plan is to practice just this bit on a few fabric ends, but with the revelation of why don’t I just invert the tie and machine stitch it in! Let’s see how that goes, I fear it will leave the front puckered when I turn it the right way out, but i’ll have to have a play to see. This does mean I need to buy a new sewing machine, John Lewis here I come!

Inside every thin tie, there is a fat tie trying to get out

You can see that the pattern wasn’t ideal, I need it a little bit wider, as the combination of being very skinny and working against the bias meant that the ladder stitches are gaping a bit on the reverse of the tie. Next attempt will be a single piece of fabric, a bit wider but cut with the bias, that should fix that, I hope. Plus I have a better technique for the ladder stitch, in theory anyway.

Skinny tie!

This tie was much quicker to make, about 3 hours start to finish I think, maybe a bit more.

Skinny tie!

Modelled by yours truly, doesn’t look too bad, even with glue stains and a short sleeve shirt.

Project number 2. Ties. Attempt number 1

I’m getting married later this year, and weirdly it is proving difficult to find a nice champagne coloured tie. There are lots of very light ones out there, but i’m after something a tad darker to go with my suit. So, I thought, why don’t I try and make a couple!

A quick google led me to two patterns:

Click to access The-Best-Mens-Tie-Pattern.pdf

and
http://www.purlbee.com/the-purl-bee/2009/5/21/mollys-sketchbook-fathers-day-tie.html

I decided to go with the PurlBee pattern in the end, as the tutorial seemed really good. However, being as this was my first time doing any hand sewing of any consequence, I figured some test runs would be in need.
Another trip to the haberdashery section of John Lewis and I had some nice champagne satin to use for the final ties (£15 a metre) and some horrible blue satin (£4 a metre) to practice with, along with various types of interfacing.

Free patterns FTW!

Pattern was cut out and stuck together…

2 pins or a submission

…then pinned to the fabric. This was actually really tricky to do, as the pattern is only a half pattern and needs to be pinned to a folded piece of cloth. Combine that with satin being a bit of a slippy nightmare and it wasn’t ideal. Lesson learned there, next time i’ll use a pattern that has the full tie width on it.

Fully fused

Ironing on the fusible interfacing was easy enough, but I managed to ruin my ironing board cover, it is now covered in glue 😀 Replacement needed, but for these test ties it isn’t a problem if there are glue spots on them.

I could really do with a working sewing machine at this point

Why am I cutting out three parts and then sewing them together? My cloth is long enough to make it in one piece. I’ll try that next time and see what happens…

Yes, this is post ironing

Getting the satin to hold a fold was very difficult, it moves around a lot and springs back all the time. A cotton fabric would have been much easier, but that doesn’t help me when I come to make the final ties, so perseverance is the key.

Stitching would be more comfy, I imagine

Time to pin it together, and it starts to look like a tie.

Shabby stitching is a style, right?

Sewing in the lining was difficult and looks crap, need to learn how to blind or slip stitch I think, however the ladder stitch up the centre wasn’t too bad, it holds the tie closed at least!

The front

The reverse

The finished article, poorly sewn and a bit too wide for what i’m after, but as a first attempt at hand sewing something, I don’t think that is too awful. The next one will be better…