Starting Off - Unit 3.1

First of all, I’m coming into this with a tiny bit of experience with a sewing machine (basically just knowing how to set up a machine), but no where near enough to actually sew something. This was all pretty much totally new to me! But I love what you can accomplish with sewing, and this assignment made me excited to get more comfortable

As I started getting my fabric and putting everything together, I realized a lot of what I needed to do is just common sense (Note: I do not have a lot of this) and after my first time doing this I don’t think I’ll need to follow any sort of instructional video or will need to rely on someone to guide my hand.



Nitty Gritty - How I actually managed to make a mask:

It’s reversible!!!!



1. First I started off by buying 100% cotton fabric. I got mines from Joanne’s fabric but next time I’m going to go out of my way to find something local.

I traced the outline of another mask (common sense I didn’t know I had kicking in here) and added about 1/2 inch all around so that I would have room for error. I did this twice (one is the rose fabric, the other is the fish fabric)

2. I forgot to take a picture of this but next I sewed the left and right pieces (think left and right cheek) together. And aagin I did this for both fabrics, so in the end, it has that basic single facemask shape


3. After that, I took both fabrics and sewed the top and bottom of them, making sure that the center of each of the fabrics matched up aka, from the top of the nose bridge to the mouth (see image below)

Sewing tops and bottoms together:


Finally, to be completely transparent here there was a lot of trial and error (and a lot of needing to start over and rip some stitches out!) and that is normal and frustrating and totally ok!

This is the sewing machine I used at Makehaven to make my mask:

Necchi HD22 Portable Sewing Machine


I watched this video here to re-learn + understand the basics of how to set up a sewing machine.






(Image below: first cut of fabric after tracing the outline of another mask)


































Then, I rolled of the left and right ends and sewed those too! One at a time, and included the elastics

TEXT

Image:

Conclusion

Starting Off
I have most of the badges in the woodshop and often use these tools for work (table saw, band saw, chop saw, jointer, etc), so I knew I wanted to try something new! I ended up deciding on the Lathe, which is a tool that is used to make wooden cups, bowls and even table legs all starting from a block of wood! Basically the Lathe holds your block of wood and spins at a really fast speed while you chip away at it using a sharp pointy tool.

Using the Lathe I made a 4” tall pot for my cactus, Cantaloupe. Here’s how I did it:

Image: My plant, Cantaloupe in his new home!

After getting badged on the Lathe at MakeHaven, I cut some leftover pine from a previous project into 5x5” squares and used wood glue to glue them together. Clamps came in handy to make sure they wouldn’t shift.


Later on I used to bandsaw to round off the edges so that it would be easier to carve or “turn” on the Lathe.

Image: Glued up squares!

 

The real fun (and nerves) came in when it was time to finally turn. Using a sharp tool, I held it against my block of wood to essentially round it out. It was really difficult in the beginning because of how bumpy it was, but after a little while, things were looking pretty round

Image: My pot on the Lathe, from a different angle

Image: My pot taking shape on the Lathe

The hardest part of this project was really carving the hole or “inside” of the pot. It feels pretty unnatural to hold the sharp lathe tool against wood that isn’t smooth.

Video: Here’s a video of me turning the inside of the pot!

Image: My pot on the Lathe, starting to carve the inside!

Lastly, before staining this pot with a walnut stain, I decided to laser engrave it with a new name.  Thanks to my aunt’s kids, I found the perfect name for my cacti.


Shifting the old dirt away...

Image: Lasercutting “Cantaloupe” on to my pot.

This was a nice first project using the Lathe, and I feel ready to try it again with a nicer larger wood!!

Image: New turned pot with old plastic pot