this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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Sewing, Repairing and Reducing Waste

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A place to share ideas, knowledge and creations with textiles. The focus is on reducing waste, whether that be sewing from the scraps left from other projects, using the end of rolls and remnants, or repairing and remaking finished pieces.

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How do FOSS enthusiasts sew? What hardware do they buy? (slrpnk.net)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/2890733

I think I need a sewing machine that can do a variety of different kinds of stitches. One use case is to repair holey socks by cannabalizing fabric from other holey socks. Thus the stitch needs to be the kind that can stretch and ideally not create an awkward feeling on the foot.

Some sewing machines have a fixed number of stitches they can do. Would it make sense to get an embroidery machine and use #inkStitch (an Inkscape variant)? I’m not sure if that’s strictly for embroidery -- or does that give the ability to do a variety of stitches using FOSS?

The inkstitch.org website steers people toward taking a basic sewing machine and modifying it using 3d printed parts. That’s too ambitious for me. I don’t want a hardware project. I just want to buy hardware that’s ready to go and use free software to control it. Is that possible with things that exist already?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I actually like stuff that is simple and repairable. My sewing machine is electromechanical and has no computerised operation. These machines are also a lot cheaper to buy second-hand, of course.

The only stitch types that you actually need are a straight stitch and either a zigzag stitch or a stretch stitch. The zigzag stitch is what it sounds like, and can be used for seams that need to stretch. The stretch stitch involves making 2 forward stitches and 1 backwards stitch in turn, this also allows the seam to stretch and it looks neater because visually the stitch is in a straight line.

The other stitch types that you typically find on a home sewing machine are really only used for decoration and are not essential.