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Comment by fxtentacle

10 hours ago

I also fixed clothing sizes for my family using a hacker mindset, but in a different way:

Did you know that most professional sewing charts are just DXF files?

And did you know that DXF is the most common file format for laser cutters?

;)

=> just let the machine cut out precisely the clothing shapes that you need

After a few tries, I also started to add small sideways cuts to the outlines as alignment markers. And then you just need to connect the pieces where you marked them while always leaving roughly 0.5 cm of gap to the laser cut line. I went with 0.5 because my sewing machine has a hardware alignment guide with that offset. And at that point, it takes a skilled tailor only mere minutes to finish a shirt, which means in exchange for their 1x hourly rate they will be willing to finish off 5x proto t-shirts for you.

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fxtentacle

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MezzoDelCammin  10 hours ago

Oh, I'm not claiming sewing machine is the "only" option :-)

There's plenty of hacking that can be done on the subject of sewing and I admit that laser cutter is a cool one.

I'm still pretty partial to that sewing machine route (or needle and thread, if handiwork is prefferable). Simply because it lets you quickly iterate and build the taste, preferences and heuristic of how to get there. Personally, I still can't read a pattern propetly. But I'm more than happy to put a few pins into a shirt and prototype in front of a mirror.

Also, it gives me a good estimate of what I'm OK doing myself and what I will outsource to an actual tailor because it's either beyond my level, or I simply don't have time to do it.

fraaancis  10 hours ago

I wonder how many layers of fabric a cutter could get through in one pass (without setting it on fire).

  • fxtentacle  9 hours ago

    I have never tried that because it finishes a single piece of clothing so quickly that it never seemed like it would make any sense to take risks of lower fabric layers being uneven/wrinkled in exchange for increasing throughput. Catching fire never seemed to be an issue with the CO2 laser that I used. Most fabrics will kind of melt before they start to burn. And the vacuum table sucking air through the fabric will also cool it down.