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Archive for the ‘Sewing’ Category

One of the worst things about sewing is finding out that your bobbin — that’s the smaller spool that works together with the needle and the larger spool to make a complete stitch — ran out of thread several stitches ago. If you’re lucky, the machine has a viewing window on the bobbin so you can easily tell when it’s getting dangerously close to running out, but many machines (ours included) must be taken halfway apart and the bobbin removed before it can be checked.

Having spare bobbins ready to go is definitely the answer. We would venture to guess that most (if not all) machines have a built-in bobbin winder, but using them involves de-threading the machine and setting it up to wind bobbins instead of sew. If you have a whole lot of sewing to do and can afford it, an automatic bobbin winder is a godsend. If you’re [Mr. Innovative], you build one yourself out of acrylic, aluminium, and Arduinos.

Here’s how it works: load up the clever little acrylic slide with up to twelve empty bobbins, then dial in the speed percentage and press the start button. The bobbins load one at a time onto a drill chuck that’s on the output shaft of a beefy 775 DC motor. The motor spins ridiculously fast, loading up the bobbin in a few seconds. Then the bobbin falls down a ramp and into a rack, and the thread is severed by a piece of nichrome wire.

An important part of winding bobbins is making sure the thread stays in place at the start of the wind. We love the way [Mr. Innovative] handled this part of the problem — a little foam doughnut around a bearing holds the thread in place just long enough to get the winding started. The schematic, BOM, and CAD files are available if you’d like to make one of these amazing machines for yourself. In the meantime, check out the demo/build video after the break.

Still not convinced that sewing is cool enough to learn? Our own [Jenny List] may be able to convert you. If that doesn’t get you, you might like to know that some sewing machines are hackable — this old girl has a second life as a computerized embroidery machine. If those don’t do it, consider that sewing machines can give you a second life, too.

Thanks for the tip, [Baldpower]!

Mag
10

Embroidered Nyan Cat Brings a Meme to the Real World

adafruit, arduino, arduino hacks, audio, audiofx, cat, embroidery, Github, LED, meme, nyan, nyan cat, Sewing Commenti disabilitati su Embroidered Nyan Cat Brings a Meme to the Real World 

Have you ever come across an Internet meme and just thought to yourself, “I have to bring this into the physical world!” Well [0xb3nn] and [Knit Knit] did. They decided to take the classic nyan cat meme and bring it to life.

The frame is 24″ x 36″. Many hours went into the knitting process, but the result obviously turned out very well. The stars include 24 LED sequins to add a sparkling animation effect. These were sewn onto the back of the work using conductive thread. They are bright enough to shine through to the front where needed. These connect back to an Arduino Pro Mini 5V board.

The Arduino is also connected to a capacitive touch sensor. This allows the user to simply place their hand over the nyan cat image to start the animation. No need for physical buttons or switches to take away from the visual design. An Adafruit AudioFX sound board was used to play back a saved nyan cat theme song over a couple of speakers. The source code for this project is available on github. Be sure to watch the demo video below.


Filed under: Arduino Hacks
Feb
09

12 Tools We Can’t Live Without for Making Wearables

arduino, Art & Design, sensors, Sewing, Wearables Commenti disabilitati su 12 Tools We Can’t Live Without for Making Wearables 

Monarch_4At the Social Body Lab we’re always on the hunt for the best tools for prototyping wearable electronics projects. Here are some of our favorites from 2014. LilyTiny + LED Strings A great shortcut for those who want some dynamic light patterns but don’t want to fuss with programming, Sparkfun’s LilyTiny board […]

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3d_printing_cyberpunk-spikes-gemma-adafruit-hairflip3D-print these soft, flexible spikes and light them up with full-color programmable LEDs

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Nov
06
e-traces-shoes-2See the big picture when it comes to dance moves with an ingenious piece of wearable electronics by designer Lesia Trubat González called E-Traces.

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Lug
30

Ode to the Gameboy: 10 Projects Based on the Iconic Portable Nintendo

arduino, Computers & Mobile, Fun & Games, gameboy, General, Raspberry Pi, Sewing Commenti disabilitati su Ode to the Gameboy: 10 Projects Based on the Iconic Portable Nintendo 

Print your Gameboy case in whatever color you like.Photo by Noe Ruiz CC BY-SA 3.0.When the Nintendo Gameboy was first released in 1989, it was a tremendous commercial success. Gameboy developed a following among gamers that is in many ways still alive to this day. Here are 10 awesome projects inspired by the venerable Gameboy. Some merge the latest maker electronics with late-80s Gameboy […]

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Lug
17

Wearables at Camp Galileo with Arduino Woman

arduino, Art & Design, Electronics, General, Sewing, Wearables Commenti disabilitati su Wearables at Camp Galileo with Arduino Woman 

wearablesHello World!  My name is Tenaya Hurst and I teach at Camp Galileo – The Tech Summer Camps at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose.  My class is titled Wearable Technology (and I get to teach Circuits & Electronics and Maker Studio).  Students know very little about the […]

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Lug
15

10 Fabulous and Fashionable Wearable Projects from Becky Stern

adafruit, arduino, becky stern, FLORA, GEMMA, Sewing, wearable electronics, Wearables Commenti disabilitati su 10 Fabulous and Fashionable Wearable Projects from Becky Stern 

10-wearablesBecky Stern, director of wearable electronics at Adafruit Industries, shares ten fabulous and fashionable projects you can try yourself.

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Lug
14

An Interview With Becky Stern About Wearable Electronics

arduino, Craft, Electronics, Makers, Sewing, Wearables Commenti disabilitati su An Interview With Becky Stern About Wearable Electronics 

becky-featThe illustrious Becky Stern has joined us for an interview about wearable electronics. As you know, Becky lives and breathes wearables so she has some incredible insight.  If you’d like to find more of Becky, you should probably tune into her weekly show about wearable electronics! If you don’t want […]

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Giu
22

Glo-Mo: Designing a High Tech Dance

arduino, Art & Design, dance, Electronics, LED, Sewing, st louis Commenti disabilitati su Glo-Mo: Designing a High Tech Dance 

14219044266_44c0757587_b“To me, the lights were artwork of themselves. There were the dancers dancing under art, with art on their bodies, so it just brought the whole picture together,” said Danielle Sampson, a dance teacher at Grand Center Arts Academy. I attend Grand Center Arts Academy, a school for the fine […]

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