Friday, March 13, 2009

The evolution of a sewing frame. I have wanted to sew books with raised supports for awhile. After buying Keith Smith's third volume, I decided to build the frame he described. Here is a photo of it - not so impressed. Granted, I did not follow the instructions exactly, but still I thought I could do better for just a few dollars more.
Here is the next try. I removed the wooden crossbar and replaced it with a turnbuckle from Home Depot. Then I suspended eye bolts through the channel down the center of the turnbuckle. I used wing nuts so I could adjust the tension of the supports. I had a problem with the length of the channel in the turnbuckle - too short, but that's the largest one I could find. Also, I cut an elliptical curve so the edge of the book would line up with the suspended eye bolts.
I needed to find something with a longer channel. I couldn't find a larger turnbuckle so I decided to try and find something else. It took some time walking up and down the aisles at the hardware store, but I finally found what I was looking for. I tried some U-bolts connected to some threaded rod with threaded metal couplings. All in all, 2 U-bolts, 4 couplings and some threaded rod cost less than $8. The whole sewing frame cost less than $10. Now let's see what I can sew.

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