A Bit of This and That

First sewing project!

We recently got a sewing machine, making a big addition to our crafting arsenal. Over the last few years, lots of projects have begged for the use of just such a machine, and now that we finally have one, I wanted to get familiar with it. I needed a beginner sewing project under my belt.

And it was quite literally "under my belt" as it turns out: the first project I decided to make was a belted medieval tunic. 

Last year, I attended my first renaissance faire. I'm no super-fan, but it was a lot of fun, and we decided to go again this year. The one thing lacking last year, though, was the outfit. I don't really own much in the way of medieval-themed garb (it's not really in fashion at the moment), and had to cobble together a loosely thematic outfit. This year, I resolved to do better.

So, by mostly following a fantastic tutorial here, I was able to put together a halfway decent medieval tunic.

The process was really pretty straightforward. Get fabric (make sure you get enough), trace out pattern, cut, sew. 

The design has several embellishments that add a bit of character. First, there are several "slits" in the fabric, with some custom stitching at the top of each. None of the slits are particularly functional, but they do add a bit of visual interest to an otherwise pretty nondescript design.

Secondly, I wanted to try out some of the fancy stitch patterns available on the new machine, so I loaded up some contrasting thread and ran a pattern along all the major edges of the garment. Not a lot of work, but I think it was really important to add this to make the tunic pop a bit.

Finally, you really need the other pieces to get the full effect of the tunic. With belt and string-ey undershirt, the whole outfit really comes together!

Proud of this one; there will be more ambitious sewing projects to come in the future!

Another year, another cat painting. I think by the time I'm 60, our walls will be plastered with self-made animal paintings. And I can't wait, honestly.

This one, though, was a commission by some friends, which means that I can't hang on to it. First off, I selected a photo of our cats that I felt had some good character; I like the framing, too, with discs of the cat tree hovering in the composition like UFOs.

Then, it was just a matter of painting one bit at a time. I'm working on improving my acrylic color matching, and I think it's on full display here. I do want to learn to do it more quickly and freely, but I think that will come with practice. 

I'm particularly proud of my representation of Beetle, the top cat, which I think came out really evocative of her personality.

I think this canvas is about 12" x 16" -- next time, bigger!

We love our cats. As you may or may not be able to tell by now. One thing they don't love, however, is sharing food with one another.

Or rather, they need a helping hand to learn to share better. We recently got an automatic feeder to take over some of the daily feeding chore, and while it has been a great quality-of-life change, it comes equipped with just a single food tray.

With us having two cats (both with eager stomachs), something had to be done. My first attempt at food division was, simply, a divider. A simple partition to give each cat their own zone to munch from. 

However, this proved inadequate, as the hungrier cat would simply nudge or tear away the partition to get at the rest of the food. And regardless, it was too close for either cat to be very comfortable while eating.

So, the next logical step was to design and print a "splitter" ramp to plug into the feeder. The splitter would divert the flow of dispensed food into two totally separate bowls, et voila, no more sharing problems!

A problem came up during my Tellurion project: my prints were coming off the Printybot slightly squashed at the bottom. Up until this point, it had been a barely noticeable effect. But, with the gears I was designing for that project, small geometric changes caused big issues for friction in the system.

After some application of scientific method, I thought the problem was likely due to a sagging gantry. For every layer, the Z-axis lead screw raises the right side of the gantry in 0.2mm increments, and usually, the left side is also dragged up by the same amount. However, during the first few layers, there is some "sag" that develops in the hanging left side, resulting in those layers being slightly squashed.

The most straightforward solution is fairly simple: drive both sides of the gantry simultaneously to eliminate the sag. 

To accomplish this, I got a second Z-axis stepper motor and leadscrew, and designed brackets to attach them to the frame of the machine. I didn't even need to make any alterations to the printer's firmware; the stepper motor was simply plug-and-play into the main board.