We got 100 comments on the silly Snowden Sack… Which was a 100% failure. Or so I thought. I did some testing, and it turns out I’m probably going to be able to redeem the mylar Snowden Sack! Here were various tests:

1. Put phone in all clad pot with lid: Didn’t ring.
2. Put phone in Snowden sack. Rang. Tie to get a better seal: Rang.
3. Put phone in all clad pot, covered with an el cheapo disposable aluminum pie plate. Rang.
4. Wrapped phone in left over torn aluminum foil. Rang.

Things were looking bad. So, yesterday, when Jim left for New York, I went out and bought provisions which included heavy duty aluminum foil. Then Jim’s flight was cancelled, he came home, tests were delayed. Tests were resumed this morning.

1. I wrapped the phone in 4 layers of aluminum and folded to create a seal: Phone did not ring.
2. I progressively unwrapped, testing with 3, 2, 1 layers, each time taking care edges were sealed. Phone did not ring.
3. I retested doing a “bad” job by not folding over the edges to seal: Phone rang. Clearly, the sealing at the edges

I did a number of tests sealing “well” and “fairly badly”, and concluded that imperfections in sealing were a big issue. I know some of you guys already knew this. But anyway, as a practical matter, if I very carefully smooth the foil and press the edges to get very good smooth contact, that seems to be “good enough” for this phone. I don’t seem to actually need to fold the edges of the foil over on itself.

But if I just wrap the phone and don’t take pains to press the foil very, very firmly leaving even a tiny gap, the phone rings.

So, then looking at my Snowden bag, I thought… maybe it’s the seal? I then got the brilliant idea to fold over the edges on the Snowden sack:. The phone did not ring. I retested a few times: The phone does not ring provided I am very, very careful to make sure the edges stay well folded over. If I don’t hold the fold over edges carefully to make sure they truly fold, it rings.

I’m not absolutely positive this is due to the “folding over”. There is a possibility that mylar is just boderline effective. But it at least appears the issue is not the mylar, which seems to attenuate sufficiently for this puny phone operating in my kitchen. But clearly the seaming at the edges is not insufficient because the bag never works if the side eges aren’t folded over. Knowing this permits me some ideas I can test out. After all, my design criteria are

1. Pretty easy to sew.
2. Use cheap lightweight left over material I already have at hand. (As opposed to ordering materials that may or may not work.)
3. Easy to stuff phone into pouch.
4. Attenuates sufficiently to interfere with communication with local tower.
5. Fits phone.

For now, I’m going to go upstairs, cut some scraps and bind the edges with mylar backed fabric. (I had cannibalized and just used a think single strip of blue fabric laid over two pieces pressed together )

This thing is going to get very ugly before the final halfway decent design exists.

Warning: Sewing content. Followed by open thread.

Tom Fuller emailed with a climate related question asked what I’d been up to. I told him I had been diverted on a sewing interlude. I described items I had made for Jim. I told him I had just finished a white, blue, green red, purple and white checked shirt for Jim– but it wasn’t as bad as that sounded. Tom being a guy was very interested in this and wanted to know how various things I made for Jim looked.

To the right you can see the white, blue, green, red, and purple sweater along with a pair of rust/red corduroy trousers. The the left of that outfit, you will see a blue sweater I designed and knit and a pair of olive drab corduroy trousers.

His brothers have decreed the rust/red trousers “too wild” and “not a manly color”. In fact, they decree these Howard Wolowitz pants. Jim likes and wears the pants. I’ve consulted further and concluded that acceptable colors seem to include only the following: black, white, grey, and any color in standard issue military uniforms; they approve of the olive drab pants to the left.

To prove Jim is wearing pants I made, I forced him to stand still and have his picture taken before he jumped in the car to drive to work. I finished these grey wool/poly trousers on Friday. I’d show the whole picture, but pointing the flash at the slacks left a dark shadow over Jim’s face. So, you’ll have to settle for the pants only.

It seems to be traditional to mention the pattern when reporting on sewing projects. The trousers were made from Vouge 2209 tracing the view without pleats between the size 28 and 30. Jim claims to have “porked out”; years ago I made these tracing between 26 and 28, so I figured going up a size would be fine. Knowing Jim will wear these out before he “porks out” to a size 30, I immediately modified the pattern to omit the provision for letting the pants out in the back. (This involves taping together the tissue pieces for the waistband in the back and trimming the extra seam allowance to the standard 5/8″.) While stitching up the corduroy pants I noticed pattern instructions use the “absolutely ridiculous stupid profanity inducing” method for constructing a back welt pocket and the “somewhat unnecessarily difficult” method of inserting a fly zipper way. I dug through other men’s pants pattern in my stash and modified the pattern to do let me insert the welt the “easy nearly fool proof way” and the zipper the “easier, just as good method”. I found these on a Kwik sew pants pattern and modified the construction method. Making the grey pants was easy. Fabric for all items above were purchased from Vogue Fabrics in Evanston as these materials were purchased back way back when and were in my “stash”. I highly recommend Vogue Fabrics for price, quality and selection– the quality of the fabrics above is “ohh. I love it”.

The shirt is made using Burda 7054 view B but with collar A. While making it this, I discovered the placket construction method is the “stupid way of making a placket”.

I’m enjoying sewing and I’m planning 1 garment a week. Today, I purchased 100% cotton flannel to make two additional shirts. I hope Jim’s brother’s don’t decree either of these “Howard Wollowitz” fabrics!

For those, who like Kenneth, were wondering about the out of pocket costs of sewing: Using a 50% off coupon from JoAnn Fabrics, the fabric cost for each shirt is $9.98. Buttons will cost an additional $1, thread, about $1 depending and interfacing to stiffen the collar, cuffs and button placket about $1, but those are already in the stash. The burda men’s shirt pattern cost $6– but I’m reusing that so I guess it’s sort of free at this point. Sales and coupons are so constantly available at JoAnn that I don’t think anyone ever buys their fabric at full price. Frankly, with some exceptions I think one shouldn’t pay full price for fabrics from JoAnn, their fabric is an ok value at their sale prices. So, the out of pocket cost for a decent flannel short is going to be about $12. This fabric is on the lighter weight end of flannel and I would rate the quality “ok” rather than “to die for”. Both will make nice casual shirts to wear with jeans or casual slacks. They are certainly nicer than anything I’d find for $12. So, if you gauge the cost based on the out of pocket costs for materials, the shirts are a bargain.

The real cost is the time. If you enjoy sewing, you are an unusual size and have a difficult time finding clothes or like creating unique items, it’s worth it. Jim can easily spend 8 hours on a Saturday searching for a decent shirt or slacks in his size and find nothing remotely reasonable but jeans. I can make set of trousers or a shirt in that time. So, family-wise we’re just replacing shopping time with sewing time. But this wouldn’t be the case in many other families

Open thread!(Oh… and I just heard that UAH posted. Gotta go check that. And throw the flannel in the wash to preshrink!)

This is an open thread. The following is an explanation of what I’m up to. Continue reading Sewing Pause: Trousers for Jim. →

I was reading climate audit and clicked over to New Statesman.

First reaction: Cool! New Statesman understands Steve Mc. “matters”.

Second reaction: That’s sure as heck looks like a garter stitch scarf in a relatively fine gauge. Of course, I could be mistaken– but see the horizontal ridges every row? I zoomed. Looks like garter stitch.

I’m not going to explain why garter stitch scarves are nearly always hand knit. Nearly always. The reasons are highly technical and involve… geometry. So who knit that? Has Steve secretly taken up knitting? Does a family member knit?

Come clean Steve: Do you knit?!

P.S. Heavy blogging should resume Monday. 🙂