Comment by almog | Hacker News Reader

Comment by almog | Hacker News Reader

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I'm not associated with learnmyog.com, but have been wanting to get into MYOG pretty much since I learned of ultralight backpacking and people who were making their own packs, tarps, quilts etc.

So in 2015 I've bought an old (as in 70 years old) Singer 201-1 which only* sew straight stitch, but it does so beautifully, is easy to learn, to maintain and should probably outlast me, but by the time it has arrived I've been off to a long hike, and when I returned I told myself I was too busy to find the time (and "courage") to get started learning to use a sewing machine.

Then in 2020, an awful need to procrastinate over work lead me to finally learn how to thread it, the to take it apart for cleaning/oiling and finally I managed to half ass a face mask (and few other items including garments I ended up using on long-ish distance trails).

I then went back to BPL's MYOG⁽¹⁾ forum and r/myog ⁽²⁾, both super useful resources that have been helping gear makers for many years. I think it was on r/myog that I learned of Tim's learnmyong.com, which has since then grew into one of the best resources for (hiking gear related) patterns and educational videos (some patters are free, others can be purchased, all the ones that I've tried are of excellent quality IMO). I've also had good results with Green Pepper patterns.

* Zig zag as well as button-hole attachments do exist though (and they work surprisingly well)

⁽¹⁾ https://backpackinglight.com/forums/forum/gear/make-your-own...

⁽²⁾ https://www.reddit.com/r/myog/

> I've bought an old (as in 70 years old) Singer 201-1 which only* sew straight stitch, but it does so beautifully, is easy to learn, to maintain and should probably outlast me

this is how tech descriptions should sound. Not just hardware appliances, but also pure software. Imagine e.g. a web service with such properties.

(Ivan Illich calls such 'convival tools')

I have a 15-90 and a zigzag attachment. I would note that the trick to the attachment is that it works by shifting the fabric from side to side. A machine with a built-in zigzag function shifts the needle. This means that you're trying to move the fabric in both axes through a machine cycle rather than just one, and that two wholly separate mechanisms are doing it: the feed dogs handle forward, and the attachment handles side to side.

I've found that the heavier your fabric is the less likely it is that you'll be satisfied with the zigzag attachment. In particular, if you're trying to bar tack reinforcement points in gear, you might have a hard time.

The buttonhole attachment, on the other hand, covers the feed dogs in the bed of the machine, and the buttonholer handles all of the movements of the fabric on its own. I've had fairly good luck with it. If you're only doing bar tacks, you can set it up to make a "button hole" with the sides overlapping, and it does a pretty good job.

I've sewn my own lightweight tent, and I've found that you really don't need a zigzag for that (assuming a pattern that doesn't require one, obviously). Packs and duffel bags, on the other hand have a lot more stress on the points where the straps attach to the bag, and you'll likely want to be reinforce those points with bar tacking.

Great explanation! I have the other zigzag model, the "Automatic Zigzagger", model 160985 which uses cams. Have only used it for finish work on thin fabrics but did use it to mend and reinforce denim garments, and it worked quite well there as well (though again it might be different if I tried to stick to an edge there).

Tent is probably the most dreadful project I have on my list, I followed some very talented MYOG hobbyist (@leahikes) as she was designing sewing (and then resewing) her DCF tent (which she used on the A.T. this year) and getting all the angles right for a good pitch seems an epic effort. Very impressive that you managed to do that!

Thanks! I think you're greatly overestimating the amount of perfection in my tent :-)

I made my own pattern and just kind of went with it after making a 1/2 scale prototype. It pitched well enough and kept me mostly dry on the AT in 2010.

If you're dreading the project, I'd encourage you to find the nearest small child and ask them to draw you a tent. Then go make what they drew. That's pretty much what I did [0]. If you keep it down to minimum viable tent, it's really not too bad. Just practice the zipper on scrap first if you've never sewn one before :-D

Honestly, clothing intimidates me more!

[0] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ebd2/ebd2.github.io/master...

Thanks for the encouragement! The tent looks pretty great, considering what was available in 2010 both in terms of fabrics choice and educational materials.

Nowadays I'm mostly a flat-tarp user. I use an HMG 10' x 8' tarp which I used with some success (and some failure) on the HRP and GR54. Since I live in Israel, hiking locally means dry but often windy or humid (but not rainy) conditions, and for that purpose, I hope to be able to downsize to a 5' x 7' tarp, which I think I'll try my hands at once the hiking season begins here.

I think that unlike everyday garments (some) hiking garments can be very forgiving. An example is a SilPoly rain pants I made last year for a fall GR54 hike. It's not pretty and I wouldn't use on a trail like the A.T for fear of frying myself, but it worked perfectly to keep me warm in stormy days.

I enjoy the interesting Unicode use you get on this site. I use “—⁂—” as a horizontal rule and superscript numerals for footnotes, and contemplated adding superscript parentheses a few weeks ago, here and especially as the syntax in a lightweight markup language of my own for my own use. I ended up deciding not to in either case because the parentheses are too likely to be in a different font with misaligning metrics, and it’s typically worse still in monospace faces.

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