Sew Much Possibility
Sewing machines seem medieval in an age of laser cutters, but these aren't your grandmother's stitchers. New machines have built in LCD screens and can embroider fabric based on designs you create on your laptop. These machines are capable of mending a dress or embroidering complex, multicolor images.
What to Buy: Brother and
Singer are the two market leaders in the United States and offer affordable embroidering systems. But our favorite may be the
Pfaff Creative Sensation, a fully featured CNC sewing/embroidering machine that that could have been designed by Dieter Rams.
Safety Third
Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe coined that phrase, pointing out that the primary goal in any dangerous situation is to complete a job, not to optimize for safety. Serious industry brings with it risks that should be known, but can't be prevented.
Grainger offers a broad range of safety supplies that should be part of any hackerspace shopping list. Good tools are expensive, but having 10 fingers is priceless.
As one of my professors in art school once said about the workshop:
"You will get burned, you will get cut, you will have fun."
Above: Modern sewing machines can embroider highly detailed patterns as well as fix a hem. Photo: Courtesy of Pfaff
