Fonts For Crafting: Adjusting Text PART 3

 

Welcome to Part 3 of my Fonts For Crafting series.

Click here for Part 1.

Click here for Part 2.

And Now On to Part 3!

My class is having its "OMG, has it really been that long since we graduated?!?!" party this weekend. It got me thinking of ideas for stickers that alumnae may want to have as a reminder - things like the above football shaped logo for all of my fellow (now former) cheerleaders. 

In Silhouette Studio, warping text to look like a football or other shape is surprisingly simple and only takes a few minutes. Getting the shape perfect may be a little fiddly, but once you understand how it works, it's not too difficult to churn out designs will all sorts of fun text shapes. 

Warping Text

First, start with picking the right font. Generally speaking, sans serif fonts work best when warped. These fonts are the plain style fonts that do not have any squiggles or lines at the ends of the letters - fonts like Arial or Helvetica or Verdana are the most common sans serif fonts. 

I ignored my own advice and used Cooper Black because it's somewhat similar to the font I recalled seeing used for our uniforms. Astute observers will note that my memory is incorrect - I checked a few minutes ago and it's definitely not Cooper Black, but I have already made the design, taken the screenshots and written the blog post, so I'm not going to change it now. It's close enough to use as an example. 

Recalling Part 1 of this series, click on the text tool (if you need a refresher, click here), select a font and type in your text. I adjusted the vertical spacing between the words to 70% because I wanted the lines closer together. Line spacing and font cannot be changed once Warp has been applied, so you must make the necessary spacing changes before proceeding.

Although Warp works fine with the default unfilled version of the text, it is much easier to work with when the text is filled in with a color. 

With the text box selected, click on the fill icon to open the fill panel and assign a color. I started with red to hide the cut lines, but then remembered that Bourne's colors are purple and white, so changed the text to purple in later steps. 

 Once the text is colored, click on the Warp icon to open the Warp Panel. If your computer's screen is small like mine, it may be hidden - click on the arrow-like triangle near the bottom of the right side bar to open the additional icons bubble to find the button for the warp panel. The Warp icon looks like a bent mesh. 

Note the triangle which opens a mini bubble of additional icons that don't fit down the right side. This happens because my computer has a small screen with low resolution.

Select your text then click on "Warp Selected Shapes". This will turn on the green Warping mesh surrounding your text. 

The number of warpable columns and rows may be changed if finer shaping control is required. Below shows the settings changed from default 1 column 1 row to 2 columns 2 rows: 

If the number of rows or columns are changed after some warping has been performed (perhaps because you realize you'd really like to have more places to pull on the letters), it will reset to its original straight shape and you will have to warp it all over again.

It seems that the maximum number of "handles" is 3. The "handles" are the red dots which can be pulled in any direction to warp the text. Click on any intersection of lines within the mesh and move the mouse around to see the effect. Grabbing a point and pulling will change the shape of the text. Continue grabbing and moving the points until the text has reached the desired shape. 

Sometimes, if you wish to conform to a more complex shape - such as a whale or a wine bottle - it may be easier to bring in an image of the shape, send it to the bottom layer and then manipulate your text using that shape as a guide. 

Above, you can see the final shape of the football logo. I found that pulling the red dots on left and right outward and vertically to center and pulling the central red dots downward and horizontally to center did a reasonably good job of fitting the letters to a football shape. There are internal points available which can be dragged to further push parts of the letters to give the illusion that the letters are printed upon a 3D football. 

Much of the manipulation of the text using Warp is strictly artistic. You will have to fiddle with the points until it looks the way you want it to look. 

The good news is that the Warp Panel has a " restore original shapes button which will undo all the warping and reset the text to it original straight shape. 

The Release Warp button will remove the warp mesh and make the letters individual objects. It leaves the letters in their final warped shape.

Let's Do the Text Warp Again

As usual, there are many options for handling text warping. You may wish to try some of the Warp Templates available on the second tab of the warp panel.

Warp Templates

The templates are great for common warping shapes, so try out a few to see if they work for your project. It is possible to warp text using the template then further manually edit it if the shaping the template provides is not exactly the desired look. Some of the templates may warp text into an unreadable mess if the text size is too small so perform initial text manipulation with a large - at least 72 pt - font size then resize to required design size after manipulation. 

Combining Two Warped Words

Sometimes warping your complete design in one go may be too difficult to get the desired result. For example, creating a fun logo for my friend's "Data Bus", required that I warped each word separately so that I could resize the shorter "Bus" to better fit under "Data". 

Here's the before warping version: a nice retro-looking font with each word as its own text box:

 

Select "Data" and click on Warp Selected Shapes.

Warp "Data", curving the bottom on the right side upward and the left bottom downward. Note the location of the red dots - the left side is way outside of the design itself, putting a downward curve into the left side letters. The red dots from the bottom right were moved to the center of the lettering to put an upward curve into the letters on the right.

Now select "Bus". Click on "Warp Selected Shapes". Warp "Bus" to fit under "Data" stretching it to make it the same width as the longer word. Notice how the red points are manipulated to tweak the letters as desired

The final lettering part of the Data Bus logo (I will be adding further retro decorations later).

HAPPY CRAFTING!!

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Checking Out My Elias Howe Model A

 

I spotted this on Ebay, and pointed it out to my husband, "Look! It's an Elias Howe sewing machine!" 

Well, he bid on it and won the auction, so it appeared in the house just in time for my birthday. He tried to keep it secret, but it's a little difficult to sneak something like this into the house without me noticing. He didn't want to leave it in the car or garage, so he had to hand it over immediately. This Guy knows my weak spots. 

Ok enough about me. You're here for the sewing machine pr0n, right? Of course you are. This machine was identified as a Howe Model A from the late 1860s. It seems that the plates bearing the serial numbers and removable - the serial number is engraved on the metal plate that you can pull off if you need to service the groove where the shuttle goes - so I can't be 100% certain that this machine bears its original plates or if they were replaced some time over the past 1.5 centuries. 

Bottom view. This is what makes this machine so HEAVY - those are solid metal cams. Apparently, they were slimmed down in the Model B and later models, but they are solid here. The wavy grooves drive the movement of the two shafts. The one on the left is what moves the shuttle from front to back to front again in one revolution. The one on the right drives the movement of the bar that goes along the front which controls the feeding of the thread. You can also see that this machine had been a treadle (groove in the round disk on right), but was turned into a hand-crank machine. I think it was converted to make it (moderately) portable since a treadle is a rather substantial piece of furniture. 

Close up of those cams in same position as above photo.

Position of the cams rotated 180 degrees from above. You can see that the shuttle arm has moved along its path and that the groove shape here differs slightly from above. Cams are so cool in how they work - that wave pattern is what determines which way the other mechanisms move. 

See what's missing here? Yes, needle, shuttle and bobbin. Sad face. I'm searching for replacements, but they are extremely difficult to locate because they are no longer being made. 

Top view. Mother of pearl decorations. I found out from looking at a video of a restored Howe that the machine used to have a lot of gold designs curling around the mother of pearl. I can only imagine how pretty it had been back when it was sold to its first owner. Oh, if you're wondering what it's sitting upon, that's the top of a White treadle sewing machine cabinet. We'll check her out in another post. 

Front of the machine. 

Right side view. Note the interesting hand carved crank handle. The box apparently was also special made. I don't know the true history of the box - it could be vintage or new wood I cannot tell. 

Left side of machine 

Back of machine showing HOWE's name

Close up of HOWE's name

Serial number and list of patents applicable to this machine. Posting all the applicable patent numbers in a prominent place seems to have been a common practice in the late 19th century. I think it was because there were so many other competitors that the patent holders wanted to advertise that THEIR machines had all these patents applicable. 

Nothing like having the maker's image on your machine so you know it was invented and made by him. 

A fuller view of the left side. This time I turned the flash on so more features are visible. The lighting in the room was off because it was early afternoon and the bright sun was radiating through the closed window shutters.

Better view of the right side, focusing on that hand carved crank handle that was glued onto the treadle wheel.

"up the kilt" shot at the cams. I put the camera next to the hand crank and took the photo. Thankfully the flash did its job and lit up the underside to show everything underneath. 

I put this guy on the scale. From the top, it doesn't look like it should weigh all that much - it's quite small - but those cams are monsters. The Howe tips the scales at 22.6 lbs! 

My machine did not come with a manual, but I met a fellow on the Vintage Sewing Machine Facebook group who has a Howe Model B, and he kindly scanned in his manual for me. 

One thing of note: Howe drastically changed the cams in the Model B - probably because the earlier model took up so much material and was more expensive to manufacture, not to mention rather heavy. Here's a picture of the Model B's cams: 

Note how the cams were reduced to just the paths to guide the other parts. So all that solid metal that was in mine is gone. This Howe probably weighs 10 lbs less than mine. 

Here's a photo of the shuttle in that same Howe Model B

I also don't have any needles for my Howe Model A. Apparently, the needles are rather long - about 1 7/8" long - with a groove that runs all the way from the wide part of the shaft to the bottom. I will have to search around for appropriate needles once I manage to locate the shuttle and bobbins. 

My machine didn't come with any attachments, either. That's a bit disappointing, but not a big surprise since it seems many vintage machines are sold without their attachments. I don't know where they all go, but I suspect they are getting sold separately or have been misplaced in a way that whoever found them wound up tossing them rather than trying to match them back up with any particular machine.

HAPPY SEWING!!!

Sewing Project: Burgundy Leather Bag

 

I have owned the kit and pattern for this bag, known as "the Boxy Tote", for over 10 years, so it's about time I finally decided to make it. I obtained it from the Sewing & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA, but I did manage to find it on Amazon, in case someone else is interested in making the same project.

The pattern comes with the bent metal stays which allow the top of the bag to stay open, making it easier to carefully load your precious Featherweight into the bag.

Instead of making it from the typical quilting cottons, I decided to use some burgundy leather that has been in my stash for several years. The leather I obtained for $3 a yard at the outdoor sale at Fabric Depot in Portland, OR (sadly, Fabric Depot closed its doors in October 2018). It was one of those things I just couldn't resist, and I bought 8 yards because it was such a great deal and I was sure I would use it immediately for some project or another. 

Apparently my camera didn't adjust the lighting properly, but this is me sewing the straps on. I sewed the bag using my Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ-1 walking foot sewing machine. The Ultrafeed had no problems sewing through all the layers of batting and leather. If you can fit the material under the foot, it can sew it. The LSZ-1 comes with other feet, including a leather sewing foot (smoother bottom to prevent marking the material), but I simply used the original walking foot because I found that it was not marking up the leather. 

Another lousy photo. Again of the straps being sewn on, this time without my hand. I guess I hoped that the lighting would look better without my hand in the way. (I finished the bag before checking on quality of the photos, so I wasn't aware that they were this dark. I guess the camera saw the bright sewing light and dimmed everything else. The room I was in was actually quite bright, so if the camera hadn't so stupidly adjusted for the machine's light, this would have looked fine)

Stitching another portion of the bag. I think this was the bottom of the bag. 

Showing the layers that are being stitched - leather and foam. 

Stitching the sides together. 

The finished bag. (see how bright the room is? This is the same room, just to the left of where the Ultrafeed was being used. My camera is insane.)

Inside of the bag. The fabric is a quilting cotton covered in irons. The pockets are regular black cotton fabric because I didn't have quite enough of the iron fabric (it had been in my stash for a number of years, and I don't recall where it came from). Notice how nicely the bag sits open. This is because the metal stays follow along the outside of the zipper and hold it open like that. Also, the stiff foam between the outer and inner layers makes the bag stand up easily on its own. This bag takes a LOT of effort to flatten.

Bag closed with straps draped over top. The outside of the bag has several pockets. I'm not sure what I'd load into them, but it's always nice to have plenty of pockets available.

Side view of bag showing side pockets. Note the iron fabric trim on the outside of the pocket and on the zipper end.

Holding the handles up. They are quite long and allow the bag to be carried on one shoulder. 

My Featherweight inside the bag. The pattern was advertised as a bag for carrying a Featherweight, so of course I had to put it in there to see how well it fits into the bag. With the Featherweight inside, the bag feels heavy, but the leather handles didn't stretch, so it's tough enough. I think that if you were to make this bag using quilting cotton, I'd recommend using nylon webbing instead of batting in the handles so that the handles won't stretch or break when the Featherweight is in the bag. Although the Featherweight's name implies it's light, remember that it's "light" compared to other Singer machines of that era, and it's still pretty hefty, tipping the scales at 14.6 lbs.

Top view of bag loaded with my Featherweight, all zipped up and ready for the road. 

I did carry the machine around for a few minutes in the bag, just to see if it had any issues supporting the machine. The bag didn't warp out of shape because the straps go all the way around to the bottom of the bag, helping to support the weight of the machine. With the Featherweight inside, the bag is quite roomy, and should have sufficient room for a few yards of fabric and other sewing materials, making it a nice container for going to a local Stitch & Bitch or sewing class. 

The pattern is well written. I really liked that it came with a page of tags to use as labels for each piece. The tags are color coded for each material to help keep everything organized. Many pieces are similar sizes and without the labels I can see how easily one could become confused as to which piece is which. I used blue masking tape to stick the labels to the leather pieces and pins for the foam and quilting cotton layers. 

The most difficult part of the project was the final step of pushing the metal frame pieces through their channels. This was partly my own fault - I should have sewn the channel 1/8" wider than the pattern said it should be sewn to take into account the extra thickness of the leather. I did manage to wrestle it in place after a struggle, but not without poking one of the stays through the quilting cotton in one spot along the channel. I repaired the hole with a bit of Fray Check and a few quick hand stitches. I won't tell you where it is, but it can be found with close examination. 

The bag can, of course, be used for purposes other than toting around a Featherweight, but I think that most who choose to make this project are making it because they want a cute bag for carrying their Featherweight and project materials. Finished dimensions are 14"x11"x12". 

Happy Sewing!!

Test Driving a 1953 Singer 15-91

 

A few weeks ago, my husband and I took a weekend getaway to Green Valley, AZ. We weren't thrilled with the area (the train was a huge minus because it goes by frequently and can be heard all over town), but wanted to see it to know for sure whether or not it we would want to retire there. We wound up going to Sahuarita, AZ for lunch because we were in the mood for Pho, and that was the nearest place that had a Pho restaurant. The restaurant just happened to be next to a JoAnn Fabric shop, and just beyond that was Cathey's Sewing & Vacuum.

My husband rolled his eyes as soon as he noticed the two shops - he knew I'd want to go in both after we ate. The Pho was pretty good, by the way. After lunch, I immediately made a beeline for Cathey's. Inside, they had a nice selection of new machines, but what caught my attention was their wall of used machines - several of which were vintage machines.

The machine that immediately caught my attention was this little guy: 

 I have several vintage Singers, but this was the first time I'd seen one with the tension adjuster on the side of the machine rather than on the front. (Apparently, the Singer model 15s are the only ones in this configuration). My husband is smart enough to know when I want a vintage machine, so he told the sales lady "we'll take this one". I pulled it down from its shelf and brought it over to the front desk. The sales lady handed me some thread and a small piece of fabric so I could test it (the shop's repairman had already gone over the machine, cleaned it up, and tuned it). 

Very nice stitches and smooth sounding motor. I think I like using this one almost as much as my 201. 

Now, on to the more important bit: glamor shots of all sides of this Singer 15-91 (that IS why you're here, right?) 

Left side with tensioner on it.

Back with good view of the potted motor

Right side. Case is thankfully in good condition, too.

Top view- decals in excellent shape. 

This is what sold it: it has my initials "AL" on it. How could I resist?

Angled front view to show the light and top a bit

Yes, I put it to work immediately. It did a great job making this blouse for me.

The fabric may look like a mess, but this is my "croissant" method of sewing the two layers of the back yoke to the front. I call it that because I don't roll things up like a burrito, but rather just twist things around until the seam allowances and stitching line are on the outside. I found this works better and saves me time - no careful rolling of the back and each side for me. 

One final view of the Singer 15-91. Pretty yes?

According to the serial number, this machine was manufactured on July 10, 1953, so it's 68th birthday is a week away. I'll have to think of a project for it to do for its birthday. Do you celebrate your machine's birthdays?

Happy Sewing.