This entry is part of a series, 12 Volt Power supply» aka
Swanking your jank
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Working hard in the lab, the corset post and exploring the world with the family have distracted me from posting the project I have completed. While I don’t apologize for my priorities, I do make an apology to those who have been checking in.
Not only did I finish the case for the ATX Power supply for myself, but I built a second for a good friend who is a fabulous tinker himself.
The wooden part of the cases themselves are simple wood working – plywood with the edges covered in oak veneers. I used luan was used for the grills, hand cut with a coping saw. While unfettered ventilation is important, but not wanting to sacrifice aesthetic, I brass painted some window screen and glued it behind the grill to help obscure internal components. The mark II has a black painted baffle halfway between the grill and the internal components to further aid this concealment. Wood stain and tongue oil help to give the wood parts a quality look.
Brass corners a dress up the edges of the vertical unit. Some sheet tin is sufficient to mount the power supply in the rear on the unit. I used some tin ceiling scraps for one and flashing scrap for the other. Screw holes for mounting are best made with a nail punch, instead of a drill, because the flanges re-enforce the holes a bit.
The name plate, terminal plates and switch plate were electro-etched using the power supplies themselves. If one looks closely at the horizontal unit, it can be observed that the terminal plates and switch plate and switch plate are in negative image. Mistakes do happen when one is in a hurry! This is my lab power supple, and being dyslexic, I thought I would leave them this way to help me remember to check the orientation of my etching resistor transfer in the future.
All tubes and coils were made for the project. Painted window screen, plastic from water bottles, construction paper, old phone wire, thin sheet copper, painted steel wool and metallic tape were key components in this process. Each is internally lit with an LED, in series with a resistor power by the un-used 5 volt capacity of the ATX unit. Simple and effective LED tools can be found at http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz to help with resistor value selection. My favorite tubes were not the ones I tried to made like vacuum tubes, but the ones where I got creative and just did my thing.
More pictures of this project can be found here.
This is a contenuation of the:
By Madame vonHedwig on Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Update: Here is the very handsome cap of Mr. Kevin C Cooper Esq, made based on my instructions below. What a dashing fellow!
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This past Yule I made vonHedwig a smoking cap to match one of his smoking jackets. Here’s how I did it.
fabric – I started with 1/2 yard and had loads left over
stiff fabric – I just used a sheet of stiff felt
needle, thread, pins, and scissors
tassel – try the upholstery area of the fabric store. I couldn’t find a tassel significant enough for my husband, so I made my own.
To make your own tassel: yarn, piece of cardboard 2″ wide and as long as you want the tassel to be
1. measure the circumference of the wearer’s head mid- to high-forehead, wherever looks right, and measure or estimate how high you want the cap to be. I made mine 4″ high. It shouldn’t be too high, as it is a smoking cap, not a fez. (besides, a fez is traditionally felted.)
2. cut your stiff felt to those measurements, with 1/2″ or so overlap for seam allowance
3. cut your fabric so that it will entirely encase the brocade (leaving yourself seam allowances
4. connect the ends of your stiff felt and pin. Holding it in the shape of the final hat, lay it on the wrong side of the fabric and mark the top of the hat. Add seam allowance and cut it out.
5. fold the felt into the fabric cut to encase it and sew the wrong sides together along one long end.
6. Pin your fabric-covered felt into a circle, then pin right side of the hat top to the inside of the hat seam you just made, and sew it. 
7. Turn the cap right side out. Fold under the cut edge on one side of the fabric join and hand sew it shut (inside and outside of the hat), using stiches that don’t show.
8. Sew tassel on the top center, and an interesting button on top of that.
To make your own tassel:
Cut a piece of cardboard (just grab something out of the recycling) and cut it a quarter inch longer than you want your tassel and 2″ wide with indented ends.
Wrap yarn from end to end until it’s as fat as you want it.
Slip another length of yarn under one end and tie a knot around the bundle.
Slip your open scissors into the other end and cut the tassel open.
Take it off the cardboard form and return it to the recycling. Tie a second knot an inch or so down from the tied end to make a ball at the top. (you can even put a small ball inside to round it out)
This entry is part of a series, Construction of Custom Corsets» Part -1
Constrution Corset, square neck brown canvas corsets
Part 2
This is part three of a living document on making custom corsets. It will be edited, revised, and have new information and links added as readers post comments. So please post your comments, questions and tips so that other can learn from your experience as well as mine.
This is one of those projects in which precision is your friend. The more precise your work is, the easier the project will be. Deviation in this kind of project seems to multiply, causing more and more problems as you work. I over build corsets a bit, so I am going to show a heave duty method, that with one modification can be used to make a corset in which the boning sleeves don’t show on the outer layer. This one’s edge will be finished with homemade bias tape, but later I’ll try to show other edge finishing methods.
It’s time to choose boning to stiffen your corset. Traditionally, wood and whale bone where common, with upwards of a hundred staves in a single garment. Today’s cheap corset, bustier and merry widow have light wieght narrow plastic boning in them, often leading to structural failure, even with the first wearing. Perhaps if used in the hundred plus numbers still they might hold up, but in truth they’re a waste of petrochemicals. You can buy corset bones in a variety of lengths and thicknesses from companies like Farthingales. While they have nice round rubber end, their lenth selection is limited, usually comes in only half inch and they are kind of pricey.
What I normal use is steel lumber-packing band, free on the floor of the lumber yard near you. It is strong, flexible, and commonly comes in 5/8 and 1 ¼ inch width. Trim to length with metal shears, round the end and cover with a bit of electrical tape (perhaps some spray paint if you’re that kind of person) and there’s your custom boning. These days, more lumber is coming in plastic packing band, so this corset is a mix of the two weights of plastic packing band I from laying around, with a double stack of the heavy weight inside of the grommet area. The heavier weight was also used as the boning between the breast. So far so good. Thus an occasional hand washable corset.
Set aside the cover layer for a while, once your have sewn it to match the tailored backing layer.
figure 02
figure 01
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Measure the width of your boning, and add and 1/8th inch for sewing variance. (5/8’ for the boning + 1/8’ variance = ¾’ inch) Now starting on a straight edge of a single layer your backing fabric, working with your grain start marking out your boning sleeves. For example, 5/8’ inch seam allowance, the ¾” for the boning, 5/8’ inch seam allowance, repeat for each piece of boning that will be in the corset. I mark every six inches up the fabric for consistency until they are about four inches long than I think I will need them to be. I also draw the cutting lines as I connect the mark in a different color, then the sewing lines around the boning. On this particular corset there is double boning in the front center, so I made a double sleeve by skipping the center seam allowance. (figure 2)
figure 03
The boning inside the grommet, under the lacing, the back edge in this corset doesn’t really need a sleeve, but the extra sleeve you cut gets sewn in to the backing layer to re-enforce the grommets. In figure 03 you should be able to see the seam allowance markings, a space for the boning and then the grommet re-enforcement strip. The rest of the sleeves are laid out on the backing layer where the boning is desired, then pinned into place. If in doubt, look at other corsets, the picture of the corset yours is modeled after, or a pattern for inspiration. Most of the time the sleeves stop at an edge, but sometime one must make an educated guess as to where to end a bit of boning. For example, when does the desire for support end and a shoulder strap begin? On this corset the boning is in a slight fan on the front. On a simple corset, most follow the seams. I often zig-zag down the edges, for strength.
Basting helps on this step. Quick and broad hand stitches not only let the seamstress precisely align the sleeves, but also do a better job of keeping the layers’ seams aligned and maintaining the position of various pieces while machine sewing. Sadly one of my sewing weaknesses is a failure to baste when it’s optional, so I have no examples to show.
figure 04
figure 05
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Instead I just preceded to sew down the sides and top of each sleeve, leaving the bottom open. Better to make the sleeve a bit too wide than too narrow. With the right sides of the backing layer and outer layer the together, sew the grommet edges, then turn right side out. Be careful to push out this seam (with a pin or a ruler from the inside), and press, to prevent making a pocket. (figure 04) Sew down the edge about an 1/8” in from the edge. Then sew a parallel seam in from the width of your boning plus 1/8”, and a third parallel seam in from that based on the width of your grommets plus 1/8”.
figure 06
figure 07
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At this point the easiest thing to do is to line up and pin the seams of the outer and backing layer across the top and arm holes . Don’t finish the bottom yet. Sew the two layers together 5/8” from edge. (figure 05) Trim to a scant ¼ inch.
A design choice for this corset was to have boning stiching show on the front of the corset. When sewing though all layers it is important that they line up. At three points along each seam a pin was pushed straight though to check the alignment before they were pinned together. It is best that the layers’ seams are with in a 16th of an inch of each other. (figure 07) Once again basting would help.
figure 08
figure 09
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Because this is a waist-altering corset, the addition of an internal canvas belt was put in for support. (Ideally this would be between the top layer and outside of the boning for maximum effectiveness.) (figures 08 and 09) It is important the belt run from grommets to grommets, and preferably has at least two grommets in each end. This was pinned at each boning sleeve. On this corset, because one of the boning stays ends where a shoulder strap starts, the stopping point of the sleeve was double checked and marked on the backside. Sewing carefully and accurately, the boning sleeves were re-sewn, through all the layers, still leaving the bottom of each sleeve open. (figure 10)
figure 10
figure 11
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Now I made matching bias strips into matching tape, and sewed them onto the top and arm holes, in order to finish those edges. Now I marked 5/8” on the inside, from the bottom of the corset for each stay sleeve. Each boning stay should be a ¼ or an inch shorter then from the top of the sleeve to this mark. Once all your boning is in place, then it is time to sew shut the bottom, being careful to not sew over the boning. Safety glasses are not out of place during this last few steps. (That’s right, time to USE those goggles!) Trim down to a scant ¼ inch and finish with bias tape. (figures 11 , 12 and 13)
Grommet Time – but first a soapbox rant. The common fabric store grommets I have found to be an abomination. Most are light duty, made out of thin metal. Typically the two parts of these cheap grommets both have a notched barrow that fit one in another. (Good grommets – one side has a solid barrow and the other side is a washer.) They don’t fit tight, once set, so the force of the lacing is not defused and fraying is not checked. Sometimes their edges are even sharp and will cut the fabric as you put them in. After all the hard work you have put in so far, don’t start cutting corners now. If you are in a hurry, maybe your local hardware store has heavy-duty grommets. Better yet plan ahead and order some and the setting tools from a corset notions supplier.
figure 12
figure 13
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The grommets for this corset were set 1” on center and just about a 1/8” in from the first stay. Mark them in chalk, double check their alignment, then punch the holes for them. A hammered punch into a piece of hard wood works better for fabric than a hand punch. Set your grommet. Lace it up with ribbon, shoe laces or parachute cord (it comes in almost as many colors as thread from online sources) and its finally done. (
figure 14
figure 14)
Some other notes, for the curious:
A modesty panel is a 2-4” wide double sided strip of fabric running down the length of the corset behind the grommets and lacing. It is sewn only down one side. You can add a ¾” modesty panel behind the button side of a busk as well.
An alternative to re-enforced boning sleeves is to sew the back and front together to form a sleeve between the out and the backer later. This is a method I would only use for a limited wear corset, and it has to have a heavy outer layer.
Another way to finish the top and bottom edges is to sew the outer and backing layer faces together at all but the grommet lacing edge and turn the piece right-side out for hand sewing and grommeting. Topstitching will crisp the top and bottom edges, but be care about breaking needles when you sew over instead of around boning.
If people are interested, I’ll posted some examples of the other finishing variations, making you own boning, or making your own bias tape. Homemade bias tape is the bees knees, and isn’t hard to make.
Farthingales is a reliable but pricey source of corset making supplies.
Folkwear Patterns has the best pattern paper I have found.
This entry is part of a series, 12 Volt Power supply» I built this to provide current for electrolytic etching of copper and brass, but it can be used to power electronic projects as well. It is a simple procedure, for those with basic electrical skill and understanding of the safety practices needed for working with power supplies.
WARNING: If you read this and don’t understand any part of it, you don’t have the base knowledge needed to attempt this project safely.
WARNING: unplug unit before attempting anything!
WARNING: power supplies can hold a charge of electricity!
WARNING: If you don’t know or don’t think electricity can kill you dead, DO NOT PROCEED!
Necessary parts:
10 ohm 10 watt resistor
SPST switch
Electrical tape and or heat shrink tubing
Optional parts:
LEDs
Resistors (for 20 to 25 ma 84 to 100 ohms ¼ watt should work fine)
Now down to work.
Remove ATX power supple unit from computer if not all ready separate, keeping wires as long as possible but remove the connectors. The power supply has a number of checks or safeties that keep it from working at this point. Next remove the access cover, but it is not necessary to remove the circuit board from the power supply housing. Sort wires so you have set aside the following:
2 red wires (only one if you are skipping the LEDs)
1 yellow
4 black (only three if you are skipping the LEDs)
1 green
1 brown (if brown/orange pair is present)
1 orange (if brown/orange pair is present)
Clip all other wires at circuit board, if longer cover the ends with electrical tape or shrink tube.
Brown and orange are connected together permanently for the 3.3 volt sense to enable the power supply to work. (If there’s no brown/orange pair, ignore this step.)
Next the 5 volt rail needs a load for the power supply to operate properly. The 10 ohm 10 watt resistor provides this load when connected between a red and a black wire. This baby heats up a bit so it needs to be mounted in a way that dissipates that heat, like in the air flow of the fan or on a heat sink.
The power on/off is made by connecting the SPST switch between the black and the green wires. Insulate all bare connections. LED with a resistor can be hooked in parallel between a set of red and black wire.
The two remaining black wires are twisted together. Now when activated there should be 12 volts dc between the yellow and paired black.
12 volt power supply
Mount, jank, decorate, and make safe your new power supply.
LED exact resistors needed can be calculated at http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz
Max power output can be figured with the equation Watt = volts x amps, minus say 10% (just of the top of my brain) for 5volt load, LEDs and loss. These are modifications the instructions from http://www.vonslatt.com/bus-tron.shtml
While many things are going on in the lab, most are still in the secret classified category until after the holidays, their completion or their use, in time of need, leads to their change classification. However, I can show the hat pins The Madam needed me to make her for her new hat.
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