Not Martha
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links: technology

PSA: How To Take Good Care Of Your PC | Best Of MetaFilter. I still primarily use PCs.

Solidoodle 4: Testing the home 3-D printer. At Slate, via The Morning News. “Consider: Once upon a time, people purchased sewing patterns (like a program from Thingiverse) and yards of fabric (like filament) and they made their own clothes. I wasn’t alive back then, but I’m pretty sure the process sucked. It took lots of time and effort and the clothes were often amateurishly constructed. … Most people would much rather just get their clothes from a store—already assembled by people employing industrial-level efficiency and a wide variety of materials.”

THREES – The Rip-offs & Making Our Original Game. Some in depth exploration and conflicted feelings on the clones. Via Waxy.

· comments [3] · 04-11-2014 · categories:links · technology ·

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 fillyjonk // Apr 14, 2014 at 6:48 am

    That guy at Slate has a fairly narrow view of home sewing. My mom is an awesome seamstress, she made a lot of our clothes when I was growing up.

    I sew sometimes myself. I’ve even said that if I wanted something specific, it was almost faster to go to the fabric store, buy the stuff, and make the dress or whatever than it was to spend multiple hours scouring the mall, where all the stores carry “clone” merchandise.

    Also, I always found sewing for myself satisfying and fun, not “suck.”

    I wonder if anyone brought up the issues of sweatshop-made clothes with him….I’ve seen some pretty amateurishly made stuff in the stores.

  • 2 KC // Apr 14, 2014 at 8:50 am

    I agree that it’s a really narrow view of home sewing, but it might be a decent analogy with a more home-sewing-is-fine sort of perspective. Most people will not bother sewing their own underwear or t-shirts or similar thing that works fine mass-produced and can be done in a factory for less just due to the volumes-of-scale efficiency. (also leaving out the sweatshop issue. I think more people are hand-sewing undies and t-shirts than otherwise would be, due to the sweatshop issue.)

    Duplicate trinkets or things everyone wants? Nah. But custom prosthetics? replacement little bits of plastic for something that broke? super-personalized things? (like, say, orthodontic appliances) Things that are currently either very hard to find or very expensive (because there’s a tiny market, or because they have to be custom-made) might work out well… but the plastic equivalents of jeans and t-shirts and such, probably not.

  • 3 megan // May 3, 2014 at 5:13 pm

    I studied costume design and construction in college as a stitcher in a professional costume shop and while I was there I asked a few full time stitchers and drapers if they make their own clothes and the answer was no — t-shirts and jeans are time consuming and ultimately easier to find than create well. They did tend to make their own formal wear though.

    I can’t think of many things that I would need 3-D printed except for caps for various bottles. I have a few glass bottles that I cannot reuse for anything other than vases until I find a replacement cap.

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