My Cup Runneth Over - 3d Printed Bra v1

Support your local makers - I'm doing my part with this 3d printed bra. Yes, that's right... a custom bikini top bra cup designed in Fusion 360 and printed on a hobby level 3d printer.

Okay, so the project started as a hat. Think "fascinator" base or mesh ball-caps. I wanted to see how different types of French curves joined together when bent. I knew different curves could result in any shape from a cone to a perfect sphere, or onion domes to flattened rounded-corner cylinders. But I had never really designed something with a variable curving shape. Hats looked like a good item to test with. Little did I know.

So I started experimenting with curves and shapes and bending --- and voila, I had my first piece of 3d printed lingerie instead. It not only  turned out better than I expected, I decided a 3d printed bikini top is way more useful and fun than a hat anyways - pretty happy with this failure discovery.

Bright pink bikini bra cup printed on a 3d printer and designed in Fusion 360. It's a bit of over designing, but it sure was fun.

I've been experimenting with heat-shaping 3d printed panels recently. Sure, I can print the model pre-shaped, an all in one standalone print. I could have easily printed this object pre-bent and ready to wear. But as I discovered when printing my mini-terrarium greenhouse, it's sometimes a lot quicker to print flat objects and assemble them.

My first experiment with heat-forming 3d-prints was a simple bowl made from a flat 3d-printed sheet, which turned out okay. Good enough that I wanted to try something more complex.

The bowl shaping experiment relied on the patterns within the perforations to allow deformation when heated. The corners in the pattern are arranged so that the surface can bend in three dimensions without significantly changing the structure. That technique worked fine, so I wanted to add a second variable to better control the shape.

I know a little about traditional pattern making for clothes. I also have some experience shaping and heat-forming foam panels into costumes and props for cosplay. So I figured heat shaping PLA wouldn't be that much different.

I also wanted to use this series of tests to better understand just how curves affect the final shape. I have Fusion 360 and Meshmixer and several other programs that could take the final shape and create a cutting pattern for me.

(I had to print a couple of quick failed experiments before I remembered that I needed to use those traditional pattern making skills though. Not always the smartest cookie on the shelf.)

But the software makes most of the decisions when I use those techniques, and I really wanted to understand how to do it manually. I think when I understand pattern making better I can probably force or at least suggest settings for the programs to give me better patterns.

This is the first experiment that gave me the smoothly varying curves I was after. It was a very simple pattern, but it was also the first time I used splines (aka French curves) instead of simple arcs. The result is a lot closer to a single, flowing shape and less like the segmented domes I got when I used simple arcs and lines.

That's when I decided to declare, "This is now officially a bra." Well, half a bra... okay just one cup. But still, it's a much more body-friendly form than anything I had created before.

Also notice that the decorative-infill pattern is simple. It is NOT designed to flex and deform. That means this sheet of plastic reacts to bending in a manner very similar to that of paper or non-stretchy cloth. It's really just the way the two curves join that makes the final shape so much smoother.

If I combined the deformable-mesh technique from the bowl experiment with the spline-curve edges from this experiment, the plastic sheet should begin to behave more like cosplay-foam or stretchy cloth. Then... print it in flexible filament to actually make it comfortable to wear. That's the next phase of experiments.

And yes, there should be more experiments with 3d-printed fabric and clothing coming soon. But understanding the traditional methods of pattern making is still an essential skill. For instance, my 3d-printed chainmail is pretty flexible. But to get it to fit properly at any large scale, like a vest or corset, I will still need to create differently shaped pieces of the mail just like you would with old-fashioned cloth.

The pattern in Fusion 360. You can see the different types of curves on every edge. Sure, it's 3d, but the principles are the same as used in traditional clothing patterns.

So no matter which direction I go, I must get better at pattern making. Right now, I have my hands full just with this, but I can already tell it's going to be a fun journey.

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T-Shirt Haiku from DIY Scraps

Create poetry with up-cycled T-shirt scraps. Turn your old tees into one-of-a-kind works of individualized art.

Someone donated a bunch of old T-shirts for my (failed) attempt at making 3d printed templates. So I found myself with lot's of tees that didn't fit me/ I slashed a few in my experiments, but I still had lots left over/

I figured I could make a few hoods and scarves and pillows. But what could I do with all those free swag tee shirts from 2014? Too bad I couldn't just use elements from each of the designs and make something new.

Or wait... maybe I could. I do have scissors and I do have fabric glue. Heck, I even own a sewing machine if I wanted to get serious.







So I sat down with the scissors and a bag of old shirts during the Olympics and started cutting out words from the front and back of 20 shirts.

It was a perfect task. Unlike most of my hobbies I could start and stop with no ill effects. I didn't lose my train of thought, the tee didn't dry, crack, sag or over-process in any way.

I enjoyed the parts of the Olympics I wanted and the holes in the tee shirts stayed just as they were and when I came back I just started cutting again.

What I thought would be a tedious task turned out to be a lot of fun. In fact, I think it helped me enjoy the Olympic events even more.

Nervous about whether your fave is going to make it into semi-finals - well cut apart some tee shirts.

Your favorite might be getting knocked off the podium - make the cuts extra ragged. Heck the more ragged and nervous looking the better, just makes it look really hand made.










Of course making the scraps into a work of art is another story. Once I realized that I could never color coordinate or match sizes or fonts - well then it became fun again and I had some flashbacks to my teen tears and rebellious designing. Shew, this adulting in design thing had messed with my sense of freedom and spontaneity.

So this was a good, I got a sense of fun back, made something fun from discarded clothes, and even found a bright-sided silvered-lining to the filed craft-knife experiments. This was a fun win.

Of course my short poem writing skills had also atrophied. But I listened to some music, realized the lyrics actually made no sense and if they could do it then I could do it, I composed three amaze-balls poems in just a few minutes. And I think I got back with my teen self here as well.

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Slash and Run - I Think I'm Done

I've slashed several tee-shirts over the last few days and I think I've finally gotten this whole 3d printed template idea out of my system. Can't really call it a success in traditional terms, but I found out a lot of things. More importantly, I squashed a nagging idea from years back that wouldn't go away until I actually tried it.

I seem to be writing more about this failed attempt than my more complex (and successful) projects. I will return to writing about the highly technical detailed successes soon, but I just felt like I needed to document a silly project once in while.

I think it's because I know there are other makers out there who do the same thing. We all do it, follow an impulse even though we know it might not be the smartest design choice. It's part of the creative process. So continue to play with useless things, make bad choices and try to fix them. Because somewhere underneath, there's a reason you are working this set of problems - sit back, buckle in and enjoy the ride.

Okay, so the template worked fine. But it definitely wasn't worth all the effort.

What did I learn from all this?:

The 3d printed templates did work, but they are more trouble than they are worth

Any time saved during cutting was destroyed in the printing process. If I saved two minutes per cut tee-shirt, I would have to do a lot of shirts to make up for the hour of printing time.

PLA can be cut with a craft blade, and it will get cut after a few uses. Every template got nicked. especially after I started thinking "Hey, I got the hang of this." Not good for high volume, speedy production work.

The "clamping action" derived from using a top and bottom plate didn't help at all. A single template on top worked just as well. At least I cut the printing time in half,

Using medium pressure and multiple strokes of the blade made the cleanest cuts. Trying to cut the cloth in one pass only worked with the sharpest, newest blades - and then only sometimes. It was more likely to drag the cloth instead of cutting all the way through.

The cloth dragged and stretched even when I had a slot in the bottom plate. I had hoped I could puncture the fabric and slice quickly the rest of the length. It didn't work, slashing with the edge of the blade wasn't any more effective than overly forceful use of the blade tip.

Any line shorter than an inch reads as a hole, not a slash. Tiny, intricate patterns just looked like there were a bunch of random holes.

Any slashes closer than 10mm looked like strings. Using 20-50mm spacing made it look more like what I wanted.

Well that clean precision look didn't last very long did it?

Got reminded that tee-shirt material stretches quickly and the clean cuts I made quickly turned into a blobby mess after a short wearing. All that work for five minutes of precisely cut look - then it turned into a tangled mess.

Got reminded that simple slashed in denim jeans are not very effective decorations. Denim does hold the shape of the cuts, so you need to cut an "opening" instead of a simple slash if you want the pattern to be seen. The slits might open up enough to be seen after  a few days of wearing or a good washing or two. But actually cutting sections out to make larger holes worked much better.







After all this designing and printing and testing I arrived at some conclusions:

Cutting the templates with a laser-cutter or CNC would be much quicker and, using chipboard or metal, would result in a sturdier product. I knew this already, but I only have a 3d printer, so I used it.

Maybe I don't need a template at all. I thought it would save me time and it did, but a minute a shirt isn't that significant.

No-one cares about perfectly spaced and cleanly cut lines for the level of designs these templates create. These are simple shapes, not complex lace patterns. And the cloth distorts so quickly the improvement disappears after a few minutes.

Just use a pair of good scissors or get a rotary cutter. They will work just as well as the templating system did for designs that are  this simple.

So was this a failure? Absolutely! I wasted several hours going down the wrong path. And worse yet, I knew it was the wrong path when I started. So why did I do it? Well, history I guess.

Like I said before, I had tried cutting tee-shirts when I was much younger and I didn't like the results. They were sloppy and ragged. I wanted clean, precise cuts. I kept thinking, "If I could only create template it would be much easier."

That idea stuck with me for years, so when I got a 3d printer I decided to try it. I tried it even though I knew a laser cutter or CBC would be a better solution, and even though desktop laser cutters are cheap these days.

I even knew that the cheap scissors I used back then were not appropriate for cloth. Now I own good scissors and can easily make clean cuts in any cloth.

And these days, there are the new rotary cutters that slice through several layers of cloth so cleanly and easily even I can do it.

But you must understand, I had once had an "IDEA" and that thing had stuck in my head for a decade or more. I must bring it out into the open and battle it on the physical level or it would always be bouncing around in my brain taking up space and time that could be used for something useful.

So I did it.

Now I can rest.








So no, this exercise wasn't a failure at all. It was a necessary step for a certain type of warped designer-mind. I won, I killed the silly notion and I have proof of my victory It was a lot of work, but now I can move on to other ideas.

It wasn't a brick wall, it was just a reflection of something else.

And the project wasn't a total loss. I got some other ideas during the process. One involves open flame torches, metal plates and old jeans. Another involves heat bending flat 3d shapes. If either idea works like I hope, evenly a little, I will share the results.

My final thought - get a frikkin laser cutter if you want to do this kind of stuff - that's what they are made for and why they've become so popular. Slap a tee-shirt on the platter and cut out any shape you want in a matter of seconds. If you want to do a lot of tee-shirt and other clothing modifications, invest in the equipment best suited for it. 

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Good Enough to Start With - Cut and Run

I got something right on the first try, then spent a full day trying and failing to make it better - only to realize it didn't really need to be improved. But like most dead ends, I learned a lot of useful stuff along the way.

Last week I posted about a 3d printed template for cutting, slashing and modifying fabric. The design was a success, both because it was easy to customize and print new designs with only a few minutes work for each pattern, and because it actually helped making clean straight cuts in tee-shirts.

Not satisfied, I continued to think of new ways to use this approach until I reached the limits of the first design. I wanted bigger better, smaller faster, simpler yet more complex designs. Are you beginning to suspect I might have gotten carried away?

Sure, the template worked. But I noticed that any design with the slots closer than about 10mm started to create problems. Common tee-shirt fabric, being all stretchy and flimsy, was particularly problematic. It would stretch, gather and distort when the cutting slots got too close together. This really sucked because slashing old tee-shirts was the original impetus behind the entire concept.

I also noticed that very thin or slippery fabrics like sateen, or very thick fabrics like denim didn't always work very well. If I was careful, I could do both. But I had to take care to hold the template just right and position and lay out the fabric correctly.

A simple, first try success wasn't good enough. I had to make it better. I had a serious case of designer fever.

What I needed were some cleats or ridges and matching grooves to really clamp down on the cloth and hold it in place.

So I started a redesign of the entire template system. I spent half of a day thinking about it and drawing simple sketches. What if I put cleats or ridges on the surfaces, maybe add matching indentations to really clinch the cloth and keep it from moving.

I did several sketches like that. I got a feel for a way to draw the "features" easily. And then started thinking about how to automate the process so that I could type in a few numbers and the pattern would magically draw itself.

The first (successful) version simply extruded shapes up from the ground plane, the cut or joined the shapes to create two slotted plates. But this new cleated, wavy system wouldn't work like that. Now, I had to extrude on two or even three planes and somehow coordinate the origins and geometries across multiple drawing steps.

That was kind of annoying. I had to redo all my old work/ And, because I wasn't sure which, if any. of the new shapes would work, I  needed to find the simplest method of automating multiple styles of cleats and clips and waves.

I couldn't find any one style that worked for all shapes, so I wound up generating several different files with completely different automation strategies.

Getting a flat face to match with another flat face is easy. getting curved and notched faces to mate with other curved faces with varying distances between them, well that isn't nearly as easy. Especially if the surfaces curve in all directions at once.

Automating that process is even harder. Boy did I learn a lot.

Or what if I made the entire surface wavy - yeah, that would really lock them together.

I spent about a full day concepting then drawing and automating these new designs. I was getting closer, but also getting frustrated. Then I went back to look at the results from the first tests and realized something.

I didn't need to do all this.

Seriously, I'm never going to be cutting two hundred strips of cloth that are only 2mm wide. That's just ridiculous. Look at any example of slashed tee-shirt mods. They have a few (10-20) cuts and the strips are at least an inch wide, not a hundred tiny cuts.

This project was supposed to be about slapping down a template on a worn out tee and making 10 or 20 relatively straight cuts in a few seconds.

I had gotten carried away and was trying to create a process that would rival the precision of a laser cutter. Why do that?

So I stopped the design and tried to feel better about the day I had just lost to stupidity. It was probably the easiest part of the day. I did actually learn a lot, and any time you find new ways of doing things it's a win. If not today, then sometime soon.

There are parts that I can still use in this design. I can use some of the new ideas in other projects. I'm working on a metal and paper embosser where these techniques are useful. A lot of these ideas are also applicable for sliding joints for lids and cases. And this exploration helped me get a better grasp on basing multi-plane geometries off a single origin point.

So like most failures, I got a lot of useful information to use. So maybe that day wasn't a complete loss after all. Now I'm off to cut up more old shirts.

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Slashed Tee-Shirt with a Template - First Look

Slashed tee-shirts were all the rage a few years ago, Then they fell out of favor for a while. Now, they appear to be making a comeback with much more elaborate, commercially produced forms. I made a few attempts at cool fashion tees and got frustrated because mine always looked even rougher and more home made than they were supposed to - ragged, crooked cuts with even worse weaving.
Who knew I was so bad with a pair of scissors?

But I'm willing to try again. This time I made a 3d printed cutting-template to help me cut clean, straight lines for easier weaving and crisper shapes.

The cloth fits between two slotted plates. The plates lock together and hold the cloth in place while it's cut with a craft blade. 

The template itself is a simple idea, but I'm using Fusion 360's parametric functions to make the template easily customizable.

Now, with just a few clicks I can change the size and thickness of the cutting plates,and the size and spacing of the cut lines. I can also apply any shape to the slots.

Don't know how often I will personally use it, But I know some folks who are going through their custom-tee phase that might enjoy having these.

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