Ghost Whale seams?

[LordAnubis]

Hi TB!

Just want to ask, or maybe throw it out there. Is there any way the seams on the Ghost whales can be toned down somewhat? It’s not too big a deal on most of the whales but the super mini I find is rather tricky having such a huge seam all inside the thing.

Thanks




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[ejvc]

I think the only way would be to turn it inside out — have the seam on the outside to save space on the inside. But it wouldn’t be pretty. A smaller seam allowance would be much weaker. Maybe you could use a thinner binding for the seam? But it would still be the same width. Also there’s the zipper — so yeah, no.

[Darcy]

It's a worthy question @LordAnubis and @ejvc answered it well... those constraints basically mean we can't reduce the size of the seam.

[LordAnubis]

What I don’t understand is why the seam thing is there. I obviously know nothing about sewing etc.

I can imagine it’s there so stitching is on the inside. But if it gets in the way of functionality then it’s kind of a big sacrifice.

Id rather the zipper be sewn on like the zipper on the top of the DLBC. “Flat sewn”. Ultimately it’s not some heavy duty product. It’s not going to take serious load, it’s just there put some small stuff in.

Out of curiosity. What would happen if I started hacking away at this stuff marked below? Obviously I wouldn’t cut the stitching but would the whole thing unravel if I cut it?




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[jessmakes]

If you cut away the area marked in red, there will be some unraveling of the fabric from the raw edge, but no, it shouldn't fall apart as long as you stay away from the black stitching.

[Jimbo3b]

LordAnubis: known troublemaker and violator of warranties. Questioner of Bihn's bulletproof designs.

I'd worry about unraveling. With nylon you can fuse it after trimming, perhaps with a soldering iron.

[LordAnubis]

Ghost Whale seams?

LordAnubis: known troublemaker and violator of warranties. Questioner of Bihn's bulletproof designs.

I'd worry about unraveling. With nylon you can fuse it after trimming, perhaps with a soldering iron.

Between this and my other question about hacking a Niks wallet in half... [emoji23]. Next step... I feel like a half Synik 30 is a good idea [emoji33][emoji16]


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[kmw]

LordAnubis: known troublemaker and violator of warranties. Questioner of Bihn's bulletproof designs.

I'd worry about unraveling. With nylon you can fuse it after trimming, perhaps with a soldering iron.

I can attest that it does unravel, though it still works: just gets a bit fluffy.

A billion years ago I'd cut the snaphook off a COW, but -- because I wasn't smart enough to look at the TB forums at the time -- did so by cutting the nylon instead of the hook itself. That same COW has lasted about a decade in that state and was used almost daily for at least 7 years of that time.

[kjquilts]

I love the Ghost Whales and have several of them. The Super Mini size zipper is sometimes a little wonky especially in the top right corner. I can't imagine inserting a zipper in such a tight area, can't actually imagine inserting a zipper anywhere.

What I do is play with the pouch. I open and close the zipper many times, kind of pinching that upper corner just under the curve as the zipper rounds the corner. We have cruised quite a bit and I keep our ship cards as souvenirs. I "finger press" the black edging to get it where I want it and then put 8 or 9 of the ship cards in the pouch and then add slightly shorter folded paper between the cards until the pouch is fairly full. It only takes a couple days for the black edging to be smashed into submission.

[ejvc]

The stuff you marked in red is called "seam binding" and TB does it with polyester grosgrain ribbon. What it does is cover the raw edges of the outer nylon fabric. If you just cut fabric and leave it, it will fray -- the threads will work loose from the fabric and probably them from the stitching and then your seam will fail. So you always "finish" seams. One method is seam binding, but there are other methods - overcasting the seam using thread, folding over one edge so it encloses another and sewing down (felling), folding both in (french seam). You can also bind with a thinner binding than the super sturdy poly grosgrain. I've bound seams with silk and cotton, for example. Or on nylon, since it's polyester, you can stop fraying by heating the edge with a flame, causing the fibres to melt. This is what I do on the ends of poly seam binding, or on ribbon that I wrap with.

So, to sum up:

a) I would not cut that area away as in my judgement it would weaken the seam.
b) if you do, seal the fibres with a match (test on the cut away portion first). Work carefully.
c) Tom Bihn should consider a thinner seam binding material on these smaller products.
d) you could learn to sew, take it apart, and fix it just how you like :-) If I did this, I'd remove the seam binding on the zipper seam, heat seal the ballistic nylon, and reattach the zipper. I'd keep the seam binding around the edge of the pouch which gives it structural stability (in my judgement).

Hope this is useful to you.

[ejvc]

Heat seal this is what I would definitely do. Use a match to melt the fibres and prevent further fraying.

[LordAnubis]

Look away now if you don’t want to see some hacking.

I got to it. Harder than I thought it would be holding it all down and cutting.


The carnage and comparison to another super mini GW.


The outcome



I think it comes out quite well. The seam is almost completely hidden in the zipper. I think it free some “arranging space” in the pouch as well. Not sure if so it to every super mini GW I own as I don’t think I did that great a job but I like how it turned out.


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