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Tim Rucci | all galleries >> Photo Potpourri >> Maintenance >> Make Your Own Flash Bouncer > Learn from my mistake...
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Learn from my mistake...

This photo shows where I attached double faced tape near some of the edges. I also attached it in all of the corners (not shown on this photo). I laid the white foam directly over top of the black and the tape held them together while I sewed all the way around the perimeter with approxmiately 3mm stitches. I sewed from the bottom (black foam over white) an used black top threadand white bobbin thread, so that the stitches would be the same color as the foam on both sides. The white mesh at the bottom is "red edge" (optional) which is a heavy interfacing available from fabric stores, that I used to add some strength where it wraps around the flash.

My mistake was putting the double faced tape so close to the edges and then sewing through it.
This caused adhesive residue buildup on the sewing needle, which prevented the free movement of the needle. The result was loose loops of thread in some places, instead of nice tight stitches. This is clearly visible in the photo. This only happened in places where I had attached tape, but several times the thread snapped and I had to clean the needle and rethread it. I later made another bouncer placing the tape a little futhrer away from the edges, and this solved the problem. I kept my original for a spare.

In reality, the double sided tape is not really needed. If you plan to cut out identical foam pieces in black and white to be sandwiched together like I did, just use double sided tape in 2 or 3 places to hold the foam in place while you sew the layers together. I learned from doing this that there is no real need to place tape around the edges.


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