5.25.2010

Zafu Production

So, I finally got started on making my very own zafu (meditation cushion) tonight using these instructions.

All well and good except either I messed up or Michigan Buddhists are bad at math. I have my 59 inch strip of cloth. I made 3/4 inch pleates 3 inches apart from each other. I do not have 14 pleats. I have 11. For the time being, I'm inclined to say "so what" and keep on going, but I'm not working on it any more tonight anyway so if a reader who has better sewing or direction following skills than me can point out either how I'm stupid or how it doesn't really matter and everything is cool, that would be awesome.  Haven't ironed the pleats yet either, just in case I do need to re-do everything.




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6 comments:

Alwen said...

I stuffed their figures into a spreadsheet, and I come up with 11 pleats also. Either something int their directions got copied incorrectly, or as you say, someone can't do math!

Unknown said...

Awesome! You rock my world.

Barbara said...

How are you measuring the 3"? Are you measuring from outside fold to outside fold or from inside fold (under the previous one) to outside fold? I bet if you include that 3/4" that's under the previous fold you'd get the correct number of pleats out of your length of fabric. Not that there's anything wrong with having 11 pleats, but it'd bug me until I figured it out if I were making it. Looking forward to seeing the finished cushion.

Unknown said...

I was measuring from the outer edge of the pleat after it's made (So, from the first mark or just a little to the left of where the pins are in my photo).
I just re-measured using a scratch paper to make ticks for each section and still came up short. Very weird...

Barbara said...

Well, hell, I thought I'd solved the problem. Hey, you can meditate on why the pattern's wrong since you've obviously done everything right.

Jim. said...

Hello.
I'm Jim from MichiganBuddhist.com—how would you suggest I modify the zafu instructions? Any helpful hints you can supply would be most welcomed.
Namaste,
Jim.
contact@michiganbuddhist.com