The biggest challenge of the project was managing 65 yards of marine canvas. I believe I spent more hours arranging, moving, lifting, folding, and rolling the fabric than I did stitching it. As I got close to the finish line, I would work up a sweat working with the growing cover. We referred to the work-in-progress as “the dragon” because its shifting twists and returns reminded us of those dancing Chinese New Year dragons.
The videos from Sailrite are full of tips. The MOST beneficial suggestion was to roll the fabric on either side of the needle path to feed it more easily through the machine. This made the dragon manageable, allowed for more even and controlled stitching, and reduced the risk of accidentally catching extra fabric with the needle. I definitely couldn’t have managed this project without this hack!
In this picture, the admiral is helping, and you can see that we placed a series of folding tables end-to-end to make a long working surface. At this stage, we had the sewing table, two 6’ tables and two card tables in use, but before we were done, we added two more 6’ tables, so that the work surface ran from the kitchen through the family room, and on into the living room. This allowed me to topstitch the semi-felt seams that were 30‘ or more.
The cover is constructed in two halves that zip together at the mast. The ”tent” (the part that drapes over the boom or whisper pole and runs down to the lifelines) is sewn first, and it’s a good warm-up, since it involves sewing long strips (think 20’ at midship) of 60” wide fabric together before if can be laid out and cut to the shape of the pattern. When choosing which way to fold the seams for topstitching, consider how the water will run over the fabric.
Sailrite recommends wrapping the places on the boat that may abrade the cover (i.e. stanchions and outhall, etc) rather than going to the trouble of stitching in extra layers of reinforcement. I compromised, adding vinyl patches in select places where I expected extra stress, but not being too obsessive about it. It was easiest to add the patches to the underside before stitching the tent to the “skirt.” At this stage, the pieces are still flat.
Here you can see patches of reinforcement for the bow pulpit and a stanchion, and you can also see where the zipper will go from the inner forestay to the forestay.
Zippers and boots on the tent will be in the next chapter.
The videos from Sailrite are full of tips. The MOST beneficial suggestion was to roll the fabric on either side of the needle path to feed it more easily through the machine. This made the dragon manageable, allowed for more even and controlled stitching, and reduced the risk of accidentally catching extra fabric with the needle. I definitely couldn’t have managed this project without this hack!
In this picture, the admiral is helping, and you can see that we placed a series of folding tables end-to-end to make a long working surface. At this stage, we had the sewing table, two 6’ tables and two card tables in use, but before we were done, we added two more 6’ tables, so that the work surface ran from the kitchen through the family room, and on into the living room. This allowed me to topstitch the semi-felt seams that were 30‘ or more.
The cover is constructed in two halves that zip together at the mast. The ”tent” (the part that drapes over the boom or whisper pole and runs down to the lifelines) is sewn first, and it’s a good warm-up, since it involves sewing long strips (think 20’ at midship) of 60” wide fabric together before if can be laid out and cut to the shape of the pattern. When choosing which way to fold the seams for topstitching, consider how the water will run over the fabric.
Sailrite recommends wrapping the places on the boat that may abrade the cover (i.e. stanchions and outhall, etc) rather than going to the trouble of stitching in extra layers of reinforcement. I compromised, adding vinyl patches in select places where I expected extra stress, but not being too obsessive about it. It was easiest to add the patches to the underside before stitching the tent to the “skirt.” At this stage, the pieces are still flat.
Here you can see patches of reinforcement for the bow pulpit and a stanchion, and you can also see where the zipper will go from the inner forestay to the forestay.
Zippers and boots on the tent will be in the next chapter.
