Canvas work

[BaySailerBill]

I found my 11oz Sunbrella on Ebay...

I lucked out and paid $80 for 20 yards long X 52" wide, it was the end of a roll from a distributor in Georgia. I unded up making covers and tents for everything on the boat.

Keep your eyes on Ebay, there are deals out there.

Good Luck,
Bill

 

[Cpt. Jon]

Cpt Jon-do you already have a sewing machine? I just barrowed my investors wifes machine. It is just a regular type machine and I am not sure if it is up to the task. I sewed some 1" nylon strap, it sewed through 2 layers of that ok. A few times I had to crank the wheel by hand to get the needle to pierce through.

Yeah, we have a singer sewing machine that we haven't used much. It has a walking foot etc, but it's not real heavy duty. We haven't tried it on anything like sunbrella yet, but I do think it should do the job. I don't think I would use it professionally for this kind of work, but I am hoping it should work fine.

 

[zeehag]

if you can find a fabric warehouse you can get it for a lot less, as i did----the roll is huge --about 3-4 inches deep from the cardboard center, and 48 inches wide--sailrite is a retail center--if you can find wholesale or cost plus a percent, you are in better shape. 14-17 dollars/yd is normal retail for sunbrella anywhere i have looked.....goood luck~~~~~~_/)~~~~~~

 

[BobM]

...and you will note...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...0431764028&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWAX:IT

...$12/yd and the buyer was...me. My other toy is a 1964 Dodge Dart GT convertible that was my Great Aunts. Still very much a rolling resto project.

 

[BobM]

I'll let you all know how the purchasing experience goes with this ebayer. My Wife has an entire room in our house dedicated to sewing, but I thought I was going to have to buy my own machine and work in the garage LOL. I want to make a companionway cover, hand rail covers (S2's are different from most) and a cover for the forward hatch.

 

[horvatich@msn.com]

seamstress

As a seamstress I would caution you about trying to sew canvas or sunbrella on a regular machine. If you have to manually move the needle up and down with the crank you will ruin the timing on the bobbin. That is very expensive to replace or fix. Any more than 2 layers of a material that heavy will require an industrial machine with heavier torque.

 

[BobM]

Thanks but...

As a seamstress I would caution you about trying to sew canvas or sunbrella on a regular machine. If you have to manually move the needle up and down with the crank you will ruin the timing on the bobbin. That is very expensive to replace or fix. Any more than 2 layers of a material that heavy will require an industrial machine with heavier torque.

...the definition of an industrial machine seems pretty nebulous...can you help out those of us without $800 to spend on a Sailrite machine? Older machines have all metal gears, but there are newer machines that don't that are labeled "industrial" or "commercial." What motor amperage do you recommend? Is 0.8 amp sufficient or should I look for > 1.0 amps? I definitely want a zig zag machine, in case I want to play with sails at some point. Is a walking foot a necessity?

 

[Ron20324]

I lucked out and paid $80 for 20 yards long X 52" wide, it was the end of a roll from a distributor in Georgia. Keep your eyes on Ebay, there are deals out there. Good Luck, Bill

While maybe I have not seen every fabrice made, it seems to me that Sunbrella is made in 46 and 60-inch widths plus one wider size. (I can't put my fingers on the Sun swatch book at the moment.)... A friend of mine bought a B46 with OEM canvas. When he had some work done on it, he was told it was NOT Sunbrella as he had been told by the boat dealer. Let the buyer beware

I sewed hemmed corners - 6 layers- on my 100 dollar Wards machine. I think I did 8 once in a while. But I LOVE my Sailrite!

 

[regor123]

Sail cover

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...0431764028&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I have found Sailright to be an excellent source as well. They also have some free videos for various projects. You may also want to check e-bay for fabric and or ready made covers. Advise you know your prices first though.

 

[caguy]

Hermit try Ebay I just bought 5 yds for $35 plus 15 shipping. That's still only $10/yd for Sunbrella. I am using the 11 oz for my Bimini top but the 9 once should be thick enough for a sail cover. The 11 would be too bulky when it comes to storing. Don't cheap out on the material, it not worth the labor and time you will put in. Sitting out in the sun all day will rot anything else. I tried some duck cloth from Joannes $7/yd. for my furler cover and is holding up well, but has turned color and faded over the year. It has faded pretty evenly so it still looks ok but no longer matches the rest of the canvas. My current sail cover is the original one of 25 yrs and the canvas still looks new. It will, however, eventually need restricting .
There are some interesting alternatives (cheaper) in the Canvas book to using twist fasteners and snaps. I don't recall the name of my book but will look it up when I get home.

 

[jibes138]

Go to OSgoods

I was able to buy sunbrella at Osgood's in West Springfield, Ma. for significantly less than buying on line. This is a big material distributor warehouse. They also had zippers in finished lengths that were a lot cheaper too. I don't know if Osgoods sells over the net. If not then Scott should drive up to Ma. from Texas and save 15 to 20 bucks on the material.

 

[Mark Major]

I started with very little experience and used a Brother machine that cost under $100 for all the work you can see on my page, and so far this is over a mile of thread. I figured I'd just run the machine into the ground and get another, but it won't quit. I got very lucky in finding a roll of Sunbrella for $109; I don't know how much was on it, but I'm running out of projects before material. Be sure to use a thread designed for sun so it lasts along with the material.

 

[BobM]

Osgoods is on the net

I was able to buy sunbrella at Osgood's in West Springfield, Ma. for significantly less than buying on line. This is a big material distributor warehouse. They also had zippers in finished lengths that were a lot cheaper too. I don't know if Osgoods sells over the net. If not then Scott should drive up to Ma. from Texas and save 15 to 20 bucks on the material.

http://www.osgoodtextile.com/

...but they are apparenlty pretty much a phone operation...1-888-674-6638

 

[caguy]

I bought a Juki on Craigslist for $150 that doesn't have a walking foot and it works just fine. I figured when I was done with all of my projects I would get rid of it. That was 5 years ago. Juki is kind of an industry standard and there are plenty of them around, especially now that everything is manufactured abroad. Check the garment district in your nearest big city.

 

[waternwaves]

I bought the sailrite walking foot zigzag machine to do a complete enclosure for my H40. As an aside, I had a 6 OZ roller furled 105 that I needed to repair also (sailing the boat down from BC to seattle in January in 40 kt. winds kind of tore the sunstrip right off the sail (threadrot)). At the tack there were 3 layers of sail, 3-4 of sunbrella (seams doubled over to prevent fraying), every machine I tried to sew with failed those sun strip repairs, until I tried the Sailright.
That machine is geared really low, and has the beef to work with the heavy stiff tight fabrics, as well as the vinyls and sunbrella. The comericial machines I tried were much larger, pricier, and tho they had more features and longer arms...they still broke most needles in trying to do the repair.
I then tried the sailrite machine , 800 plus change, the quotes I got for freshening the sails were running 1200 to 1600.......with a replacement sail of the same weight a little over 3K from North.
The machine paid for itself right there.

 

[BigEasy]

Sailcover

I would definitely use sunbrella. It is good stuff & is used extensively in the marine industry. Believe me it takes a novice a long time to layout, cut, & sew a cover; you want it to last a very long time! Use the best fabric.
I made a sailcover, binnacle cover, hatch covers, companionway cover, and winch covers for my previous boat. I don't think I could have done this without using the existing old covers as patterns. I purchased a heavy duty sewing machine from Sailrite as well as a hot knife, snaps, zippers, thread, and velcro closures. I used Sunbrella marine grade fabric.
These projects are naturally time consuming; however, you can do 95% of the work at home at night & in your spare time. It takes much time to layout the cover & cut. You can rough cut the fabric with scissors; however, you must use an electric hot knife to cut to finished size to seal the ends of the fabric to prevent fraying. Learning how to setup the sewing machine & becoming proficient in sewing was an experience! Believe me, I ripped out & re sewed many seams. If you opt to use a dark fabric such as captain navy; I would use a dark navy thread instead of white because you can conceal minor irregularities in stiching with the dark thread on a dark fabric.
Once you do a few of these, you can appreciate the skill that is required to fabricate a set of covers. I saved a few dollars; however, the fabric is expensive and of course the equipment cost is a factor also. One thing for sure, I would starve if I had to do it for a living!

 

[Ross]

Re: Sailcover

I would reccommend that anyone learning the sew start with making tote bags and small parts bags and tool rolls. My mother taught us to make utility bags when we were little kids. We learned how to sew the bag wrong side out, turn it and thread in a draw string. She made us learn to work a button hole and to sew on buttons. You can get a lot of very usable fabric from discarded furniture to use for practice work The back of an old sofa will yield about three yards of strong fabric.

 

[Ron20324]

Check the dumpsters at canvas shops, or better yet, at shops that make awnings for stores. I've gotten alot of "new" scraps that way. I took my machine on my vacation last year and made 35 tote bags just from my scrap pile. Snaps and grommets and turn-buttons are easy to do, too.

 

[Manny]

Hermit -If I can do it, you can too

I basically posted the same question to this forum over the winter and someone mentioned eBay for the fabric. I was able to get 14 yards of the color I wanted for about $122 after shipping. I think it was through Sailors Exchange. I have a trusty Singer CG 500 sewing machine that I bought for $200 new a few years ago so my mom could make new cushions for the boat (the machine paid for itself with that project alone). I took a stab at making a new sail cover using the old one as a pattern and it was completed in an afternoon. For a guy that didn't know what he was doing it came out fine. So I tried to make a bimini using the old one as a pattern but modifying it slightly. Well that was tough. It took me a few weeks. There were a lot of different pieces to cut and sew and I would have to take it to the boat to test fit and then bring it back and make changes. In some spots the sewing machine had to sew through 8 layers which it could handle but it complained a bit. I eventually got the bimini fit to the point where I could deal with it. I'll tweak it some more this winter but I'm pretty happy. I also made three winch covers, a cover for my horseshoe life preserver, and I started the bimini cover but I haven't bothered finishing it. I still have some fabric leftover from the 14 yards.
I have had quite a few of my dock neighbors ask where I had the canvas work done and they always seemed genuinely surprised when I told them I did it myself. They are also surprised on how inexpensive it was.

BTW - I didn't even know you could get different weight sunbrella. As far as looking for a decent used sail - check out Bacon's Sails in Annapolis.

Manny

 

[Hermit Scott]

I was able to buy sunbrella at Osgood's in West Springfield, Ma. for significantly less than buying on line. This is a big material distributor warehouse. They also had zippers in finished lengths that were a lot cheaper too. I don't know if Osgoods sells over the net. If not then Scott should drive up to Ma. from Texas and save 15 to 20 bucks on the material.

I would consider sailing up there to save $20, but not driving.