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My wife has been a seamstress for more than forty years. She is quite good
at it with lots of clothes, curtains, etc. including her wedding dress to
her credit. Usually the things she has made look better than garments she
buys. With that background we approached working on canvas ourselves for
fun and to save a couple of bucks. Because of the uniqueness of each job,
the fitting required and the lack of patterns to work with, quality canvas
work requires additional skills usually developed over many years. We
purchased the best machine that Sailrite has to offer, had the help of one
of the members of this list who knows a great deal about threads and zippers
and read and talked to many other people. One of the things she made first
was a custom cover for our Zodiac which turned out real well after a good
bit of fitting and design work. If you think about it, the type of sewing
involved in the cover was very similar to assembling a pair of slacks or a
dress. Next, we approached replacing the 13 zippers which were part of the
rear enclosure on our boat. It took us three days of working together (me
ripping out the old zippers and my wife sewing) to do the complete job. The
more layers of material you are working with, the tougher the job gets.
When we were finished they looked great and they were done right. Most
canvas makers would simply sew the new zippers over the old and then cut out
the old zippers because they could not afford and you would not want to pay
for the time required to do the job right. Of course you get what you pay
for and with this corner cutting comes years of increased difficulty in
rolling up the windows and lots and lots of fringes. In like fashion, they
would sew new Eisenglass over old and then cut out the old in the interest
of time and to help retain the shape the used window has taken on. The last
thing you should do is cut old Eisenglass out from its frame and then try to
fit in the new. You will never get it right. Notice we havent even
approached making a new or replacement bimini. Even the best walking foot
Sailrite machine doesnt have a deep enough throat for big jobs, nor does
the foot raise up high enough to work on really thick jobs with many layers
easily. To do big jobs right, you need a deep throat, heavy duty industrial
quality machine with a walking foot. Machines such as this cost many
boating units. By the way, to be fair, Sailrite and Matt the owner are
great to work with and have been very helpful to us.
So, the bottom line is, dive in if you love a challenge, but be prepared for
a learning experience and some less than satisfactory finished products if
you are starting from scratch with limited or no prior experience. By the
way, my wife read and approved this message. She added she is sure
professionals have many tricks that she does not know and that given more
time and space she could tell you many more pitfalls she overcame through
trial and error. Good luck!
Jim Laudermilch
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