As I sit sewing...sails.

[Stump]

So I'm hand sewing these sails I was given by capt jake and making a new main. Boy, is it boring... :shock: ... eats up time too.

You know all that really fine stitching you see on sails sometimes? Yeah, well, thats not mine. It will hold and the seams are mostly straight ... kinda. :roll: I am getting better as I go along. Broke two needles so far...I wonder how many I break before I finish? :twisted:

It really makes you appreciate the old time sailmakers. Boy talk about attention to detail. :cry: :shock:

[Greg Luckett]

I haven't done any sail sewing since I was a teenager (54 now). My Lightening had Egyptian cotton sails, which caused me to learn hand stitching of sails. Mostly repairs for tears and rips. It does take a lot of patience. Before I started doing that I had some experience sewing on patches to my Boy Scout uniforms, so it was not a complete shock . If I were you, I would be hunting for a cheap sewing machine somewhere. Even the little ones work better than hand stitching, just take your time.

[Stump]

Hi Greg, I have a Brother sewing mechine (actually my wife does) but I looked inside before for I attempted to use it and found that the gears are plastic. The area between the throat and the peak is 6 layers thick (reuse, reuse, reuse,) and with the amount of force I have to use to drive the needle through the material...I think there might be some issues. :roll: :wink:

I hand sewed the skin of a wood framed kayak I built low these many years ago. Time really does seem to rose color events. I don't remember being so bored when I did it then. :?

Oh well, back to work.

[wkisting]

This book has probably been mentioned on the forum before, but anyone interested in sewing/repairing sails should pick up a copy of "The Sailmaker's Apprentice: A Guide for the Self-Reliant Sailor"... it's by Emiliano Marino, published by International Marine (a division of McGraw-Hill), ©1994.

Really, an outstanding resource... nearly 500 pages, lots of illustrations, tons of different approaches to sewing seams, grommets, hanks, etc. from very basic/traditional to more modern techniques. There's excellent discussion of cloth types, attributes, weights, etc., as well as great info about sail shape, rig types, etc. I found it to be a very interesting read even though I haven't ended up sewing/repairing any sails yet.

Anyway, thought some of you might enjoy it too, considering the topic.

[Barry Pyeatt]

You also might want to visit the Sailrite website and read their tutorials. The sell industrial machines but offer the tutorials for people like you and me that are going to be using the Brother or Singer or Stitch and pinch. http://www.sailrite.com/

[Stump]

Yup, great book, looked through it from the library a while back. Wish I owned a copy now. My problem is more of the "attention to detail" thing...had the same problem in the Navy. I mean, come on, rolling a watch cap?????? :? :roll: I tend to gravitate to the more "shotgun" or "hack and slash" solutions. Works well at times in my line of work.

I am trying to reform...really... :twisted:

Probably why I don't fish either

[PAR]

I have sewn a sail once, which was enough to insure the appreciation for the cost of manufactured sails. I've repaired many over the years, but it's not something these old hands look forward to doing any more. I feel your pain, I've received the wrath of the "one that must be obeyed" after stripping out the innards of her Singer, attempting to sew reinforcement into a clew. The industrial machines can do the job and they aren't cheap, the home units can do some of the job, but will die quickly if asked to do too much. Good luck . . .

[Charlie Jones]

Wanna see some hand work??

This is the clew of my main sail that was done by a friend out in Vegas who is an amateur sailmaker.

For the life of me I can't see how he does it. I'm in awe of hand work like this. There are nine hand sewn grommets in the sail and they ALL look just like that.

Congrats on doing your sails by the way.

[Stump]

Wow Charlie, that is outstanding work. 8) ...yeah....mine look NOTHING like that. :oops:

[Charlie Jones]

LOL- don't worry- mine wouldn't either if I did it.

[Stump]

Dang, finally got the sail I cut down to be usable. Only took a little time :roll:

I'm interested to see how they work. 8)

The short thing that kinda looks like a dog is checking on my work

[Guest Oyster]

I am truely sorry to find this thread a bit late in its life. I wish I had know about your delimma. All you would have needed to do was to have shipped them to me and I would have gladly done them for you, only for the shipping cost. I have a sailmaker in the family with a sewing machine for just that work. Buummer, Next time ask first. Gosh, after reading this one, my hands hurt.