The Anatomy of a Sewing Project

   

To do any project on a boat requires a lot of patience, and a lot of taking things out / putting things away.  One day I found myself with some spare time, I already had the sewing machine out from a small project and thought it would be a good opportunity to make a new cover for the kayak box on deck.  So I gathered up all my materials, took measurements of  the box and was ready to start cutting when I realized I need to fold out and use the full table to cut the sunbrella fabric.  Since my 50lb sewing machine was already out (the instigation for starting this project) I first had to clean everything up.

 

There's the salon all cleaned up.

I was then able to lay out the table, lay out my fabric and get all my pieces cut out. 

The sunbrella laid out on the table.

Once everything was cut, it was time to put the table back up, (as you can see it's really hard to move around once the table is all the way out).  With the table up, I could use the empty surface to pin my fabric together, take it up on deck to make sure it fit the box, and then back down, ready to sew.  Of course sewing means I need to get that heavy machine back out!

All ready to sew.

After sewing the main seams and making sure it's the right size, it's time to fold up the hem, which I tape in place instead of pinning.  To do this I need a flat surface.  A flat surface would be an empty table.  An empty table means it's time to put the sewing machine away again.  So away it goes.  The hem gets taped and folded, and then it's time to sew.  Time to sew means getting the machine back out.  So out comes the machine, the last seam gets sewn, the elastic gets put in the hem, and I have a finished product.

A finished cover!