Decktop Sewing

Tuesday February 12, 2012

It did not work out.  It did not work out at all.  The little connector piece that I tried to add extra fabric to fits perfect in the center, but there is way to much excess on the sides.  But that’s not it.  I had also put the zippers on backwards last night.  When I was pinning them to the fabric, in my head I was thinking of the zippers on the bimini which start at the end, and finish in the center.  This connecting piece is opposite, starting in the center and finishing at the end.  Another morning now spent doing some of the most tedious work ever, seam ripping.  When I finished that and got to the point that I had to try and figure out how much of the fabric to take in on the sides, and how sharp the curve should be, my brain couldn’t take it any more.  I needed a little alcohol to calm my nerves.

Settled back out by the bow with a nice cold beer in my hand, I went to the new mark I had made where I thought the fabric would need to be taken into, and started pinning it in almost a straight line to the other mark I made where it had begun to go from tight to loose while properly zipped on.  This process went on for a few hours.  I’d pin it, fit it, and remark.  Sometime after the third attempt I was losing all hope, and was afraid that if I continued I’d deliberately sabotage the project.  I needed a new distraction.

So then I turned back to the bimini, which in my eyes, had turned out perfectly.  But Matt and I have different definitions of perfect, and he thought the sides on this were just a wee bit too tight and wanted me to let them out about a half inch.  I would have been content to leave it the way it was since I could barely see the imperfections he was talking about, but I still had Yu’s sewing machine, and I couldn’t work on the connecting piece any longer.  Normally I would have like to set up the big and bulky machine down on one of the picnic tables of the boat shed, but today was the day they decided to congregate around it all afternoon.

Normally the next option would be to go to our table in the salon, but this machine is too heavy for even me to carry on my own, so there was no way the table was going to support it.  All my sewing was now going to have to be done up on deck.  Having Matt bring it up from below and set it on the coachroof, I tried to angle myself so I could have the fabric sit atop of me and have my foot in a place where it could push down on the peddle.  It was a bit uncomfortable, and a little trying, not having the necessary space to spread everything out.  But after a few failed attempts (like accidentally sewing down the piece of fabric that’s supposed to wrap around the metal bimini bar) I had successfully finished one project that day.  That is, until we put it back on and found out there was puckering from where the fabric did not get pulled taught before being sewn down.  Damn it!!