A Must Addition to Your Boating Library. This is a book for those who want to be self-sufficient. With the aid of this book you can repair your own sails at sea and at home. There is a full treatment of hand stitching techniques and a section on the use of a home sewing machine including proper adjustment and tips for sewing heavy sail cloth. Procedures discussed include, in addition to sail patching and repair, methods for correcting draft and seaming flaws, sail cleaning and size modifications. All instructions are step-by-step with numerous illustrations.
Contents Include: Using a Homemaker's Sewing Machine to Make and Repair Sails
Sailcloth
Thread
Needle Size
Basting Tape
Liquid Silicone
Machine tension
Fine Tuning a Sewing Machine
The Class 15 Bobbin System
Full Rotary Machines
Horizontally-Mounted Shuttle Hook
Machine Usage
Troubleshooting
Eliminating skipped stitches
Tension Adjustment
Hand Stitching Methods
The Flat Stitch
The Round Stitch
Bolt Roping
Grommets
Practicing on a Ditty Bag Repairs and Recutting
Repairing Small Rips and Holes
Batten Pocket Repair
Fabric Tears Near the Headboard
Boltrope Torn or Worn
Mainsails/Wrinkle-Causing Flaws
Mainsails/Draft Faults
Jibsails/Wrinkle-Causing Flaws
Jibsails/Draft Faults
Spinnakers/Obvious Defects
Spinnakers/Subtle Defects
Cleaning Sails
Rust
Number Adhesive
Oil, Tar & Varnish
Mildew
The Sail Repair Manual is a railroaded pattern
Reduce Seaming with Railroaded Fabric
Most upholstery fabric is 54 inches wide and, if it features a pattern, the pattern is run down the length of the bolt. When upholstering, it generally looks best to run a patterned fabric from the top to the bottom of the piece and from the back to the front. This requires seams every 54 inches on larger pieces like sofas and long boat cushions. Alternatively, a Railroaded fabric pattern can be used to eliminated unwanted seams. The patterns in Railroaded Sunbrellas run across their widths. This makes Railroaded Sunbrella perfect for these longer projects.
In this illustration, the fabric rolls out to cover the cushions without need for a seam.
This is a photo example of the railroaded fabric coming off the roll.
This is a photo example of fabric that is not railroaded coming off the roll.
In this illustration the fabric rolls out vertically, and for this type of single cushion, would require several seams to cover the couch.
