Trojan Boat Forum

While my 30 year old 10 Meter International Series express cruiser is in top shape mechanically, the cockpit and salon fabric has survived and been preserved beyond it's life expectancy.

I have done a few cushion recovers and the rear coaming pad simply by buying fabric or vinyl locally and using stainless steel staples, but this boat now requires either a professional, or an involved owner with the right equipment and products who can sew and learn how to use piping and zippers.

After discovering Craigslist I did a search for sewing machines on line and was surprised with the volume of results.

Do we have any RO's with the hands on experience who could make some reccomendations where I could benefit from the blood, sweat and tears of thier experience?

Specifically i need a reccomendation for a machine that is capable of handling the bulk of this material and the piping and zippers?

Also I need the reccomendation for specific quality fabric and thread specifications and a reccomended supplier.

THANK YOU !

"Threadbare in Florida"

RWS

You need to look at getting a light industrial "walking foot" machine. Marine vinyl heavy so you need something that is gear driven with no plastic parts. Next, it is sticky and will jamb up under a standard presser foot, hence the "walking foot". There is a class of machine made popular by Sailrite (http://www.sailrite.com), they are the cadilac of machines with great support but they are expensive. Check out the Reliable Barracuda machine. It looks identical for 1/2 the price. I bought one and so far I like it just fine.

Next, use a #20-22 needle, bonded nylon #92 T90 outdoor thread and don't skimp on vinyl. Buy a thicker product with a good backing. I like Nautolex brand. The cheaper vinyl you buy at the local fabric store will tear apart within a year at the seams if you go cheap.

LandVF36 wrote:You need to look at getting a light industrial "walking foot" machine. Marine vinyl heavy so you need something that is gear driven with no plastic parts. Next, it is sticky and will jamb up under a standard presser foot, hence the "walking foot". There is a class of machine made popular by Sailrite (http://www.sailrite.com), they are the cadilac of machines with great support but they are expensive. Check out the Reliable Barracuda machine. It looks identical for 1/2 the price. I bought one and so far I like it just fine.

Next, use a #20-22 needle, bonded nylon #92 T90 outdoor thread and don't skimp on vinyl. Buy a thicker product with a good backing. I like Nautolex brand. The cheaper vinyl you buy at the local fabric store will tear apart within a year at the seams if you go cheap.

I second this , I have Thompson walking foot sewing machine and to tell you the truth, it is identical to the Sailright and the parts are interchangable. However, Sailrite has a really good website and customer support.
there are how to videos, needle and thread recomendations etc on this site.

http://search.sailrite.com/category/wal ... d-long-arm
I ordered the manual for the LS-1 which is almost exactly like mine.

If you have seen any of the pictures from my boat, I have done all of the upholstery myself with this machine.
take your time and practice. if you get stumped on something, google "how to sew welting" for example and you'll ocme up with a lot of short how to videos on you tube, it's pretty cool!

good luck

I have read many good things about Sailrite sewing machines in magazines that I don't care to mention in a powerboat forum. In addition to selling sewing machines (with the price, a good used one might be worth considering), they sell a wide variety of upholstery accessories.

http://www.sailrite.com/

http://www.searchtempest.com/

Use this for searching Craigslist. You can search anywhere you want or nationwide. Its a lot faster than searching individual cities in Craigslist.

The Big Book of Boat Canvas by Karen Lipe, and Dressing Ship by Janet Groene are good books that I reccomend for anyone planning a bunch of canvas work or other upgrades.

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Boat-Can ... oat+canvas

RW is this something you would like to learn or do as a hobby in the long run? or something your doing strictly to re do your interior. Have you considered using a shop to do it? I would think that to be less stress full,,lol
but if its something you WANT to do, well more power to you.

We own a Custom Canvas shop here in Anderson, SC. My brother inlaw just bought a machine from Sailrite with the zigzag option, a good option to have. It seems to be a good machine for a do it yourself person. We use Consew machines, they will sew just about anything. Sailrite has some good videos to help you out. They have everything you will need to complete your project. We like to use Seaquest material as much as possible. It is used by many of the boat manufacturers. Nautolex is great along with Capitano also. We use Sunguard thread. What ever you do don't skimp on the materials you are going to use. There are a lot of little tricks to make it easier,but take your time and pay attention you can do it.
Practice BEFORE you ever start doing the real thing.Start by making a square cushion, when you master that, then you will have the basics. I would strongly recommend you buy the table for the machine also. Don't forget use stainless staples. Good luck!