Day 8 - Sewing

Yes, we have a sewing machine on board.

No, we do not own a Sailrite. We borrow other people's when we need to make a sail repair. (Thanks  Reflections and Third Day!)

Yes, our older Viking works on the inverter.

No, we did not pay an arm and a leg for it.

I have had this fabric for months, but have not been motivated to make the privacy curtains that Jim and talked about. Now that Jim and the kids are gone and I have some room aboard to stretch out, I have spent the last few days sewing. The curtains are finished and they look pretty good. I also made a canvas curtain for Carolyne's bunk since she has to go to bed earlier than Tim. Tim might want one too, but he left instructions for me NOT to mess with his bed before he left for Arizona. Okay- less work for me! I had a lot of small repairs to make on clothing and towels and such. This was a great time to do it all in one fell swoop!

I needed to make closures for the curtains and decided to go with several strips of velcro v.s. ties. I have a good tip for sewing sticky-backed velcro onto fabric. I had been using that expensive Sailkote lubricant spray to keep the gummy goo from coating the machine needle and breaking the thread. I had to spray every 10 or so stitches and it was wasteful. I then had the bright idea to get the tub of vaseline and coat the needle. It works wonders! It allows the needle to go through the velcro easily and come out gum-free. I re-coat the needle every 30-40 stitches. I don't put so much on that it ruins the fabric. Just enough that the needle is coated.

So, if you have to use velcro and the only type you can find is the sticky-backed kind, consider using vaseline on your sewing machine needle.