I Made Canoe Canvas Anorak!

[floydvoid]

I finally finished sewing a #12 canvas anorak!
I’ve been using my old canvas scraps for a while to make things like sailing bags, lee board bag, tool rolls, etc as a way to learn how to sew. I’ve wanted to make a canvas jacket for a while that I could eventually make out of waxed canvas.
#12 fabric was a bit heavy for this project and I have sourced a possible supply of 7oz waxed canvas for the next one.

I have thought about offering maybe a “don’t be afraid to sew” class at the assembly where we can make tool rolls or something.

learnmyog.com is a very helpful site
Pattern- green peppers coast anorak

 

[pklonowski]

A sewing machine is just another power tool!

 

[MGC]

A sewing machine is just another power tool!

And as with other tools, the right tool is need for the job.
Most typical consumer machines (there is a story here and also a machine) will not be able to stitch heavy canvas material.
I'm curious what you used to stitch that with? Do you have an old commercial Juki squirrelled away?
My wife's machine won't even let me make mitts for filling the canvas.
That Anorak is sweet. I used to wear one for skiing and snowshoeing. Mine was made from a very heavy linen material.

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

This is a really good source for fabrics like waxed cotton in a variety of weights.

Martexin Original Waxed Cotton, Heavy Martexin Duck, Commercial Water Repellent Ducks

Stock colors and constructions

fairfieldtextile.com

 

[floydvoid]

I used a “portable industrial” walking foot machine for most of the stitching. A Reliable Barracuda modified with a Sailrite Worker B servo motor- gives me way more control for speed and smoothness.

The Barracuda is the generic design of a bunch of similar machines- including sailrite LSZ. There is little support for tuning the Barracuda and it took some messing with to get it right. It goes through leather and 1/4” of canvas but it still gets angry sometimes

The singer 201 I had to rewire and clean up, but it is really smooth, it also went through many layers of canvas. It is a rotary hook so I am told it can do better with heavy duty work than an oscillating hook. It is still a home machine. It does not take as big of needles as the barracuda.

I used v69 thread for the whole project. I made the arms 2” longer because my body is tube shaped.

 

[floydvoid]

This is a really good source for fabrics like waxed cotton in a variety of weights.

Martexin Original Waxed Cotton, Heavy Martexin Duck, Commercial Water Repellent Ducks

Stock colors and constructions

fairfieldtextile.com

I will take a look at that supplier. I have a friend that can get me whole sale fabric from Carr Textile, but I’m not sure if I’ll have to order a giant roll.

Todd a question I had while making this I think you can answer- when you have made things like a jacket or curved items- do you typically pin things all together? Basting tape? Clips? Tacking?
I found that for many situations I preferred to just match up seams as I sewed- but maybe some of my work shifted while sewing, my hood seems to be straight.
I made a sail kit from sailrite and used basting tape.

 

[MGC]

Makes me somewhat curious about how much control you have over the stitches on a Jerry rigged stepper motor adaptation. Half the trick on these programmable motor driven machines is the software to control the stitch pattern. I guess I'll do some reading about Barracuda. That's one I never ran across but I was only focused on the consumer side, replacing run of the mill Singer with more flexibility and reliability......

I guess there is a category of machines that sits between commercial and consumer... 4 stitches per inch is probably enough?

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

About the only thing that I use basting tape on is Dacron sailcloth, but I do baste just about every seam on sails. Aside from keeping pieces properly aligned (especially when the sail has to be rolled to get it through the machine) the tape adds a lot of strength to the seam. I'm not fond of tape-basting on most other fabrics. Seams there either get pinned, or in many cases, stapled with office-style stapling pliers. Staples are fast to install, secure and pretty quick and easy to remove, either after sewing or one at a time as you sew. Adhesives sometimes tend to stain regular fabrics, so I'd rather use mechanical temporary fasteners.

The original1980 Sailrite Sailmaker that I used to make hundreds of sails over 35 years (and still use, though I also have a big old Consew industrial that I use for leather) had no walking foot and still worked fine as long as seams on slick fabrics were tape-basted. The longest straight stich was 5mm and the only time that was used was on fabrics like Sunbrella which tend to needle-pucker badly. Typically, for most sewing on non-sail projects I would straight stitch at 8-10 stitches per inch and V69-V92 thread. Zig-zag stitching for sails was usually with each zig or zag in the 3/16" to1/4" range.

Typical sail stitching using the sailmaker and the old Consew for leather. The Consew was pretty cheap used and I removed its old clutch drive motor,replacing it with a servo motor to slow it down and make it a lot more controlled to use.

 

[MGC]

Heavy duty but not oil bath...interesting. 35 years and going.

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

By the way, you can seriously reduce or eliminate the amount of rainwater or wet snow that canvas anorak can absorb by spraying it with 303 Fabric Guard, and without changing the looks, feel or breathability of the canvas. The stuff isn't cheap, but it does wonders for cotton cloth.
You can get it from places like Amazon. Here are a couple hunks of Egyptian Cotton, one plain and one treated with Fabric Guard then soaked in water. On something like a jacket, or a cotton sail, it can make quite a difference. Also, I found a photo of the staplers I use for basting.