Congrats on your first project! Yes, figuring out the necessary "sequence of events" takes some experimentation. Keep at it, your bag looks great!
Thank you.
Congrats on your first project! Yes, figuring out the necessary "sequence of events" takes some experimentation. Keep at it, your bag looks great!
You're going about it the right way. Blunder through, make mistakes, learn. Practice, practice, practice!! Your seams are as straight as an arrow - *RESPECT* Heavy material like that scares me - although I'm sure its like anything else, just get used to it. 99% of my sewing is light fabric, or ultra-light, and sometimes "barely there".
This rocked.
Excellent work!
Just looking for projects to practice with the machine, I made a cover for the Sailrite. This used the last of the fabric from the old soft top. I'm learning a lot doing projects like this.
View attachment 433924
This week my wife was about to order a new $350 cover for a chaise lounge we have out back - so I ordered $150 in material and have yet another project. I told my wife I get to spent the $200 we saved....
I've ordered several fabric samples to help in the selection of the material for the half door covers - should be here early this week.
This week my wife was about to order a new $350 cover for a chaise lounge we have out back - so I ordered $150 in material and have yet another project. I told my wife I get to spend the $200 we saved....
Sunbrella® 4608-0000 Black 46" is a solution-dyed acrylic from Glen Raven's Sunbrella Marine Grade collection that is considered the standard cover cloth in the boating industry because of its fantastic color options, high resistance to fading and long lifespan. Sunbrella is a soft, breathable, solution-dyed acrylic that is UV, water and mildew resistant and does not noticeably shrink or stretch. Both sides of this marine fabric are the same, meaning that either side can be exposed to the outside. In addition to being the best outdoor fabric, Sunbrella acrylic fabric is easy to sew!
For some bags I use "arctic vinyl" which can be found at Joann fabrics. It's not prohibitively expensive (about $30/yard but often there are coupons for 20% off or more, get the Joann app). What's nice about it is that it doesn't get stiff in cold weather like many vinyls do. It isn't as strong as soft top fabric but it's worked well for me for storage bags for things like the stove I use with my Trail Kitchen:
View attachment 434351
I just checked Joann and there's a 40% coupon right now. You have to be aware of what else might be on sale, for example if this fabric was on sale for 10% off, they won't honor the coupon on it.
View attachment 434352
You could also check out duck fabric at Joann, they have a decent selection of both cotton and some outdoor versions in polyester that you might like.
A very nice fabric for Jeep projects is Sunbrella. It's available at Sailrite (and other places), here's their description:
It starts at about $30 per yard, so it's not exactly cheap, but it's a very high quality fabric. Here's one example from Sailrite: https://www.sailrite.com/Sunbrella-4608-0000-Jet-Black-46. I used it for the "covered wagon" top for my military replica trailer:
View attachment 434353
But nothing beats soft top fabric. You can buy it by the yard, but it's very expensive ($60-$80/yard). A search will turn up multiple sources online for it.
You need to set up some searches on eBay, Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, etc., looking for used soft tops. I've bought quite a few for $50 or less because zippers we bad or they had a hole somewhere. Another thing to keep an eye out for is used bikini tops and tonneau covers, I've bought several on eBay for $30-$40 and that's well worth it for the fabric you get.
In addition to the used soft tops I've bought, I got lucky when the local Jeep dealer moved to a new location - they called me and asked if I wanted a bunch of soft tops they had in their storage room. This is what they gave me (for free):
View attachment 434354
Included were three factory twill tops and several standard tops. There are lots of Jeep projects used soft top can be recycled into, permit me to show a few... for example, some of that haul went into new twill soft sides for the LJ Safari Cab and some of the twill went became a spare tire gear/trash bag.
View attachment 434355
View attachment 434356
A little more mundane project was this socket rail roll. Soft top fabric is great for projects like this because dirt and grease just wipes off:
View attachment 434357
I've got auxiliary batteries mounted over the inner fenders of both my JKU and my LJ; instead of putting the batteries in marine battery boxes I made covers for them (with MOLLE) out of soft top fabric:
View attachment 434358
Buy all the used soft tops you can find cheap and all the used tonneau/bikini tops you can find for cheaper. You'll find lots of uses for the fabric and you can't buy it any cheaper than used/damaged tops. I included a lot of examples above, maybe they'll give you more ideas of things to use make with new sewing machine .
any idea of a good source for material similar to the Sailcloth in the soft tops?
...
This week my wife was about to order a new $350 cover for a chaise lounge we have out back - so I ordered $150 in material and have yet another project. I told my wife I get to spend the $200 we saved....
...
Very nice, Jeff. What fabrics did you use for those two projects?
I just received a roll of 30oz Sailcloth soft top fabric I picked up for my upcoming half door bag project. Found it for about $30 a linear yard for 60” width.
$30 per yard is a very good price for Sailcloth soft top fabric, great score.
It's a 16-oz. DWR-treated (Durable Water Resistant) ripstop polyester. It's very UV resistant as well. Overland Outfitters sent me 5 meters of it for experiments and prototypes, it's the fabric they're using for their new line of "Storage On the Spare" products. It's a very robust fabric and sews very nicely.
View attachment 440937
A few photos of OO's new products sewn in this fabric:
View attachment 440938
View attachment 440939
View attachment 440940
I've searched for this fabric and haven't been able to find it in the U.S. - OO sourced the fabric in India, which is where their factory is. All of the polyester ripstop I've found in this country is much thinner than the OO fabric.
1000-denier coated Cordura nylon is somewhat similar to this and is easy to find, but it doesn't have the ripstop threads in it, it's very succeptible to UV damage and it isn't as thick or stiff as this fabric. Cordura is used a lot for military gear like MOLLE bags but it's not as nice a fabric as the OO fabric but if UV resistance isn't a top priority, Cordura can be a good choice.
If you plan to use Cordura out in the sun, it's a good idea to protect it with something like Scotchgard Outdoor Sun & Water Shield to prevent or at least slow the UV fading process.
View attachment 440941
I have used coated Cordura for a number of things and when I do use those things outdoors I spray them with Scotchgard. Here's something I did in Cordura...
You may be familiar with the "Rotopax bulge, which happens when Rotopax fuel containers get warmed by the sun:
View attachment 440942
My idea was to make an insulated cover form-fitted to the Rotopax container. I did this concept drawing as a first step:
View attachment 440943
I sewed a prototype, and lined it with insulating foam between two layers of Cordura.
View attachment 440944
The design included MOLLE on the outside so extra pouches or gear could be carried on it.
View attachment 440945
And while I was at it I sewed a large matching MOLLE bag, intended for recovery gear but really could be used for anything:
View attachment 440946
View attachment 440947
Mounted on the tailgate of my son's JK 2dr (we were also testing the swing-up hardtop windows I was in the process of designing at the time):
View attachment 440948
Cordura worked out very well for that Rotopax project, and works fine but UV precautions need to be taken because nylon is very susceptible to UV damage and fading.