Make and Make Do  

By Rob Rohde-Szudy - Madison, Wisconsin - USA

 

Sewing for Manly Men - Part 1
Part 2

OK, guys. You know who you are. Let’s first dispose of the macho nonsense. Sewing is not “women’s work”. Traditionally tailors were men, and most sailmakers still are. Besides, a sewing machine is a power tool, after all. Indeed, it has an important part in the history of power tools. Not only did textiles drive the entire industrial revolution, but we now have jigsaws because a German carpenter named Bosch thought he could get more done if he attached a saw blade to a sewing machine mechanism. Enough said, I hope.

But we probably won’t jump in with a sewing machine if we just need to patch canvas. Every book about canvas work makes a big deal about hand seaming, but most of us aren’t really going to pull enough thread to get very good at it. But here is one stitch that’s really handy to know.

The Herringbone Stitch

I learned this stitch HERE, but it’s sort of hard to find unless you’re looking for something else. And I thought it could use some photos. So here we go.

This is the stitch that pulls a tear together. You can see why it’s handy. Here’s where my cover tarp started to tear at one of the grommets.

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It’s not pretty, but it’s strong. In fact, the uneven stitch adds strength. You don’t really want all the stitches pulling on the same warp in the cloth. The concentrated force will just un-weave the fabric. The drunken stitch spreads the load.

So how do you do this thing? Leave the thread doubled for strength, the length about the same as the length of your arm. If your seam is longer, just finish up and start a new one. It’s needlessly awkward to pull a really long thread. You don’t really need a seaming palm unless you’re going through really thick stuff. If you don’t need it you’ll find it gets in the way.

First reel off an arm’s length or so of sail twine. You can go up to double an arm’s length before it starts getting inconvenient, as long as you’re doubling the thread. Then thread your needle. It helps to cut the thread diagonally.

For our example we’ll look at a hole in polytarp. I didn’t have any real holes in brown tarp, so I had to make this one. It’s not as frayed as is typical, but I think you’ll get the idea.

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Imagine a line through the slit in the fabric. This will be the centerline of our stitch. Insert the needle on the centerline and bring it back through maybe 1/8” to the side of this line. Leave a tail about the length of the intended seam.

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Then insert about 1/8” to the other side of the centerline and exit on the centerline.

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Now we’re going to make a clove hitch around the wide loop we’ve made. I should have pulled the loop flat first, but I left it a little loose for illustration. From the side toward the tear, run the needle under the loop.

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Then do it again.

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Then run the needle toward the tear, under the loop you just formed.

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When pulled tight it looks like this.

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I made a couple stitches to get to where the tear starts. Here’s how each stitch goes. First insert the needle into the tear, and bring it back up over to one side of the centerline.

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Then insert on the other side of the centerline and bring it back up through the tear.

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Be sure the needle comes up over the top of the new stitch. The thread should hold down the middle of the wide stitch. You can see this in all the preceding stitches.

To finish this stitch we make another clove hitch. First run the needle under one of these loops from the far side.

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Then do it again.

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Then run the needle back through the loop you formed, just like last time.

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Don’t be confused by the “jump over” stitch being right in the middle of the clove hitch. It won’t cause any trouble. After you pull the hitch tight, run the needle under the stitch to protect the standing end.

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And cut it.

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Not beautiful, but functional.

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The herringbone stitch is specifically for closing up gaps. But it’s no good for sewing on patches. There is a much easier way to do that than hand seaming.

The Sewing Awl

For under $15 you can get one of these.

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It makes a lockstitch pattern exactly like a sewing machine. But it takes a little more effort from you to make it happen. First get it threaded. The needles and tool are in the handle. The thread must be well-waxed or it will unspool most annoyingly. You have to remove the spool to spool the twine. Then run it through the needle chuck and replace the spool. Add the needle so the thread is in the needle’s slot. Tighten the collet and stow the tool and the other needle back in the handle. Then thread the needle. The instructions tell you how to do all this, but once you’ve done it you will never need to look at them again. It’s that easy.

When you’re ready to sew, poke the needle through the fabric.

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Put your thumb on the spool so it won’t unwind and back the needle out partway. This forms a loop.

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Grab that loop and pull it through. Pull out thread equal to about twice the length of the seam. Make it at least 18”, though.

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Pull the needle back through and poke it through again one stitch-length from the first hole.

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Put your thumb on the spool and back the needle out partway again. Remember that loop that opens up? Run the end of the thread through the loop.

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When you pull the needle back through it looks like this. The thread is trapped.

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That is the look of lockstitch when there is not enough tension on the opposite side. So apply that tension by pulling on the awl with your thumb locking the spool. The stitch will pull through to the other side. By balancing the tensions, you will be able to nestle the knot in the middle of the fabric, which is where you want it. Hidden, protected and locked, hence the term “lockstitch”. Both sides look about like this.

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Notice that I changed to zigzag. All you need to do is alternate the position of the needle. Indeed, this is all a sewing machine does to accomplish this. (Zigzag is favored for sail work because it’s stretch better matches the sail cloth. This prevents puckering.)

Those are the steps – repeat until you’re done or your neck it too stiff to sit there anymore.

To end the seam we need a knot. I’m not sure this is the One Right Way to do it, but I start by pulling the end through to the same side as the awl. Then I make a surgeon’s knot, which is just a square knot with extra turns on both sides. If you fish you probably already know that.

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What can this thing do?

Here’s an example

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Not beautiful, but it does the job.

Like any hand sewing, the scope of these techniques is limited only by your patience and supply of thread. To do any large project you’ll probably want a sewing machine. So next time we’ll look at how to find an old sewing machine and get it running.


Rob Rohde-Szudy
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
robrohdeszudy@yahoo.com

Other Articles by Rob Rohde-Szudy:

SAILS

EPOXY

GEAR