Monthly Archives: May 2014

What’s In Your…Ditch Bag?

Sailing Related Posts, , , , ,
We put together Magnolia's abandon ship ditch bag before we left last fall.  It all started when we had taken our Switlik life raft in to be re-certified by Vane Brothers in Baltimore, Maryland last summer  They confirmed that while it was an older, well made life raft, it should be “condemned” because the glue on the seams was deteriorating among other things.  We inherited this life raft with the boat  so it was time and we weren’t really surprised.   (It was interesting to see the life raft deployed in their work space. ) We ended up buying a new Revere 4 person life raft.  We consider it an insurance policy type of expense.  It came with some basic necessities so we set up a ditch bag with additional items. I recently Read more [...]

Practical Patterning

Resources, Tools, ,
I haven't found any patterns for sale for projects I'm sewing for the boat.  There's no Vogue or Simplicity book of patterns to select from offering patterns with instructions.  That's how I learned to sew - using a pattern - along with a variety of sewing classes and friends and mentors.  There are some great books out there with ideas and directions - some better than others.  Maybe you are lucky to have the old item to take apart to make a  pattern.  Even then fabric stretches out and may not fit right anymore.  This is different, this sewing for the boat.  There is a bit of engineering involved.  Maybe even a bit of McGyver involved.  So I'm getting better at patterning, with much help from my engineer husband of course.  Read more [...]