Happy Way Bus #2

After I made my first set of dinghy chaps for our skiff, I immediately wanted another chance to make them again and fix all the mistakes I had made. Prudence prevailed, naturally, and we happily cruised with the first Happy Way Bus as-was for another couple of seasons. The Avon beneath the chaps was quite a bit older, and really started to show her age. When the decision came as to whether or not to buy a whole new dinghy, my husband said, “but ugh, you’ll have to make a whole new set of chaps (frowny face)”. My response was, “I get to make a whole new set of chaps (smiley face)!”

The new dink is an Achilles HB-270FX 2022 model, Hypalon. (8’10” LOA, 5’1” Beam).

For posterity and in the spirit of sharing with the beloved DIY community, what follows is a retrospective on my 2^nd chaps project – from design decisions, to patterning, sewing, fit, and the wretched, “what I would do better next time” section. I’ll also post a materials list.

DISCLAIMER: I had every advantage possible on this project. I had a brand-new skiff, was working at home and not on the boat – with a big ole table and the dinghy right beside it on a stand my hubs built to my height. I had two sewing machines – my Sailrite LSZ-1 for multiple layers, and my Pfaff Creative for the cut-outs and appliques. Lastly, TIME. I had tons of time. I’ve been “stuck” at home away from the boat for months. I was able to pick up and drop the project whenever I wanted. Thus, I was overly picky and probably spent WAY more time on it than was really warranted.

Design Considerations

Set #1 had some aspects that I hated from day 1:

• The “drawstring” method from the Sailrite video sucks (sorry, Sailrite). You can never get it tight enough: the long straight sections along the sides are always a little flappy, and the aft ends never sat right.
• The interior snads snaps were poopoo also. A few popped off despite good surface prep, others got crusty from the salt. And they pulled the fabric unevenly.
• The cut-outs allowed for too much movement of the whole piece, and the ShelterRite just looked cheap IMHO. The black was a poor choice for salt stains too.
• The fit-up of the inner portion of the bow – adding the triangular patch to come around the curve (also Sailrite instructions) – looked ‘meh’ to me, and from reviewing loads of pictures of DIY chaps, it seems like a real problem area for fit for just about everyone.
• My husband fishes in the skiff almost every day, and despite him regularly washing up, the inner portion of the tubes always looked horrible due to staining.

From these I knew I had to:

• Go with the “Velcro” method championed by the marvelous Sandra Renwick from the Facebook group Dinghy Chaps DIY. (I’m also in love with the way ¾” binding looks on finished projects – so this was particularly appealing.)
• Do much tighter cut-outs.
• Use different material for the inner portion of the skiff vs. the top and outer portions with Sunbrella. I saw a picture of a set on the same FB group with some marvelous silvery vinyl which I learned was: “VViViD Weatherproof Faux Leather Marine Vinyl”
• Deal with the bow design. Somehow. Didn’t know how.

Cutouts

I decided to pattern and cut all of my cutouts first, and I’m glad I did. In my first set following the SR video, the “cutout section” comes after patterning. I found that I rushed through it a bit back then as I was anxious to get sewing. This time, I carefully created my templates to get them as perfect as possible. I also found that getting the cutouts to have a really tight fit helps both the patterning material and later, the Sunbrella, to stay in place much better.
(Bonus: if you’re a bit nervous/intimidated about the Chaps overall, starting with the cutouts is a nice way to ease into the project.)

Extras: Valve covers, Drink Holders, Handle Covers. These are also nice little “ease your way into the bigger project” pieces to work on. Good to get into the fabrication groove and to get your machine(s) tuned up.

• Valve covers: the first iteration did not have any stiffener for the cylinder – it was just one layer of Sunbrella. They looked smooshy and I wasn’t happy with them. I made a new set and cut strips of Eisenglass that I had laying around for the wall of the cylinder. Harder to sew, but looks much nicer, IMHO.
• Handle covers: jury is still out on how well these are going to stay. They look nice now, but I worry about the corners of the Velcro peeling up as my husband fidgets them. I may re-do with the Velcro on the underside. Or do snaps. Not sure.
• Drink Holders: I intend to have a handful of snaps placed in the hem where my Sunbrella and vinyl join. This way we can move the drink holders and soon-to-be-made hanging bags around as needed. The nice part about this heavy hem is it will provide excellent grip for the snaps.
• Loopty’s: I added little looptys in a few different spots (see pics) for sunglasses and fishing hooks. They are just leftover Hypalon strips.
• (Snap-In bags at the bow and a few for the interior are coming later.)

Patterning

Patterning Material: While I mostly love Sailrite, I try to avoid buying stuff from them that I can get locally as their shipping charges tend to be rather high. With a big Joann’s coupon (I don’t like Joann’s as a company but it’s what I’ve got nearby), I loaded up on 12-gauge clear vinyl as I intended to pattern both sides fully, rather than the “flip over” method from SR. I ended up having to go back for more later on, so get more than you think.

Tip if doing two different fabrics: I patterned what would be my Sunbrella and my Vinyl separately. In hindsight, I would keep them as one piece and just add in seam allowance for joining. The separate pieces while actually patterning just meant I needlessly went through a lot of green tape.

Tip for sections without an existing seam on dinghy (i.e. curvy bits leading to bow): I used several tailor’s measuring tapes and taped them down where my seams would be. Their flexibility allowed me to see where the curves would lay perfectly flat, and the edges, once taped down, were easy to trace along on the patterning vinyl. See pics.

When patterning I added 1 ⅛” to the bottoms of both the inside and outside – this gave me a little play in the final fit-up, and meant I could do a final trim all at once for a perfect edge for binding.

The stupid bow section was terrible, once again. I went back and forth on doing/not doing the gussets, having more horizontal panels, and other hair-brained ideas. Where I landed was the bow got its own flap. I’m pretty happy with the finished look. Only time will tell if it holds.

Because I spent SO.MUCH.TIME fiddling with the pattern and getting it perfect, the final pieces ended up going together and fitting up kind of without a hitch. Definitely give your patterning the bulk of your big-brain attention.

Bizarrely, I followed this self-advice for the stern and sides, but sorta didn’t for the curve-to-bow and bow sections…thinking I’d be able to improve fit with the fabric. BIG MISTAKE. Eventually, I seam-ripped apart those 3 sections and started over with patterning. 3 sections became 7! But it was well worth it in the end. So, my advice to you (and to future Jen) is: PATTERN OBSESSIVELY.

Sewing

I had the benefit of having both my Sailrite LSZ-1 and my home-sewing Pfaff Creative. The LSZ-1 was terrible doing zig-zag on chaps round 1, and I HATED the stitching on my cutouts. My Pfaff did beautifully on my cutouts and name appliques.

My husband also made me a dual horizontal thread spooler (see pics) which was great for getting the right tension with the Profilin. Not going to say I didn’t have thread issues from time-to-time, I did, but I think it helped.

Do a generous tune-up of your sewing machine(s) before you start – i.e. run through the oiling, check your belts, clean clean clean. Get them running like butter BEFORE YOU START.

Sewing Velcro: some kind soul pointed me to this video for sewing tips. Also, DO NOT BUY ADHESIVE-BACKED VELCRO. You can use seamstick that is smaller than the strip to stick it down, that you won’t ever stitch through.

Top-Stitching: I could never not get a bit of puckering after the top stitch. DROVE ME NUTS. I tried finger-pressing, more aggressive pressing, steaming, hard pull-apart while sewing, soft pull-apart, and sewing really slowly. Some techniques helped a bit, but nothing completely solved it. Sigh.

Materials List

• Hypalon Rolls (2) – 6”x58”, Light Grey, $40 ea. InflatableBoatParts.com (I went ahead and bought a 3^rd roll for future, hopefully never needed, patches.)
• Hypalon Adhesive – Bostik 2402 + D40, 1 liter kit, only available from SkyGeek.com ~$80 + shipping (I posted a lengthy list of the result of my Hypalon Adhesive research on CruisersForum.)
• Roller Rasp from NRS $10 + ship – very useful in the Hypalon prep and glue.
• 12g clear vinyl from Joann’s – lots
• Painters tape while patterning
• Sunbrella 48” – 4 yards – Captain Navy
• Sunbrella ¾” binding – 45 feet – Captain Navy
• Silver Vinyl: VViViD Silver Carbon Fiber Weatherproof Faux Leather Finish Marine Vinyl Fabric – Amazon (I somehow got a 25’ roll for $85. It was WAY too much for what I needed, but I thought “why not?”) This material turned out to be a dream. Pattern marking on the back was practically like writing on paper. It has some stretch to it so you can really get a tight fit.
• Sew-In Velcro – 25-yard 1” roll set Velcro brand for $43 from Fastenation.com. (I got sick of combing through Amazon reviews from other makers and just bit the bullet on Velcro brand. Glad I did.)
• Eisenglass – thick – not sure the gauge that I had laying around – for the valve cover bodies.
• Seam-stick ⅜, ¼, ½ –  Sailrite (I had a bunch on hand and didn’t order more)
• Profilin (lifetime) thread – clear & black
• Reflective tape: JINBING Safety Silver Reflective Fabric Tape (1″ x 33′) – Amazon, $10.99 (Sews nicely, no sticky backing)
• Chafe Protection (not yet added): XHT Smooth Yellow Faux Leather Roll 11.8″x53″ – Amazon, $8.99 (When our dinghy is hanging from its davits, the davit lines rub a bit on one section, and one of the tubes rests against our Hydrovane. I need to wait till we get to the boat to see where these sections are, exactly, and sew it in.)

Lessons Learned / Important Tips

• DO NOT SEW ON ALL VELCRO TO HYPALON STRIPS WITHOUT SANDING THE TO-BE-GLUED SIDE FIRST!!!!! (this earned the 1^st prize in my DumDum award contest)
• USE ALL SUNBRELLA FROM THE SAME LOT. (2^nd prize DumDum award). I had some older unused Sunbrella that I thought would be nice to get rid of before breaking into the new stuff. While it’s all “Captain Navy”, it looks different in the light. Nothing I can do about it now, except to warn all y’all!
• Buy more patterning material than you think you’ll need.
• Suck it up and do as many sections as needed for the curvy bits leading to the bow. The patterning material will eventually lay flat when the dinghy is fully inflated – when it does, you’ve got it. Don’t think that ripples will go away when velcro’d – they won’t. I ended up going from one section in the curve to the bow up to three. The finished fit was well worth it. This is where I used the tailor’s tapes to lay down more seam lines (see above).
• DO NOT TOP STITCH YOUR PANELS UNTIL YOU ARE 100% FINISHED WITH YOUR FIT. (Bronze DumDum award) Top stitching should be the last step before binding.
• Get either the inner edges or the outer edges fixed (I did the outer), sew in that soft Velcro, and use seam-stick (the ½” is great for this – super sticky) to stick down your Hypalon-strip Velcro. This way, you have one edge totally fixed while you are finalizing your inner lines.
• Take the time when transferring pattern to material to strike lines for the fit-up and the sew-line. This made it so much easier to sew (didn’t have to worry about where the needle was) and saved me having to think much while at the machine. (see pics) “No-Think Sewing” I call it.
• DO NOT BUY YOUR HYPALON ADHESIVE UNTIL NEAR READY TO USE. Most of them only have a 1-year shelf life that is VERY STRICT. We had to throw out an order of Cliftons that was only 7 months out of date and had been stored properly.

Conclusion

I am *thrilled* with the finished product. (Video of finished product here…. complete with my effusive gushing.) Naturally, I still see areas for improvement, but I think I mostly moved on at the right times when there were imperfections I could live with, and backtracked at the times when improvements were necessary (i.e. booboos I’d never be able to get over). I actually had a lot of fun making these, and I’d even consider taking on a paid set if the right situation presented itself. These chaps were actually a good bit of therapy for me at the time.

Once again, I am well aware that the chaps will never look as good as they do today – that they are now at the mercy of my husband’s abuse. What’s that saying about letting go of your children? 😊

If anyone has any questions, drop me a comment, or find me on the DIY Chaps Facebook group. Fair winds to all who take on the chaps-making-challenge. You can do it.

-xoxo, Jen