Saturday, April 26, 2008

I made a chine bag

It may seem as though I’ve forgotten about my blog but I asure you, I haven’t. My latest project is a chine bag. There are lots of times that I’ve wished that my binoculars were handier to get to than digging through a dry bag. Now I’m not sure where I’ve seen this idea before but a chine bag is a water resistant bag that attaches to the inside hull of the boat. For those of you that don’t know what a chine is. Where the side of the boat curves to meet the bottom. That curved area s known as the chine.
I started out by sewing a 2" strips of 18 oz. pvc coated nylon to either side of a YKK water proof zipper. I then used contact cement to bond the finished zipper assembly to the underside of a 22 X 17 " panel. I had cut out an 1/8 inch slot for the zipper to slide along. I then turned my attention to the ends. I wanted a neat finished end, something more than just flattening and bonding the two sides together.
From MDF I made a male and female form. Here you can see the pvc nylon was laid over the female form then heated with a heat gun to soften the material. I then pressed the male form in place. While pulling the material tight to avoid overlapping creases I stapled the fabric to the back side of the male form.
After the piece had cooled I applied a generous amount of contact cement to the outer edge of the piece. As well as the corresponding edge of the main body panel. After waiting 4 minutes I carefully pressed the two pieces together. Forming a nice rounded end.
After assembling the other end the same way I pulled out the staples and the wooden form, turned the whole thing inside out and trimmed the excess off. I then turned it right side out and glued the seam that closes off the back and seals the bag together. Buckles where attached and a anchor pad was created by sewing a piece of nylon webbing to a pvc circle. This anchor will be cemented to the inside of the hull to provide an attachment point for the bag.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great idea and a great project -- thanks for sharing the step by step. I think I'll be trying to replicate your efforts soon enough.

Best,
Stephen D.