Small Projects

Even with the swim season and desk job still ruling my life until mid February, I've still been able to get a bit done on Soveraine. I need to make the interior more homey and I decided to start with some cushions. A call to a professional left me in awe with a quote of over $1600 for a set of two bunks with backs and covers! They are about 6' long by 2.5' wide and the backs about another 2' high. Upwards of two grand for a set of cushions was just too much cash, and I started poking around for other ideas. I found out online that you can cut furniture foam pretty easily with an electric carving knife and I looked on craigslist to see if anyone was throwing out any couches/foam mattresses I could butcher. A few minutes later I decided used foam was not the route I wanted to go down with my new home. I contacted a foam manufacturer in Hartford and got a quote for $250 for all the foam for the bunk bottoms and backs! This would require getting to and from Hartford though, a trip my 20 year old car is not in any condition to make. I kept thinking of a way to get a cheap piece of foam when it came to me: a thick foam mattress topper! $98 later I had a full mattress size piece of 4" thick foam as well as a carving knife and within 20 minutes had it cut to the exact trapezoidal sizes of my two settee bunks. For the backs, I've decided to go with loose pillows since they will be taken down if used for sleeping and can be positioned any way I'd like for sitting, lounging or reading.

For covers, I did a lot of research on fabrics and have decided on a 10 oz. waterproof cotton duck. I've found a friend who knows how to sew and I've been looking into hand crank sewing machines. I got a lot of good advice from my mother about what to look for in a machine that can sew thicker fabrics. It looks like the consensus for canvas is with a Singer from the 1940s or 1950s, with metal gears. I have yet to make a purchase but it looks like the 15-89 model (a 15-91 with a hand crank) is the one for me. I now just have to find one in respectable condition.

I've also decided on a hard interior/exterior high-gloss enamel for the interior paint. However with the temps in the teens and single digits outside and as low as the 40s inside, I'm going to have to wait until it warms up a bit to get that project going. The chainplates are also up on my list, and I have the bronze on the boat, but I'll write another post about that soon.

It's damn cold here, today might just be the coldest of the winter, so they say. We had some snow the other day, and it was actually kinda nice. There, I said it. It's not too cold on the boat and I've come to the conclusion that the person who invented the electric blanket had liveaboards in New England in mind.