Sewing at CABBS

It has been a journey to get some use out of our industrial sewing machine at CABBS. Some tuning by a sailmaking friend helped get it operational. I’ve since used it on several small projects: I modified rudder covers that barely fit when purchased and I repaired my now older boat cover.

 I recently made a custom, large sun shade for my grandson’s recycled swing-set. All of that was done just using the green thread that must have been donated with the machine. Luckily my largest project was in green too.

At this time how one might use the machine is really dictated by their sewing skills and or desire to learn some basics from one of our members. I imagine most of us will use it to do smaller projects or repair an item.

We will be outfitting the machine with four colors of strong UV tolerant polyester thread and some extra bobbins. We have three colors of good sized sailcover scraps and a mainsail that can be used to make things. Maybe you have some fabric materials to share too so bring it along when you come and we’ll decide if it will be useful to keep.

Keep the machine in mind for simple repairs or dream up something you would like to make using it.

-Ernie Michaud

NOTE: CABBS is planning a Learning Workshop in early 2026 to show a few elementary sewing machine steps. If the interest is there, we will follow-up with a few longer classes to get members familiar in-depth with the sewing process.