Has anyone experience in sewing your own boardbags.
I am thinking of doing a sock style, draw cord, old school, day bag type of thing; maybe padded and need some advice. Any hints or even better patterns would be great!
Cheers Z
Yup. Old blanket, fishing line to sew it with, a rope in the end to tie it up with. Pattern, just put your board down on it, fold it over, leave some room on both sides and cut it out… I’ve seen them made from other stuff too, including canvas, even old towels, whatever you have handy - waste not, want not…
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Yup. Old blanket, fishing line to sew it with, a rope in the end to tie it up with. Pattern, just put your board down on it, fold it over, leave some room on both sides and cut it out… I’ve seen them made from other stuff too, including canvas, even old towels, whatever you have handy - waste not, want not…
And if you wanted to go a bit further and make it water resistant like a commercial bag, it shouldn’t be too difficult to fashion an outer cover from either house wrap (breathable) or tarp material (not). Both can be fashioned into (rough) shapes with a little darting and gluing. And if you want to go the whole 9 yards (ha!), you can get long, HD zippers from many outfitters and camping equipment suppliers.
-Samiam
I put my Mom (wife wanted nothing to do with it) to work making boardbags for me. I went to a fabric store and found some cheap, fairly durable stretchy material. Double it over, lay your board on top, trace the outline down to the widepoint, then straight to the tail. Sew along the outline (or inside the outline if the material is real stretchy) then add a drawstring. Of course, you probably want to double-double the nose and tail area for added protection. Anyway, you get an inexpensive boardbag that should hold up as long as one from a shop.
Interesting question:
See, among other things I do some canvas work. Comes from owning a sailboat and getting sticker shock when I priced awnings and such. Let alone custom work. So, I found a couple of old industrial sewing machines and had at it.
What are you gonna need? Well, for what you’re describing, I wouldn’t do it - see, the sock style offers zero protection from anything and serves mostly to take wax from the deck and move it efficiently to the bottom with no effort on my part. Can’t stand the things.
A canvas board bag with a drawstring…well, before I got into the biz myself a sailmaker friend made me a few, for sale in the shop. And I am here to tell ya that those were not really very much good. Any fabric thick enough to offer any protection isn’t gonna do real well with a drawstring - the stuff won’t draw tight enough to really keep anything smaller than a board inside, so your rashie and your boots and gloves and maybe your spring suit will be behind ya like a trail of bread crumbs.
But let’s say you want to make yourself a nice custom bag, with maybe a few goodies that the one in the local shop doesn’t have. Awright then:and my apologies for using inches and such.
First off, make a pattern. Take some paper, wide butcher paper or wrapping paper is good, or builder’s paper, and trace the outline of your board on it. Then add four inches all around. This is your pattern.
Then, procure a good sewing machine ( an older all-metal home version will work, or the above mentioned industrial models - the new plastic ones are cr@p ) , some #69 or #92 bonded dacron thread, the appropriate needles for the machine to work with said thread, a coil-type #10 or heavier plastic zipper about 48" long, a stapler, foam padding and two times the length of your board in a nice heavy fabric 60" wide- http://www.owfinc.com/Fabrics/fabricmain.htm will give you some ideas. There is a foam-lined tricot nylon that looks interesting for the inside, and some nice heavy ballistic nylon will do the outside.
Now, carefully cut out ( heavy shears are the way to go ) four pieces of the fabric to your pattern. And two pieces of foam. Staple the edges together and start sewing, with your inside fabric on the outside 'cos you will be sewing this inside out and then turning it rightside out. Leave off where your zipper is gonna go, but do include any straps and such.
I could do a bunch of ‘how to’ sketches, but let me instead refer you to http://sailrite.com/techindex.htm , which has done it better anyhow. Have a look at the videos there too.
Now, this isn’t all that cheap - for a 9’ board the zip, materials and such will run you more than buying a pre-made one. And if you want to go out and buy the machines to do it with, it gets real pricy. I have all that stuff anyways…
But then again, you can have a pretty custom bag ( or score one with a busted zip and replace the zip ) …your call.
hope that’s of use
doc…
I’m planning on making a few this weekend as belated birthday presents for a few friends… I haven’t made them before, but I’ve done some sewing… I’ll post photos when I’m done… I’m going the terricloth-sock route, though. For shorter boards I think they’re very helpful when stacking boards and keeping wax off of stuff… Certainly limited in their actual protection, though.
I was thinking about improving on the ones I’ve had by adding a pocket and maybe padding one side. For padded bags, one possibility is to buy pre-quilted fabrics from the fabric store. I may give that stuff a go also as I need to buy some to make a couple of new dog-beds for the pups.
Also… it just occurred to me that it would be great to have some padding in the nose of the sock… When I take my boards out I tend to look around for a patch of grass to set them on while I’m peeling the sock off… some padding would make that step more convenient.
Fun project. Good luck.
I checked a couple of fabric stores and options. Didn’t find anything too special. Tarps would be cheap but i don’t like the looks too much and then the bag would be waterproof which I think is not the best either. I though about sandwiching a layer of bubble wrap between two cotton socks !? comments?
famousactress I would love to see some pics!!!
cheers Z
go to cash converters and get an old sleeping bag
I made a homemade board bag using nylon ripstop, foam padding and nylon strapping. It cost me about 35.00. Bought my material from a upholstery shop and still use to day. Used my mother sewing machine to sew it. Will post fotos of later.
ok board bag
press B-17 on the wurlitzer
the second oldest guy in the world,Joe O’Hagen ,
came back from foraging one day with…
hotel curtains!!!
the places arround here that buy out lots of furniture and curtains from the hotels when they gut and redecorate the rooms
they sell …the block out the sunrise draw drapes!
get the picture?
yes you see…
these massive pieces of textile
are sometimes water resistant coated
to combat condensation
in air conditioned rooms
and are thick…THICK
stuff
they sold o’hagen this stuff cheeeeeeeep.
like two layers 9 feet tall and 15 or 20 feet wide/for like 14bux?
consider that beachcombing acolytes…
make one ? heck make nine footers
ten of em for the material cost
of 3yards of quilted yardage…
board bags are so cool when your board is new
but the get tiresome
and dirty and …and…
and…
and
&
…ambrose…
I make mine from Canvas Painters Tarps available at Home Depot…
Double up the nose thickness, drawcord the tail…
Reinforce the fin rub area…
Don’t let the needle puncture your finger…