I need to ship out a boat and decided it would be good protection to have a fabric kayak cover defending it from scratches. For these purposes I do not need a weatherproof fabric so I went to the local fabric store and picked up some knit jersey material.
I started by draping the fabric over the boat. Using a bunch of spring clamps I pulled the fabric tight around the boat. I then marked the keel line on the fabric using a piece of chalk.
After removing the fabric from the boat I laid it out on my work table and made sure the chalk lines were clear. Now it was a simple matter of sewing along the line with my sewing machine.
At first I only sewed the bow half of the boat. The boat needs to actually get inside the cover, so, I slipped the partially sewed cover back on the boat. I double checked the fit and stretched it tight again and checked marking on the back half. At this point I marked fabric on both sides of the boat.
With the cover back in the sewing room, I trimmed the cloth off about 3 inches from the marked lines. I then sewed over the cut edge to form a hem. At the tip of the stern I sewed both sides together to create a pocket that would slip over the boat.
Once again I tested the fit on the boat. Now I determined where I wanted my velcro straps. I marked the location on both over lapping edges of the cover.
Back in the sewing room, I sewed on the velcro with one half on the outside of the cover and the other half on the inside. I trimmed off all the excess cloth on the bow half and then turned the cover inside out so the seam was on the inside.
The cover came out pretty well. This simple system depends on the stretchiness of the knit fabric and probably would not work as well with a standard weave, but should work for any other stretchy material. I've made several of these so far and they seem to work pretty well.
