It's
done. The helm wheel has a new hand cut, hand stitched, bespoke,
drop dead gorgeous cover. It only took us six days too. We polished
the topsides faster.
I cut a
template in paper then a toile in sail bag material before cutting
into leather. I made up a sample piece of spoke covering and rim
covering and stitched it to check my measurements before cutting it
all out. I marked the leather and David cut it with a sharp blade
and then we began the hand stitching which took an afternoon for each
section of which there are three.
 |
| ...to this |
 |
| from this.... |
A handy
tip we'd picked up from another boat which has recovered their wheel
and from You Tube was to pre-punch the stitch holes using a Sailrite
sewing machine without thread. Fold the leather in half and run the
machine along the edge to give exactly the same number of holes,
perfectly matched, along each side.
The
finished cover looks so good we have the wheel inside the boat to
keep it clean ans admire our handiwork. David had already taken it
off to make adjustments to the steering before we began and it was
David who did most of the hand stitching with his stronger hands.
To
complete the transformation all we have to do now is recover the
centre hub but that's for another day.
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