Driftwood Sailboat Tutorial – Sail Away

Driftwood Sailboat Tutorial – Sail Away

1) Time to get your sewing box out! I have a wooden box with two compartments, one for ribbons and strings and one for everything else. This helps me stay organised and I can see everything I’ve got to work with at a glance.

2) Now choose a colour theme and decide on your chosen fabric, as a general rule I always stick to either complimentary colours or contrast colours.

3) Select two pieces of driftwood which can be used for your hull and a mast, there’s no wrong way and that’s part of the fun as long as it looks in proportion.

4) I was really lucky and found a piece of driftwood with a hole already in the hull! You will need to drill a hole large enough to fit your mast into.

5) Use glue to secure your mast into the hole. I used a glue gun but you can use craft glue.

6) Lay your boat on top of your chosen fabric. This will need to be doubled over to make the fronts and backs of your sails. I chose a fabric with a frayed edge for detail.

7) Now draw your sails onto your fabric, I used a coloured pencil and a ruler. I drew my sails from the top of the mast to the edge of the hull.

8) Now pin your fabric, this will stop the two pieces of fabric moving around when you cut them out. I left 10mm around my drawing and sewed along my guidelines.

9) You are now ready to sew your sails together. You would ideally need a sewing machine to do this, don’t worry if you do not have a sewing machine you can do this by hand.

My work space always has a cuppa tea and usually one or more cats!

10) Remember everything is inside out so you need the right side on the inside first, when you’ve finished you need to turn it inside out so the right side will be on the outside. “She sells seashells down by the seashore”

11) To secure your sail you’ll need two small eyelets and a pair of pliers to screw them in. Driftwood is usually soft so it’s not difficult.

12) The sails now need to be “hoisted” up the mast. I used cotton thread and a needle, I then attached the sails at the top and the bottom of the mast.

This is one of my work spaces, I like to use my sewing machine here as there is more light.

13) Now we’ve got to make the flag. I used an off cut of transfer fabric. I like to use this as it’s sturdy and can be painted to any chosen colour.

14) This is the shape of my flag, triangles work just aswell but I fancied a change.

This is my Little helper “Oliver”

All finished, the sails needed a little bit of adjustment but it’s now ready for its first voyage!