Thanks for all of the kind comments ladies and gents.
This will not be the last project - in fact I will soon be posting pics of the dinghy cover, but I think I will be upgrading to an industrial machine. Don’t get me wrong, I love my singer and will be keeping it, but it’s not tough enough for the jobs I plan on doing.
The dinghy cover has been a real fight. It looks ok but the singer just doesn’t have the strength to pull that much weight and I’ve had to feed it through by hand, with varying success. I think I only managed it because I’m a stubborn so and so and wasn’t going to let it beat me, but while the sofa was a pleasure the dinghy cover was a real...... not pleasure.
But the finished result is good enough for what I need - a cover to last a couple of years. It’s not good enough for the actual boat canopy though. Not good enough at all.
However, I’ve learned that I will be able to cope with the job and the measurements and the sewing if I have the right tool for the job, so I’m buying one, which sounds extravagant but makes sense. I think the material costs will be around £1000, maybe a bit more, and the machines look like they come in at a similar price, so call it £2000 - £2500 for the finished canopy which will save me at least a thousand pounds from quoted prices. I can then use the machine to make new covers and canopies for the top deck, saving me more money, and then sell the machine second hand with little use and probably get back half of the cost...
That’s the plan anyway.
Even my wife thinks it’s a good plan - and she was initially dubious about me spending fifty quid on the singer! She has a little more faith now it seems...
@Gavin e would you kindly let me know which brand of electric staple gun you have please? Many thanks.
The staple gun I used was a Stanley TRE550 - about £30 on eBay and a great gadget.