The first time I had a rip in my trousers and my dear mother or grandmother wasn't around to help, I resolved to do it myself. Not a great job, but at least I had taken the mystery out of sewing.

Recently, getting into hammocks has been a great rediscovery for me of the outdoors and...sewing! I sewed loops into my webbing, and was proud. But when I reinforced a ripped stuff sack, I thought, that would have cost me 10 bucks to replace. Then I made a water bottle carrier, another 10. Camera case, 10. Make repairs to a bag, 20 for labour, up to 50 for new bag. Mods to a rucksack, 30 for labour, but up to 100 for new sack. The numbers were adding up, considering the investment of about 3 dollars for the sewing materials, which I will not have to replenish for a long time to come.

I just bought some mesh from the textile store, I overbought by a very long way getting more than 6 times what I needed for my tarp snake-skins, but I only spent 10. I'll have extra in case I need to replace it or make one for a friend, I thought.

At home, sewing, estimating the project would take about a 4-6 hours. Out of curiosity, I looked at sewing machines. I was surprised to see that there were mini machines available for 10-30 pounds (20-40 dollars?) on the UK amazon site.

HERE

I was reluctant to spend the initial 100-200 on a normal machine, but for the money this is going for, to see what it can do, it may be worth it!

Ideas???? Warnings???? Suggestions???

I now look at that extra material and all sorts of new ideas are crowding my mind...stuff sacks, new designs...maybe even down gear in the future...