Snap hooks are an easy way to attach sail shades and frame straps using a common deck-eye (or pad-eye) mount. After 20 years of teaching the art of canvas-making and fabricating canvas for our customers, I have become a whistleblower on myself. Seeking humility requires a true confession, after all. Even the best shops fall [...]

There are still some clients who love classic canvas awnings. The frames and skins of these unique awnings were fabricated for Boozer’s Brew in Gulfport, Miss. Remember that old saying “If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life?” Well, when too many days in a row end with [...]

The author says that always striving to do your best work, with the best materials, on each project means you'll always have happy customers. If you read this magazine with any regularity, you will see many examples of excellence on these pages. These artistic fabricators are perfectionists when it comes to the art of canvas [...]

The design inspiration for how to shape and build the new aft bench was taken from the boat’s existing front bucket seats. Using the angles and shapes from those cushions helped the team visualize the shape of a new aft bench. Where do you begin when you have a blank slate? We recently had a [...]

A perfect fit using the actual finish-fabric to produce the pattern produces a perfect fit when finished. Most everyone is familiar with the term patterning: as in to make a pattern of something. Basic patterning requires a material with which to create the pattern such as a clear plastic like Canvex®, Tyvek® or even cardboard. [...]

This 32-foot Fountain project completed in 2010 remains one of the author's favorite designs to date. How does a company go from simple box cushions to complex designs? It is not as hard as you might think. Our shop, Paul’s Custom Canvas Inc., was opened in 1979 by my father, Paul Charpentier. Like most fabricators, [...]

Fabric fitting gives marine professionals complete control over the outcome of their enclosure panels. When my father started our boat canvas business in the early 1970s, he had no one to ask how to do things or how to improve the fit of a front panel. So we developed a fabric-fitting technique that allows you [...]

It’s possible to create canvas covers that appear almost seamless. Fitting with one piece of fabric and without vertical darts achieves an elegant look and saves time. Every canvas maker has a “thing” that bugs them. For me, it’s vertical darts. Whether they are on a cockpit cover along the curved windshield or around the [...]

To detect wrinkles, look through the glass at objects in the background. Every fabricator seems to have issues fitting windshields, myself included. Over the past 20 years, I’ve developed some techniques to help make perfect windshields and I’d like to share them with you. Using one of our canvas training facility’s classroom models, we created [...]

Small, unflashy and even invisible techniques can create “aha” moments that help you achieve your desired results, such as how to find the corners on a cushion. Sewing has always been a part of my life. It’s second nature to me, much like playing music or singing is for others. And as with playing music [...]