Making Courtesy Flags

Cruising can lead to procrastination… 

I bought the supplies for creating the many courtesy flags we will need as we cruise down the islands of the Caribbean… way back in Florida.  I had meant to sew them last summer but somehow that never rose to the top of the Boat-Project-Quicksand…

With our departure to the “real” Caribbean imminent, and several inclement days stretching before us, Sally and I got to work making courtesy flags.  The one place we were sure we would both visit is Puerto Rico.  Now there is a lot of controversy out there as to whether or not a US Flagged vessel should fly the Puerto Rican Courtesy Flag.  Our Sailrite instruction book says we DO need one… but many other sources, including people who have BEEN there… say no.  We decided to err on the side of caution and make this our first attempt at flag making… 

Over the course of three days… Sally and I worked through the sketchy instructions in Sailrite’s Flag Making Book…  The material is very thin and crawly.  Having only a small table to work on for cutting didn’t help matters, but my hot knife was wonderful as it sealed the edges as I cut them and seemed to make the material stop squirming a bit.

Sally even tried getting Bruce to sew her flag...

The use of basting tape in mass quantities seemed necessary to hold the pieces together while we sewed… but it kept making gobs on the needle, which in turn frizzed the thread.  It was stop-and-go all day long. 

But we persevered and ended up with our first attempt being acceptable if not perfect.  When we were finally done, Sally announced that she would be BUYING all future flags!  

But the Girl-Time was worth the setbacks we experienced and we now have these beautiful unnecessary flags to show for our days of torturous work…

By the fourth day… I got wise.  Sally didn’t need the flag for the Dominican Republic, as their plans don’t take them there… so I was on my own. Why I didn’t get smarter sooner and learn that I could use pins and sew a simple seam to baste the pieces together instead of using the sticky tape…I will never know.  But once I figured that out, it was easy going. 

And the Dominican Republic courtesy flag is much more simple to make than that of Puerto Rico… I whipped this one out in no time and it’s much nicer with straight seams…