Sit Upon Project

Marine Vinyl Sit Upon 13"x18.5"

While I don't really remember making sit upons as a child, I know we did because they are still around! They must be at least thirty years old and they are still great.

My daughter is in second grade and Brownie Girl Scout. I wanted to make them with her this year. I had looked around on-line at different sit upon projects and while there are many, none looked like the design my parents had made years ago. So I enlisted the help of my parents and another parent and we prepared sit upons for the girls today.

We used marine vinyl and carpet padding for the inside. My mom was able to stop by a carpet store and ask for scraps, they were destined for the garbage free for us!

The vinyl was cut to 27" by 20" and the padding cut to 13" by 17". That seemed to work well. Then the vinyl pieces were folded with the edges meeting in the center and overlapping slightly. We used masking tape to help keep everything together instead of pins to minimize holes in the vinyl.

It was certainly tricky making the flat fell seam. So tricky, I might not even recommend doing it this way. With my regular sewing machine with a large size 16 needle, the sewing wasn't the problem, it was the machine getting in the way! I ended up sewing down to about the half way point and then starting from the other end and meeting where I left off. Then I made a second line of stitching.  Not catching the bottom layer of fabric is part of the trickiness too.

Trimming the upper edge

Folding up the bottom edge

After sewing, the sleeve went to the next station. Part of the ends were trimmed to allow the bottom edge to fold over the cut top edge. Carpet padding was inserted into the sleeve and the ends were folded up and held with more masking tape.

Another tiring part of this project was the hole punching. We used leather punches and punched through the end layers for finishing. This will allow the kids to lace boondoogle through the holes.

We estimate it may take the kids twenty to thirty minutes to lace the ends. Keeping the holes lined up is a bit tricky.

This design is great for keeping water and dampness out. And they should last at least thirty years!

After completing our three hour sew, cut, punch marathon, I wondered if there would be a better way to sew the center seam. I made a doll sized sit upon to try out a different method. While it might not be quite as waterproof, I think with careful use, it would be a fine alternative.

Place right sizes together and make a narrow seam. Turn right sides out and if desired, topstitch close to the seam sewing through the "finger pressed" edges. This topstitching is still using the hard to reach sewing method as done above, but it is only one line of stitching and it is securely stitched, not taped together.

With a team of parent volunteers, this project would be a very nice gift for a group of girl scouts.