A Wetsuit for All Seasons

I've been getting really sick of this El Nino crap. It feels like Summer one day, then I'm back in a wetsuit. Come on Summer. Enough of this chilly nonsense.

I upgraded wetsuits (well, I got a deal online on a 4/3) this year, so I still had my old 3/2. In all honesty, it was REALLY on its' last legs, but I can't get rid of neoprene. I need to be on "TLC's Neoprene and Surfboard Hoarders."
A friend of mine asked if I could cut the legs off of her brand new Billabong 3/2. She didn't like the way the legs below the knee constricted her pop-up, and since her legs are in the water anyway- shielded from the wind. She would be comfortable without neoprene on her legs.. I was hesitant, but she liked how the suit came out, so I had to make a chopped wetsuit for myself. And I had the perfect candidate for a suit!
One tidbit my good friend told me is that she attempted to cut her own suit once. It came out horribly ragged and jagged on the edges- but at least neoprene doesn't fray, so it was still usable. Albeit hillbilly. (Sorry, D.)

Neoprene Cutting Tips Right Here!

1. Use a rotary cutter, preferably a 45 mm or larger since surf neoprene is thick. Use NEW rotary blades!
2. If you must cut with shears, use the type made for thicker fabrics (Fiskars makes an ok one, and you can get in at most craft stores). These type almost resemble the Pinking Shears Grandma used to use, without the spiky edge.
3. When you cut, don't cut all way down the shears (scissors), only about 3/4 way. Carefully reset the shears (reopen them) to the last cut, and start cutting again. Try this on a piece of paper- you'll see a difference.
4. Don't use pins with neoprene. Either use quilter's clips, staples (yes, they work!), or, if you're really good, just hold it in place.

*****

Now to the good part!
Here's the old, mercilessly pilled-on-the-inside, salt embedded neoprene. I've washed it, but it's been more comfortable, stretchy and LOOSER in the past....

I hate wetsuits. Truly.

First, I wanted to chop off the legs. I'm pretty modest, so I don't like the shorts being too short.
Using fabric weights, a straight edge, and a rotary cutter, I just cut the legs off (at a slight angle to the torso, but perpendicular to the leg length- hey, our legs don't go STRAIGHT down) with two cuts- one for each leg:

No need to sew or hem. If your seams are glued and sealed, no worries. If you have flatlocked seams (you'll see the thread begin to fray), put clear nail polish over the fraying end.

***UPDATE***

I wore this suit from January into March- I loved it. Warm, but not constricting. I think this will be done on future suits if I can get a better deal on a 3/2 than a specialty long sleeve 2/2 that has a limited season.

***

On to the next.....

Now, with the air getting warmer, I wanted a short Farmer John (Jane). Back to the old suit!

This is a little trickier- you need to try your suit on and mark with chalk where you want it trimmed up BEFORE you cut. My suit has a funky Velcro neck too in back that's annoying too I'd like to lose:

This suit doesn't have shoulder seams (more common as suits get better), so I laid the suit flat on my cutting board, measured out about 2" from the collar seam:

Measuring from the bottom of the collar seam, 2" out to the shoulder is where I'm cutting it (Notice the pattern/fabric weights. They're made from canvas and BB's!)

Other shoulder

Also note how I've lined it up on the grid- I'm going to curve OUT slightly, toward the armpit. If you don't, the fit will be Kooksville.

Both shoulders, weighted, lined up, and ready to be curve cut with the rotary cutter.

  Personally, I like a 60 mm or larger, kind of like a Pizza Cutter. I don't have all day.

You can see the faint curved chalk line out to the armpit.

Arm is surgically removed!

Here's the result- again, NO SEWING (taped and glued seams):

Me likey.

NO FRAY! NO SEW!

I still was bothered by the high, rubbery neck. Didn't need the super cold protection, just a thick wind block. I looked inside to the neck area to check it out:

Inside the suit, looking at the collar, suit front facing camera

The rubbery, friction-y part looked like it was flatlocked to the neoprene. Time for the seam ripper!!!

Ripping out the inside seam to open the rubber flap and expose the base neoprene

When that inside seam was removed, you can see the regular neoprene. I'm going to use the glue/sew line to cut away the excess. I did use my thick fabric scissors, and used the method described above. Came out well!:

Cutting away the excess rubber and neoprene with thick fabric scissors

I can breathe!!!!

So here it is finished:

Paddle perfection

*** APRIL UPDATE ***

I've been using it for a few months, and it works great, except for the scratchy pilling.

For real, don't be scared to chop up your suit. Compared to the $15 you can get for selling your nasty used it on Craigslist, you could be saving $100 on a spring suit. It's a no brainer. Like this dude:

Recycle Your Nasty Wax

El Nino has been showing a taste of what's to come around here. We've had a few days of glassy surf, then windy storm chop and hellacious rain, then cold temps and offshore winds. We've already repeated this pattern a few times, and I'm sure there's a couple of more in store before Spring. It was a rainy, windy, washed out day Wednesday, so I decided to strip my nastiest board to recycle the wax. I've recycled wax before, but this was especially cruddy, so I thought I'd try a new technique.

Here is my gnar gnar board, which is a 6'10", so I should be able to get a fair amount of wax. Especially since I never change it out apparently:

There must be more tar in the water

than I thought.

I did scrape off the nastiest, darkest sections and threw that wax away. That's from where my board sits on the rack bumpers on my car.

Removing the darkest wax

The remaining wax I scraped up to use is still pretty dark.

Next, I got out my trusty double boiler I got at Ikea for 6 bucks. I looked and waited for one to show up at Goodwill, but, I gave up and got one I use ONLY for melting wax (no food, yuck). I filled a larger pot with enough water to touch the bottom of the double boiler when it's the pot. I placed the mass of scraped wax into the boiler and set the whole thing to boil on the stove. If you put the wax in a little at a time, it melts faster, but I just threw it in there like the lazy bum I am:

Wax clump in the double boiler

Most of this wax is from the Summer and Fall, so it's mostly Tropical Wax. It was pretty hard wax, so that would sound right.
Since I'm going to use it in cold water (and dropping temp fast....brrrr), I'm going to add 1/4 teaspoon of coconut oil to soften up the wax. I only used this much since I estimated the wax I had scraped came out to approximately 1 cup. For kicks, I also added 2 drops of grapefruit essential oil to give the wax a pleasant smell. We know where it's been.

Adding 1/4 teaspoon of coconut oil to the wax

to make it more suitable for cold water

Stirring the mixture with a bamboo skewer

I kept stirring the mixture until all the wax had melted, and I had stirred in the coconut oil and essential oil completely. After about three minutes, the mixture was runny enough to be poured.
For molds, I used an OLD muffin tin and placed a couple of muffin liners in it (I didn't have THAT much wax!). Over the top of the two liners, I cut a layer of cheesecloth to catch any more nastiness I could get.

Muffin tin and cheesecloth

POUR SLOWLY! If you pour slowly, most of the crud will have settled out at the bottom of the boiler and not transfer into your muffin liners. The cheesecloth can catch fine strands of debris, but make sure you lift the cheesecloth off of the wax after you've finished pouring before the wax hardens.

Wax poured into molds

Allow the wax to cool at room temperature for at least a 1/2 hour to eliminate bubbles. Once the bubbles are gone, and the wax has firmed up some, you can speed up the process by popping the wax molds in the fridge (NOT freezer).
So, here's the final product on the right, with a new bar of Mrs. Palmer's on the left. Yes, its a little darker, but it's clean from grime and sand, and is tacky like me!

New wax vs. recycled wax

Beach Cover Up- For Kids!

Oh, the cuteness!

A surfer friend of mine recently brought her 4 month old grandson to the beach for the first time. I'm positive he's going to become a little grommet, making us all look bad in the lineup, but we'll have fun watching him grow.I made my friend a terry beach towel post surf cover up with a hood, so I thought it would be cool to make one for her grandson. This one is super easy, and only requires a hand towel, a washcloth, and less than an hour to make on the sewing machine (a little more if you want a bit of detail, wink wink). It will be big on the 4 month old, of course, but should be usable for the little one by the time he gets to walking up until he's through toddler stage.
First, I bought a new washcloth and hand towel from my local outlet. Linens are ALWAYS cheaper there, and they are of better quality than the big box stores. Of course, the best option is to reuse old towels you no longer use. Avoid buying terry cloth off the bolt from the fabric store unless you are making a large cover up, since terry is much more expensive that way.

I laid out the towel and used a washable marker to draw a centerline up the length of the towel until I hit another mark I made across the center of the towel. This will mark the front slit opening of the robe that I'm going to cut.

At the top of this line, in the center, I drew another line 4 inches long, 2 inches on each side of center, to make room for the neck.

Use a ruler or straightedge to mark, and sharp scissors or a rotary cutter to cut along these lines, making a bit of an oval when I get to the neck so I can sew a hood around the neck opening.

For the hood, I took the washcloth and cut the finished hem off that had the tag on it so I had one raw edge to sew onto the neck opening of the robe.

Next, I wanted to make a little elf-like hood, so I just eyeballed a little "swoop" on the opposite raw straight edge I had just cut, and cut it with my rotary cutter to get the cleanest cut.

I sewed up this swooped edge and finished it on my serger, but an overlock stitch on a sewing machine works just as well. A walking foot helps A LOT when working with terry cloth, trust me!
Turn the hood right side out and pin it to the neckline of the robe. I used quilting clips just because pins can get lost in Terry cloth, and I didn't want to sew over pins and possibly damage my machine. You may have to "ease" the hood's bottom around the neckline you made, but terry has a hint of stretch, so work with it until you can get a good fit. Leave a little bit of neckline of the robe exposed on each side of the front, since we are going to put binding down the front.

I used wide double fold bias tape (like you use for quilting or hems) in a nice dark blue to contrast the light blue. I applied the tape on each edge of the front of the robe to cover the edge. I do recommend overlocking or serging the raw edge before doing this step to avoid any future fraying. A good tutorial for applying bias tape is here.



Next, I pinned and sewed down each side on the outside of the robe on the right side, following the towel's pre-finished edge closely, starting approximately four inches down from the fold (shoulder) to allow baby's arms to pass through.

Now, I should have probably attached a belt BEFORE stitching up the sides, but no worries, the towel is short enough to slip over the free arm so I could make a squared tack point to station the belt in place on the back of the robe. The belt is simply a strip of fun cotton fabric about three inches wide, folded over right sides together, stitched with a 1/4" or 5/8" seam and turned inside out and pressed flat.

For another bit of fun detail, I added an appliqué from the same material on the left chest of the robe. To stabilize and keep the appliqué from moving around while you stitch it down, I highly recommend double sided iron-on adhesive.

Sorry for no pics with the kid modeling the towel- it's a bit big yet, but maybe one day Auntie Crafty will get a mention when he's on the WCT! Go Logan!!!
And here it is complete:

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DIY Neoprene Sunscreen Stick Holder

Going through my stash of upcycle items, I still had a bit of 2 mm neoprene from a old pair of surf shorts that I had cut up for a past neoprene project. I only had a bit left, so I used the remnant to make a little holder for my sunscreen stick that I can attach to whatever I want when I head to the beach.

For this, I needed neoprene, some 4 lb test fishing line or strong thread, a medium weight needle, a split ring (like for a standard keychain), some scissors, and my sunscreen stick:
 

I made a pattern that is usable for a regular sunscreen face stick like you'd pick up at the drugstore. Mine is 3" around and 3 3/4" tall, so the pattern is based on those measurements. You can adjust the pattern as needed if yours is a bit different. The pattern is there to give you an idea of the cutout outline.
 

Neoprene Sunscreen Stick Holder

I cut out the pattern to show you how it works. The dotted lines are fold marks plus one line-up mark to show where the top and bottom will meet. You'll be folding the top part over the split ring and straight stitch across, then fold the bottom up and whip stitch up the sides. Neoprene's stretchy, and this is meant to be a snug fit, so this pattern is meant for use with this material only. You may need to make it wider if you're using another material like cotton.

To make sure the pattern stays in place while I cut, I stapled it to the neoprene in a few spots. 

 

Next, I folded the top section over the split ring and just straight stitched by hand with the needle and fishing line along the section's bottom:
 

I clipped off any extra line after knotting the ends, and flipped it over. I folded the bottom section up like the pictures above indicated, and just whip stitched up the sides. Try to make small stitches- taking shortcuts will guarantee a short life on your holder. You can add a carabiner or clip to it for convenience. As you can see, the snug fit keeps the sunscreen stick from falling out.

 

When I was done, it looked a lot a mace holder. Maybe that's appropriate. The Sun can be pretty deadly.