Thank you for joining me for my Sailboat Tutorial today. Gather your supplies and let's get started!
You will need:
1 inch halved wooden eggs (Michaels)
Toothpicks
scrap cloth
glue
paint
varnish
glue stick
drill with small toothpick sized drill bit
water
brushes
pencil
straight edge
Now that you have gathered all of your supplies, start by marking the spot on the egg where you will drill your hole.
As you can see from the picture, you will want to center the hole over the widest part of the egg. It is important you get the hole far enough back and centered along the middle of the egg lengthwise for balance.
Now drill your hole.
Set the drill aside.
Now it is time to paint the boat. I recommend you give it several thin coats of paint and let it dry between the coats rather than trying to completely cover the boat in one coat. It will give you a smoother finish.
Between coats of paint (don't worry, the paint should dry pretty quickly), cut your sails. Fold your fabric with the wrong sides together and cut two sails per boat. You want them in the shape of a slightly lopsided triangle.
Next, using your glue stick, apply glue to the wrong sides of both the front and back pieces of your sail and then glue them together around a toothpick so that you have a long end hanging down below the sail to insert into the drilled hole on your boat.
Here are some finished sails so you can see the position of the toothpick.
Continue to paint your boat with thin coats of paint, until you have a good coverage of paint over the wood.
When the paint on the boats and glue on the sails is completely dry, paint them with several coats of varnish, letting the varnish dry in between coats. You will want to make sure to varnish both sides of the sail.
It is helpful to insert the toothpicks into a piece of styrofoam while the sails are drying.
When everything is dry, it is time to assemble your boat. Break the tip of the pointy end off of the toothpick. You will want to make sure the toothpick fits into the hole on your boat before applying glue. If you need to, you can enlarge the hold a tiny bit, but not too much, you want a tight fit. You might need to sand your toothpick a bit.
Once you are sure your mast will fit into the boat, dip the toothpick into a bit of glue and assemble your boat.
Let dry and then enjoy!
Here is my fleet of completed boats.
The Hittys sure enjoy them!
The Hitty below is available on ebay for sale. Here is a link to her auction.
I have also listed four of these dresses, two in navy and cream and two in red and cream. Each dress comes with its own boat. Here is a link to all of my listings so you can see the dresses.
Also, if you haven't done so yet, be sure to check out my Hittys sailing the boats in the post below!
I hope you enjoy making these little boats. I would love to see your completed projects, so if you make some, please take a photo and send it to me. Better yet, send me a photo of your Hittys enjoying them!
