Window screens

Here's part of what I've been doing for the last few days - not pretty but very practical - window shades for our boat. The boat has large windows around the boat which gives terrific visibility and great light down below but can be hot in summer (see the red outline which is how the screens will be fitted). There is one set of windows on each side of the boat.

As we're planning a trip to the tropics, we thought window shades would be a good idea. So I bought some vinyl black (not blue as it appears in the photo) mesh fabric from Sailrite called Phifertex, which has a number of outdoor uses and provides 70% sunshade but still gives a good view.

I wanted to make them in 2 pieces only, one for each side of the boat, to make them easy to take off and on. So I made a paper pattern and sewed 3 pieces together so it could accommodate the curve of the windows towards the front of the boat. Plus the window sizing wasn't uniform which didn't help.

I ran some black vinyl tape around the edges for strength and finished the edges with black marine grade bias binding. Black snaps were added which will be attached to adhesive sockets on the boat (which means no drilling - hooray).

Front snap

Rear snap

It doesn't look too lovely right now but it will definitely do the job and I'll post a photo once they have been fitted.