Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Make your own fire pit cover with supplies from Sailrite. Covering our fire pit will
help prolong its life and it will help keep the lava rock dry which prevents the dangerous
exploding or popping sending small pieces of rock flying into the air. This happens
when the fire pit is turned on and the rapidly heated moisture in the small pores of the
lava rock expand and has no place to go. What is outline in this video tutorial shows
how to make a cover for a round fire pit, but the principles covered in this video work
for a variety of similar cover applications. Let’s get started and show you how to make
a fabric cover for your fire pit. First we need some measurements of the fire
pit. Measure across the fire pit to get the diameter of the circle. Then determine how
much facing you would like to cover the sides. I usually like to cover about ¾ percent of
the side, but that is only a preference and not a rule. Write those measurements down.
This fire pit cover will have a top circle and a side facing which will be sewn together
to form the cover. To determine the cut size use these calculations.
Adding the ½” to the circle is for seam allowance, but why the 2 extra inches you
may be asking. Because a cover should be easy to remove and easy to install, the extra 2
inches will make that a reality. Which in the end will make it so easy to install and
remove that you will use the cover on a regular basis.
The 3” extra on the facing is for the sleeve for a tensioning rope. To determine the length
of the facing multiply the circle diameter by pie and add an extra 12 inches for hems
and a safety factor. One of the easiest ways to pattern a circle
onto the fabric is to use a wooden yardstick and drill holes in it to make a homemade compass.
Now an awl can be inserted near the end of the yardstick and a fabric marking pencil
in a hole drilled to equal the cut diameter of the circle. To prevent damaging the floor
under our fabric a magazine was been placed under our fabric. Notice a second helper is
holding the awl in place, we have not forced it through the fabric. After the circle is
drawn confirm you measurement. Next we will pattern the facing. We are using
a 60” wide fabric called Top Notch 9 and we ordered 2 yards for this fire pit cover.
Since we need a facing strip length of about 145” we will have to join several strips
of facing together to equal that length. For us this illustration shows how we will
nest the facing strips on our fabric blank. Why did we pick Top Notch 9 fabric? We will
discuss that later on. This dark color fabric marks easily with Sailrite’s Scribe-All
water soluble marking pencil white. A wet rag will fairly easily remove unwanted marks.
The top circle and the side facing is now marked on our fabric, were ready to cut it
out! Top Notch 9 can be cut with scissors, but
the fabric is prone to unraveling. In this demonstration we cut a slit with scissors
next to an edge cut with a hotknife. Notice the edge cut with scissors unravels easily,
but the one edge cut with a hotknife does not. We recommend cutting Top Notch 9 with
a hotknife to prevent unraveling on any raw edge that is not hemmed or covered in a binding
tape. We will use the Sailrite Edge Hotknife with
the Cutting Foot installed. This cutting foot helps prevent damage to the cutting surface
under your fabric. I do not recommend cutting on a surface that you do not want scratched
or damage, because accidents may still happen even if you are using a cutting foot on your
hotknife. The Sailrite Edge Hotknife Package comes with the knife the R-Blade and the cutting
foot you see here. It also comes with a plastic carrying case. It is a great deal for any
DIYer! Let’s quickly discuss why we choose to use
Top Notch 9 fabric for this fire pit cover. Top Notch 9 has an 8 year warranty from the
manufacture, it is very abrasion and tear resistant, so it is great for applications
where a loose fitting cover will rest on sharpe edges and corners. Top Notch 9 is breathable
but yet very water resistant. Top Notch 9 sews easily and is resistant to seam puckering.
Order Top Notch 9 from Sailrite today. Before we start sewing it is always a good
idea to check thread tension. Do this with two layers of the fabric (usually a scrape
section) you will be sewing and sew a short line of stitches. Now, check the stitches
to be sure the thread knots are pulled into the fabric, so they are in between the layers
of fabric as much as possible. If you are to error on one side or the other it is best
to have the knots be on the underside rather than the top. In other words it is best to
have as little tension as possible so as to make the stitch look good but not cause excessive
puckering of the fabric. Too much upper tension will cause the fabric to pucker when the seam
is finished. This fact is true of any type or brand of fabric so it is a good habit to
get into. Now we are ready to start sewing. We will
start by sewing the three side facing strips together. We will do this with a semi flat
felled seam. We positioned the Deluxe 5 ½” Magnetic Sewing Guide down at the ½” mark
on our needle plate (another words it is a ½” away from the needle). The two layers
of fabric should have outside surfaces facing each other. Top Notch 9 does not have a right
and wrong side, so this is not too important for us. Edges should be lined up and a straight
stitch about 6mm in length should be sewn along that edge, reversing a few times at
the beginning and end of your sewing to lock the stitch in place.
We will repeat this step with any other strips of side facing that need to be joined together
to make up our length. Be sure to check which side is the right-side and wrong side once
one has been sewn together. Now we will sew our top stitch in place. Remove
the magnetic guide and splay the fabric out flat. Be sure that the ½” tail on the underside
is facing on the side you will sew your topstitch too. Then sew this row of straight stitches
about an 1/8” away from fold that the first stitch row made here. Be sure to do some reversing
at the start and end of your sewing. You can’t see my left hand but it is on
the fabric kind of pulling it apart as I sew the top stitch. So the seam is splayed open.
Here is what that semi flat felled seam looks like when it is completed.
Now on one of the short ends of the side facing we will create a 1 inch double hem. We will
use seamstick to pre-baste the hem in place prior to sewing.
As we baste then sew this hem in place let’s talk about the thread we are using.
We have chosen to use a PTFE thread called Profilen this is a lifetime guaranteed thread.
Profilen sews bester than any other brand PTFE thread in an oscillating hook sewing
machine, like this Sailrite Ultrafeed sewing machine. Tenara is another brand of PTFE thread,
it works great in Rotary hook sewing machines. A PTFE thread is more expensive and harder
to sew with than a Polyester thread. A Polyester thread like V-92 sews wonderfully with Top
Notch 9 and it is very cost effective, but it is only UV resistant and not UV proof.
The choice is yours! We will use the Sailrite Canvas Patterning
Ruler to strike two lines along the bottom edge of this side facing on the underside
(the side where the hem is facing up). The first line is 2” from the raw edge of the
fabric. The next line will be 3” away from the raw edge of fabric. These lines will be
used as a reference to create our sleeve for the tensioning line or rope we will be using
to tension the cover over the fire pit. As you can see the ruler's lipped metal edge
is against the edge of the fabric, we have insert our fabric marking pencil into the
proper hole and away we go! And now the line at 3 inches.
Next we will sew the side facing to the top circle. To do this we will position our deluxe
magnetic guide on the ½” mark of our needle plate again. Be sure the side where the two
lines are struck are facing to the left, they and the hem should also be facing down. I
find it easier to sew the facing on the underside (because it has a long straight edge) and
the circle over it, so I can see it better. If the fabric had a right side and wrong side
the right sides would be facing each other. Now sew the two assemblies together keeping
the edges of the fabric lined up with the deluxe magnetic guide as best as possible.
Do, not worry if they are not perfectly lined up, as long as they are close your cover will
look great. The facing on the underside is straight so, we just need to keep it pushed
up against the deluxe magnetic guide. The round circle is carefully being rolled and
feed so that its edge is lined up with the magnetic guide when its edge is directly across
from the needle. Here we are coming to the beginning of the
facing (where we started) this is where the double hem was installed. We want to stop
short of it be about 8 inches or more. Why? Because we need to create another double hem
on the facing before sewing it completely down to the circle and we need some slack
to do that. Walk the facing around by hand, as if it were
sewn down to the circle. Then cut the fabric about 3 to 4 inches away from the double hem.
Here another double hem will be made and we want that hem to lay over or at least half
way over the previous double hem. The extra is cut away and we will use seamstick
to create this second hem then sew it in place. We will not show all this. That hem is basted
in place and now we can sew it. As you can see they will lay over each other,
almost half way here. Now we can finish up sewing the facing to the circle the rest of
the way. When the hems are reached several rows of a reversing will be made to help secure
that area very well. Ok, you could move on and finish up the sleeve
on the facing, but if you want a more professional looking and stronger cover you may want to
sew a topstitch along this seam we just made securing the two assemblies in place. That
what we opted to do here. We will sew the ½” edge of fabric created
by our seam to the facing edge of our cover. This again creates a seams called a semi flat
felled seam. We will sew about an 1/8 inch away from the first stitch splaying our fabric
apart as we sew. We are sewing through our ½” flap of fabric on the underside. Keeping
this stitch and the flap along the edge of the facing and not the circle does a couple
of things for us. First it keeps the needle holes along the vertical side of the cover
helping to prevent leakage if they were placed on the top. It also give a better appearance
to the top fabric since the tail is tucked under. Third this ½” flap will add to the
chafe resistance of the cover along the sharpe edge of the fire pits bricks.
Here we are coming to the hem opening. More reversing is done here as well.
Time to create the sleeve with the leechline rope that will be used to tensioning the bottom
edge. To use or not use seamstick to aid in creation of the sleeve is a slightly controversial
part of the process. I love seamstick basting tape and use it almost in all my sewing. However,
using it to create a sleeve for a rope does leave a slight possibility that the rope may
come in contact with the glue and not move freely in the sleeve. But if you are careful
that issue can be avoided. Our first hem has been basted to the line
we struck down on the facing. Now another row of seasmstick is placed on top of that
first hem. This second hem will be folded to the next struck down line. While this hem
is being made the leechline should be inserted inside of it along it’s folded edge. We
are using the Sailrite Canvas Patterning Ruler to press the hem and help bond the glue well.
In lieu of using this seamstick for the second fold you could simply take the assembly to
the sewing machine and fold this second hem in place, while feeding the rope in the sleeve,
and sew it down without the seamstick. If we had done that it would eliminate the chance
that the second row of seasmstick may come in contact with the the rope when the sleeve
is completed. We will not take this over and sew this sleeve
in place. We will sew two row of a straight stitch. Why two rows? Well we want to keep
the rope away from the last section of seamstick we used, if we simply sewed along the inside
folded edge (as seen here) the rope would surly come in contact with the glue which
is 3/8” wide. If we had not used the second row of seamstick the single row of stitches
would be all that is needed for the completion of the sleeve.
Be careful that the rope is not coming in contact with the seamstick, so I open up the
sleeve to push the rope back when I notice it is too far from the outer edge fold.
Here we are coming up to the end and as always do some revising.
Ok, now for that second row of stitches to keep the rope away from the seamstick.
The Deluxe magnetic guide is repositioned so the second row of stitches will look great
next to the first, they will be parallel and straight to each other thanks to the magnetic
guide. This second row of stitches is outside the
edge of the 3/8” seamstick, thus our rope will be free of it.
We will use the Sailrite Edge Hotknife to cut the leechline rope, leaving about 12”
coming out of the sleeve ends on both sides. This hotknife keeps the rope ends from unraveling.
The YKK Barrel Lock Closure 3/16 (double) is used to secure the rope when it is drawn
up tight against the fire pit. A knot is typically made to the two ends of the rope to keep it
from accidently being pulled back through the sleeve.
Ok, what’s up with the ball you saw earlier on in the video? You probably already guessed
it, but if not you can see here that it helps to draw the fabric up as a tent pole (or support
pole) to give a slitght pitch to the fabric avoiding pooling of standing water. A small
ball like this makes a perfect support pole that does not require a grommet and will not
abrade the fabric. Covering our fire pit will help prolong its
life and it will help keep the lava rock dry which prevents the dangerous exploding or
popping sending small pieces of rock flying into the air. This happens when the fire pit
is turned on and the rapidly heated moisture in the small pores of the lava rock expands
and has no place to go. Now that we have a cover to protect the lava rocks from the weather,
we can turn it on and not worry about people being injured by exploding fragments of rock.
Coming up next is the materials list and tools that we used to make this fire pit cover.
For covers that are similar to this, Sailrite highly recommends Top Notch 9 fabric. Pick
your favorite color at Sailrite today! For more free videos like this be sure to
check out the Sailrite website or visit the Sailrite YouTube channel. It’s your loyal
patronage to Sailrite that makes these free videos available, thanks for your loyal support.
I’m Eric Grant and from all of us at Sailrite, Thanks for watching!