Welcome!
So here I go on my newest journey, I'm glad you've found me and decided to check in.
I recently spoke with my mom about my early sewing days, remembering that I was given a Janome sewing machine in maaayyybe 3rd grade. I asked her how I learned and turns out the machine came with some sewing lessons. I have to admit that I don't remember the lessons themselves, but after sitting down at a machine after a 25+ year hiatus, there were some sewing techniques that I somehow knew how to do, that weren't intuitive. Don't worry, I finally made a sincere 'thank you' to her that evening.
As a young girl, I remember some cross stitching kits and little sewing projects here and there. I was always crafty and enjoyed doing things with my hands - which eventually evolved into my Macgyver-ing skills that were honed on sailboats.
Anyway, I bought a 'heavy duty' Singer online during COVID and finally broke it out when I actually got COVID in May 2022, and started making quilts. I wanted to make a T-Shirt quilt with a bunch of old shirts I'd collected. After starting, I realized that I didn't want to destroy the shirts and needed some practice before I dove into that project, so I studied up (on YouTube) on making a quilt from scratch.
SO. FUN. (and a lot of work)
My (not so normal) 'regular' job is as the Sailing Director/Head Sailing Instructor at a small yacht club in Kemah, TX, so I have a lot of 'kids' - which I get to give back at the end of the day. For one reason or another, I was showing some parents my quilts, and one couple asked... "do you want a SailRite?"
WHAT?! "YES!"
For those that don't know, a SailRite sewing machine is a super heavy duty, industrial canvas/sail cloth sewing machine, and wasn't in my realistic budget - more like one of those things that, you're like, 'that would be nice, but I totally don't need it and wouldn't use it enough to justify the purchase' - plus they seemed pretty intimidating... but if you're trying to free up space...
So during some down time this February (2023)I finally faced my fears, watched some YouTubes about servicing it and how to use it and fired that baby up... and the rest is history!
Well, not quite. I started cutting up an old sail from the yacht club that was trashed and started experimenting in bags and I fell in love with it so I figured why not create my own company - after all, I could use it for any fugure sailing income I made from my 'future' captain's license and any private instructing gigs I might get down the road.
#CocoOnTheGoGo was something I used to use in my prior job at LaserPerformance when I traveled around the US with a few stops internationally to charter fleets of Laser Sailboats at national and international regattas. I mentioned it to a couple people - as a joke - while trying to come up with a business name and they surprisingly, genuinely, lit up and supported the name.
I spent the next several months experimenting with designs, techniques, sizes, materials and more, and continue to, as I work on all my bags and pouches! I've tried to standardize the sizes, but it's pretty difficult to when I'm cutting from all different shapes and sizes of old sails - not to mention that most of them have areas that are destroyed so I have to plan my cuts and designs around those.
I've also been mending boat and sail covers and replaced our custom insulated companionway cover on Skalawag (that Ericson 38 I mentioned before - which, according to the bank & documents, belongs to by boyfriend, but according to my boyfriend, belongs to me). I've even got an order for another custom insulated companionway cover, so that's in the works and once it's done, I'll have pictures and offer them as products.
So that's where I'm at and a bit about how I got started! Thanks for reading, send through questions if you have any, or custom products or ideas you might have for some new ones.
~Coco