Leah was taught how to sew in 1967 by her mother and was later sent to pattern drafting/tailoring school. Michael has worked on and around boats since the early 70’s. In 2003, after years of living and cruising on our self- restored 1957 48’ Chris Craft Constellation “The Taj Mahal”, we rented a small house on Merritt Island in Florida to make it easier to completely refurbish her. It was after seeing the “Taj”, other boat owners began asking us to work on theirs It was decided to start a business relying on our efforts, born of a sense of independence, entrepreneurship Bambi’s Boatworks & Canvas was born.
Leah was able to acquire her first Industrial Sewing Machine after detailing a 33’ boat inside and out. It took 3 years of hard work for us to create a successful business. Leah attends trade shows to learn about new products/materials and the latest trends in the industry. Michael , as a Boatwright, focused on all aspects of wood work and restorations which we no longer do.
Our clients included the USCGC, Army, EPA, SpaceX, restaurants, captains of Commercial and Pleasure fishing boats, Hell’s Bay Boatworks and many others. Projects included marine canvas tops/covers, OEM upholstery, marine enclosures, recovering furniture for a hospice house, wooden boat restoration, full boat interiors, weather curtains for restaurants, vintage car interior upholstery, awnings for business & homes and even hemming a client’s shorts.
We continued to run Bambi’s until August of 2019 when we finally succeeded in making a long desired move to Jefferson County, Washington. Here we are with our new business, The Needle & I, where we will be doing much of the same type of work excluding the wooden boat restoration.
