The search for how to sew skates blades critter covers / soakers

One of my friends want to make skates blades critter covers for birthday presents.  She searched online for over a year but she couldn't find any websites to show her how to make them.  "It is not possible," I said to my friend.  I'm sure that we can learn how to make a pair or two online.  So, I started my Google search.

Why my friend wants to make the covers?  To absorb moisture and prevent blades from rusting.

Image source: Open Clip Art

First,  I typed in "how to sew skates blades critter cover".  To my surprise, I got 0 useful result from the first 10 pages of Google search.

Then, I typed in "how to make skates blades critter cover".    0 useful result from the first 10 pages again.

Okay, so, I typed in "homemade skates blades critter cover".   0 useful result from the first 10 pages again.

How could this be?  People who send their children to play hockey and figure skating are so rich that they just buy the covers instead of making them?

Start feeling disappointed, I typed in "skates blades critter cover sewing".  Well, 0 useful result from the first 10 pages.

Before my friend told me to stop searching, I typed in "skates blades critter cover sewing pattern".  Yes, one good result from the first 10 pages and it was on the first page!!!

Ta-dah!

I got How-to: sew blade covers or soakers from a blog called Ice Mom's Adventures in Figure Skating.  This blog post is very informative but only with long and very boring written instructions.  We thank Ice Mom for her effort of helping us.  Sorry, we only read up to instruction no.3 and we gave up on reading.

Then, I read the title of this blog post again.  SOAKERS!  This is what hockey mums and figure skating mums call blade covers.  This is the reason why it took my friend over one year and still couldn't find the proper website to learn how to make her pairs.

Result of our new Google search was excellent.  I typed in "sew blade covers or soakers" and got tons of potential useful results.  Hockey mums and figure skating mums do make skate blade covers or soakers.

We got this page How to: Sew Your Own Soakers! from www.figureskatingadvice.com.  In this site, we learn how to measure size of our blades to make soakers.  Written instructions are not long and boring.  There are photos of inside, outside and finished soakers.

But, the best one is Figure Skating: How to Make Soakers / "Flingies" (Blade Covers) from Celebration Generation.  In this blog post, blogger Marie Porter not only shows us how big the size of soakers should be, she also provides simple written instructions and easy to follow pictorial instructions.  Of course, she shows us the finished soakers, too.

My friend found her information to make her birthday presents.  Another Mission Accomplished !!!

Now, the question is when will my friend finish making her 3 pairs of soakers? 

Moral of this online search: Know the proper keyword before searching!


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