Happy Couple's Umbrella

In this season it rains a lot. And when a couple is sharing one umbrella the result is wet. So  no more trying to walk arm in arm huddled under a mini brolly whilst one of you gets wet. This umbrella has a dual handle so that both of you keep dry yet it is still around the same size as a normal umbrella. It is very efficient and drags the attention as well.

The maine materials needed for my project were:

- 2 umbrellas (i had the blue one home so i just had to find the same umbrella in the shop. Unfortunately i couldn't find the same model in red, as i wanted but i found it in yellow - which wasn't that bad)
- 1 indoor antenna
- glue gun - it was the most used thing in the project

Other tools were used depending on the work i done :
- Screwdriver
- Drill
- Pliers
- box-knife
- Sewing tools....

Otherwise the double umbrella came up very cheap.
The umbrella costed $2 (for two thats $4)
The antenna $1.5
I had the other stuff at home so no money wasted on this.

This type of umbrellas' handle was made of  ball with carving  that is screwed to a plastic cap on the shaft. The cap itself is attached to the shaft with a metal pin. So what i had to do is unscrew the handle, remove the pin and the plastic cap.

All i neede from the antenna was the plastic splitter and the metal part where the nickel plated brass dipoles are attached to the splitter. I started with unscrewing the dipoles. I took the part i needed and removed the cable.

When i had the desired parts i made an action plan. The first part was to make the handle.

1. I drill holes in the steel bits that i removed from the antenna's dipoles
2. Glue and pin them to the umbrella's shaft
3. Attach them to the splitter
4. Use one of the handles as a handle to the double umbrella.

I wanted to use the old pin holes that used to be the plastic cap but they weren't in a proper place to use them so i had to drill other holes. After i made this i had to fix the bits in the center of the shaft's tube. For that i used 2 pieces of matches on the opposite sides of the bits and than i fill the other space with hot glue. After that i just cleaned up the access material by cutting it. The same story with the second umbrella.

I wanted to hide the scars from the drilling and the old holes so i taped the lower parts of the shafts.

For the handle i decided to use one of the umbrella's original handle by glueing the splitter inside it. Luckily the size of the splitter was just enough to to fill the handle and only few milimeters were sticking out - perfect for the desired "v" form of the umbrella's shafts. I cut out of cartboard  a round shape and stuck it to the splitter so i won't have fill the whole handle with hot glue and i started filling.

I used tape again  for covering my work and there i had a finished handle.

After the handle was finished it was time to join the two umbrellas.
5. I had to remove a part of one rib of each umbrella, one against the other
6. Sewing the closest two rib tips,
7. Sewing the two umbrella's canopy together
8. Fixing the wrapping straps fastening.

The ribs were made from 3 parts. Each part was attached to the other with rivets and it was sewed to the canopy in 3 places.I unsew the canopy, removed the rivets and the last part of the ribs.

Each tip has a hole where the canopy is sewed. I used this hole on the two tips to sew them together

I used pins to fix the two canopies and than sew them.

Because the shorten ribs were very tensed and they could rip the canopy i sew them together to reduce the tension. I sew the ribs to the canopy as well so when you fold the umbrella it stays put to the ribs.

I used the original straps were good enough. just when you wrap around the first one the other goes too far around away from the velcro. So i shorten the blue strap and it was ready.