A business on the mend

DIXON – What happens when a boat cover or canvas tarp develops a tear or rip? If not repaired, the small slit starts flapping in the wind, the edges shred, and the cover is ruined.

To the rescue is Yancy Webster, 52, owner of Dilbeck’s Canvas Shop, also known as Diversified Canvas.

The business began as a harness repair shop about 100 years ago – so long ago that the original owner’s full name has been lost to time.

“Mr. Ike ran a harness repair shop in the 1900s for more than 4 decades in Paw Paw for farmers and their horses,” Webster said. “In the ’20s, when combines replaced horses, he repaired the combine canvas binders that carried the grain on conveyor belts into wagons.

“He saw the future impact of machinery.”

Clyde Meddle bought the shop in the ’60s and changed the name to Meddler’s Canvas Shop. He moved it to Mendota, stopped repairing harnesses and added tarp and awning repair.

Jim and Carol Dilbeck bought him out in 1979. They added motorcycle and auto seats and convertible tops to the repair lineup.

Webster was friends with the Dilbecks; they rode horses together.

Webster, who repaired his own tack and patched his own clothes, had learned to sew from his grandmother, 93-year-old Irene Peterson of Polo. She worked for Boyd Casket Factory in Dixon, sewing casket liners for 30 years, until it closed in the ‘70s.

The Dilbecks always were looking for good help, and people with a good work ethic, so Webster, then in high school, started working for them.

In 1990, when Jim Dilbeck took a civil service job and wanted to sell, Webster became the business’ fourth owner.

He stayed in Mendota 16 years, converting a pop-up camper into a mobile shop to re-fit metal tubing for covers that were too big to take out of the water.

He moved everything to 2123 W. Third St. in Dixon in 2006, where he has two large buildings filled with several sewing machines, fabric and vinyl sample books, large tables for laying out fabric, and boat seat upholstery and carpet installation tools.

In addition to the vehicle upholstery work the Dilbecks took on, the shop also makes and install residential awnings, repairs flags, and even sells some boat equipment.

Boat covers, though, are Dilbeck’s bread and butter. Webster and his employee, Corey Harrison of Dixon, make about 70 a year; their waiting list is 2 months long.

“I am always getting compliments on the fit of the boat covers,” Webster said. “They turn out real nice.”

As a further testament to his work ethic, Webster also works third shift at Woods in Oregon, and is president of the Polo School Board.

“Business ownership is hard work, and not everyone is cut out for it,” Webster said. “The hours are all day, and if you aren’t working, you aren’t making money.

Still, the canvas shop’s fifth owner might be coming down the pike. Webster and his wife, Shelia, who was a shop seamstress until last year, when she went to work for Polo schools, have a son, Cayden. The sixth-grader sometimes helps out in the shop, and likes to create his own projects with fabric and a staple gun.

Webster likely wouldn’t mind.

“This is one industry that is a dying art. Few people are left who know how to do it well.”

ABOUT DILBECK'S

Dilbeck’s Canvas Shop,  2123 W. Third St. in Dixon, is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday.

Call 815-284-6868 to learn more.