Kite Making Things Learnt!
The "what I will do differently next time" section:
- Always double check everything as you go along. Especially in the early design/templates.
- Get all the materials before you start - I have been stranded now for a couple of weeks by not getting the Dacron necessary. And always buy a little bit more than you think you are going to need.
- Plan you sail design with the fabric wastage in mind - my design ended up being quite wasteful - with more thought I could have had a similar design without as much waste.
- When drawing around the templates & adding the various seem allowances don't measure from the line then draw another line - this isn't that accurate. Find a piece of wood (or something) with the correct size (say 1 cm) and draw round that. And use a sharp, soft pencil!.
- Use a pencil rubber to erase things you no longer need before sewing (otherwise you might be able to see them when it's finished).
- If you have enough off cuts why not make a small edition of the kite to try everything out? I did this - not to scale or anything, but just to check about sewing and seams and stuff.
- Possibly next time I will hot cut all panels, rather than just cutting with a sharp knife.
- For some fittings you can improvise by looking around at DIY shops.
- Glue the seams before sewing - not the expert way of doing it, but really does make it easier for a beginner. But it can can cause problems with your sewing machine getting glued up (or so I have heard).
- Check the sewing machine bobbin before starting on long sewing runs (otherwise you end up simply putting holes in the fabric when the thread runs out!)
- When laying out fabric to cut make sure that the ends are weighted down and where you placed them before cutting!