Step 5 - Sewing kite together

This step took about an hour and a half.

I've now had lots of practice with sewing large pieces, thanks to the previous step. This was fairly straight forward - put nice sides together, tack, sew, fold, sew again.


Tacking main kite pieces

Tacking kite together

Step 4 - Appliqué

This step took me about 4 hours, not including shopping time - expect more for more complex designs, or none at all if you want a single color kite.

I found the following page about appliqué: http://www.kites.tug.com/goodwinds.html. It has about everything you can possibly need to know about kite appliqué, and a lot more. I skimmed, and read bits I thought would be useful.

I started out making another trip to the store. It turns out there is a great kite supply store here in Seattle: Gasworks Park Kite Shop. I bought some appliqué supplies there, along with some string (the other store was out). I then ran by a marine fabric store for the last of my materials, and a hardware store to buy a wood burning kit (a soldering iron with multiple heads). Here's the new additions to the materials list:

1 yd .75 oz royal blue $8.25
.5 yd .75 oz red $4
250# 500' dacron line $13.80
4" velcro $2.50
1 yd 1" nylon webbing $.85
Z69 white nylon thread $4.49
Wood burning kit $13.50

Updated total: $100.95 (ouch)

The thread is much thicker than the recommended stuff, but they were out of everything thinner and I didn't want to have to go to any more stores.

Back to Appliqué. Using the soldering iron makes the process very easy. You just cut the pieces you'd like, arrange them, touch the tip of the soldering iron along the edges to keep them in place, sew them together, then cut off the pieces you don't need. Here are some picutres that should help.


New materials

I didn't measure designs - just folded the shapes I wanted and cut

Folding red fabric

I used a scrap board, foil to protect my fabric from the laminated board, and a soldering iron.

After tacking

After sewing

Setting up next piece

Cutting fabric after sewing

Finished piece

Laying out next piece

It's difficult to sew large pieces

Step 3 - Cutting the Ripstop

This step took about 2 hours.

I noticed that the dimensions required for cutting are different than those given in the drawing, due to seam allowance. There apparently should be a 1/2" allowance on all edges that will be attached to other edges, and a 3/4" allowance on all edges that will be on the outside of the kite.

I realized too late that my 57"x81.5" piece will not fit on my 54" width fabric. I could have cut up the main body and still fit everything, but it turns out that the fabric that Kitebuilder.com sent me is a bit over 60" long so I didn't have to.

I marked up my fabric with a pencil using a measuring tape and a straight edge, crossed my fingers, and started cutting.


Dimensions used (you don't have to be this precise - for instance 21 5/8" works just fine for the dimension on the left)


Marking up fabric

Cutting fabric

Using 1st rectangle as template

Step 2 - Mail arrives

Although they were out of string, all of the rest of my materials arrived. From the left:

12' x 54" x .75 mil white Ripstop material
6 fiberglass tubes, (4 of the .414 and 2 of the .505)
5 ferrules (4 of .333, 1 of .411)
white Dacron
green Dacron
Hoop winder

Tomorrow (hopefully) I start construction.

Step 1 - Starting the process

I've decided to build an 8' Rokkaku kite, and perhaps add a camera for aerial photography. I have no experience at this at all, so this is a good opportunity to walk others through my learning process.

I found instructions here, written by someone named Gary Engvall. There's a picture of him with a kite (it even matches his sweater), so I at least know he's built one before.

The following is a list of materials I've gathered from his description or guessed at:

4 x Bainbridge .75 x 54" Second - White (FRNB75B WHIT) = $18.00
4 x Epoxy .337" x .414" x 54.5" (RET414) = $17.40
2 x Epoxy .418" x .505" x 54.5" (RET505) = $9.80
4 x .333 Fiberglass Ferrel (FSF333) = $2.88
1 x .411 Fiberglass Ferrel (FSF411) = $0.72
1 x Slit Dacron 3.0" x 3.9 ounce - white (DAC30 WHT) = $0.88
1 x Slit Dacron 3.0" x 3.9 ounce - green (DAC30 GRN) = $0.88
1 x Dacron - 300 lb 500 ft (LDAA300) = $12.65
1 x Slanted Hoop Winder - 6" (LAW10) = $3.00
---------------------
Sub-Total: $66.21

Today I ordered these from Kitebuilder.com mainly because they had fabric seconds, which are less expensive. I'm sure there are other places that have seconds, or even less expensive materials, but this is what I found.

A few notes on my order:

1. The line I bought is only 300 lb, versus his recommended 500 lb. This is really just a budget issue for me - and he says 250 lb is probably fine. Quite honestly, the wind will pick me up at 200 lb anyway. Sure, there will be some weakness at the point where it's tied to the kite, but I bet a safety factor of 100 lb should do it.

2. I bought hollow core line again for budget reasons. I assume solid core has less flex, but I have no idea if this is good or bad.

3. I bought two colors of Dacron because I'm not sure what design I'm going to paint on my kite yet. At $0.88, it doesn't hurt me to buy an extra color.

4. They didn't have long enough fiberglass supports, so I bought two of each needed and a "ferrel", a piece that holds two of supports together inline.

(update: 8/8/05)

I sent Gary Engvall an e-mail letting him know about this project, and asked for his input. Here is his reply (I've responded inline, in italics):

Um, paint? There are not very many paints that work on ripstop, and the ones that do are expensive and toxic.The graphic on Mickey Mouse was done by sewing on different colors of ripstop. That process is called appliquè.

Thank you Gary - you just saved me a lot of wasted effort. I'll have to learn about appliquè during this project.

Um, 300 pound line will not move your 200 pound carcass around the field. The same way that you might be able to push a 2500 pound car, you can lean back and hold on to a kite pulling 500 pounds.

I disagree. You can move a 2500 pound car because it has wheels. The only force you're working against is the friction in the bearings and the tires. I occasionally work out, and pulling on a bar attached to a cable attatched to 200 pounds is quite hard. I can't imagine doing it if I was holding onto a plastic ring instead. When I get my line and ring I'll experiment with this using my home gym in my basement.

Hollow core line is just fine. If I had you and Mickey Mouse in a room together, I would show you that where the bridle is 'tied' to the kite, there are no knots. The line is spliced, because it is a hollow core line.

Great. I look forward to learning how to splice line.

Steve Ferrel at Kite Studio (kitebuilder.com) spells ferrules 'ferrels' for some reason. :-) But, yup, FL-414 ferrules FL-505. FL-505 ferrules FL-610. 414 has an i.d. of .337, and Steve has some special .333 ferrule stuff that works just fine. Notice that the plans say to avoid using a ferrule where the sticks cross or the bridle connects to the kite. There is another, more complete, set of Rokkaku Plans at: http://members.cox.net/kiter/rok/rok6.htm.

Thank you again. I've e-mailed kitebuilder.com and have requested two more ferrules (I've updated my list above) to avoid this problem. Also, this new web site looks far more detailed - I'll add the link to the right pane of this blog.