K49 - Fracture #1

A kite built during the coronavirus outbreak. There's quite a bit going on with this build...

Full applique

I hadn't built a kite 100% cut-away applique; I usually have some panels that I pre-cut and piece together. This sail is all cut-away applique on each side, with the exception of the joining strip in the middle.

New thread

I was experimenting with some red thread because it looks cool. I got some size 33 bonded nylon thread, while I usually use size 33 bonded polyester thread. This thread looks pretty sharp on a red/black kite, and it did great for all the applique. As soon as I got to the finishing work, though, the thread immediately had issues with any glue. After taking a couple of hours to stitch around the trailing edge dealing with frequent breaks, I switched to my usual black thread, and did the second trailing edge line in one go, taking about 10 minutes. I may look into colored thread again in the future, but if I do, I'll be sticking to bonded polyester.

Tensioning experiment

I got some ribbon that is sewn in on the bottom corners. My hope was to make bungee loops using heatshrink and secure it to that loop. The end result was messy though, so I reverted back to the traditional method of knots and washers. I might stick with that in the future, but look at cleanly adding some covers over the knots.