K80 - Essentials V #3
I was at the South Padre Island kite festival, and I ended up selling one of my Essentials Vs out of my bag while on the beach. This is part of why I always carry two of everything. However, this meant I was now a kite short, so I needed to make a new one. It had been a while since I made an Essentials V, so there’s a bit that’s different here compared to my old ones. I suspect I’ll make one more as well to replace my older Essentials V, so the two I have in my bag will match more.
Since the last time I made an Essentials V, I’ve refined my mesh work a bit when building my XXVs. I’ve added a black line around the back of each mesh panel to help keep that all clean. I’ve also switched to T fittings, and cleaned up a bunch of other general hadzicki wing stuff.
Wear strips and mesh
For the wear strips, I like to have something on either side of the mesh rather than sewing something on just one side, so I threw a bit of 1.5oz nylon on the front. After I did this, I realized that I could have just not cut out that part of the Icarex, and had the main sail fulfill that purpose. I’ll try that next time.
Sewing around T fitting
I forgot to do this. I even thought about it right when I cut the holes out for the T fittings. I think I got distracted, and when I came back, I just went straight to folding and sewing the leading edge. Oh well, it’s not a very important stitch.
Embroidery
I had to build up some new embroidery for this one, since I wasn’t doing the embroider last time I made an Essentials V. I brought my Essentials XXV embroidery design into Illustrator to turn it into the Essentials V plan. Somehow when doing that, the size of the document got changed, so I did one where the kite was smaller than usual, so I had to do it again.
Mesh backing
I really like how this worked out. I basically pieced together a standard sail, hot cut out the opening for the mesh, but with tabs (leave little uncut tabs that I can cut later with scissors, so the fabric keeps its shape). Then I tape, and lay some mesh down, and cut out the mesh with appliqué scissors. Then, I take a hot-cut out black piece with hot cut tabs on the inside, and glued that on on top of the mesh. I cut all the little tabs, threw on some reinforcement, and sewed. I really like how clean this looks.
