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Kite workshops


John Barresi
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Just curious to hear about what folks are using in the kite making workshops at home... ?

- Sewing machine(s)

- Cutting table(s)

- Dedicated room

What kind of kites have you made so far, and what's coming up? :)

I'll lead off first.

Started a couple years ago with a 1970s Kenmore that is now set up principally to do binding. I steal my wife's Brother embroidery machine to duplicate the size of the 3-step zig-zag stitch on Rev-like kites ... it has an add-on walking foot. My principle machine is a 1975 Pfaff 1222 machine that was recently refurbished. The Pfaff has a true walking foot that really helps keep the ripstop aligned for sewing the big kites.

I'm still hot cutting everything, so the cutting table is the glass top from a coffee table. It goes on top of the sewing table during hot cutting. The sewing table is a saw horse and framework supported 20 foot by 4 foot melamine topped table. There's a 4 foot by 1 foot indent right in the middle where the sewing machine and I are located. It makes it much easier to sew the larger foil kites.

One end of the basement is dedicated to building RC planes and kites.

Kites completed:

Rev-like kites (asked Ben for permission first)

1) Three four foot singles ... one is vented just for the hell of it.

2) A six stack of five footers

3) A progressive stack of 4, 5 and 6 footers

4) A full size mega-vent

Foils

1) Four Micro-Mocks (5 sq ft) ... was playing around with rib height on foils

2) Two Mini-Mocks (20 sq ft)

3) One WK100 (90 sq ft)

4) One Stealth (190 sq ft)

One Rok

On the to-do list:

1) A two stack of reduced size indoor Rev-likes

2) A cross color foil in the 80 ~ 100 foot size

3) A couple more Roks ... one or more will be with applique ... got to start sometime.

4) Maybe an FF4a ...

Cheers,

Tom

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Just curious to hear about what folks are using in the kite making workshops at home... ?

- Sewing machine(s)

- Cutting table(s)

- Dedicated room

What kind of kites have you made so far, and what's coming up? :)

I'm just a beginner at making kites. I made my first kite (Hata) in a workshop in October, 2010. Since then I have finished a della porta and another hata. All of these have appliqued designs on them.

I use a Bernina 130 sewing machine with a applique foot for zig-zag and applique, a walking foot for straight seams, and a cording foot for fuzzy tails. My worktable is six feet long with a three foot mirror on one side for hot cutting and a three foot cutting mat for cutting with the rotary tool. Needless to say, I'm not building anything really big right now. Beside the sewing machine is a bookcase with kite magazines, kite books and a ring binder with future kite plans.

The immediate future builds are two special request appliqued hatas, a companion della porta to my first one, and a pan flute kite.

My kite making is on one side of my craft room and my scrapbooking supplies and table are on the other half.

kjm

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  • 4 months later...

Old... old thread but it did not get many replies so I thought I'd revive it with my own post...

Dedicated sewing room (live alone in a 5 bedroom house so why not). Currently have an old Morris machine set up for some straight stitching but I don't use it much and need to pack it up. Older White machine with it's own table and the newest addition is a Pfaff 1221 (1221 is a 1222 but not portable). I mainly use the Pfaff as I _love_ the walking foot and it's so very smooth.

I do have a couple of folding tables set up with thin Malamine sheets on top of them for hot cutting. I like using them as they are only about $6 each and hide away easily. Though, these days I rarely hot cut as I usually edge bind the material. I recall Gary Engvall saying years ago that he cold cuts and has never had an issue. If I was appliqueing something, I'd hot cut.

I've made several Rocs, several Rev type kites, a few deltas and 3 larger kites (WK240, WK100 and Stealth 190).

Next jump I want to make is applique. Nothing big... just some color change in the skins, stars, etc.

I find kite building very relaxing. At least the sewing part. I also live the engineering aspect of kite building. It can really be complicated. It also helps with the appreciation that other people put into their kites.

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