Attaching the Leading Edge

 

Tape the leading edge to the work surface with seam stick.  Put the seam stick along the "open" edge of the leading edge tube.  Remove the backing from the tape at this time.  With the sail face up, closely align the nose of the kite with the nose end of the leading edge as shown in the picture above.  The nose of the leading edge is the end without the seam.  Press the sail onto the tape at this point.  Now work your way down the leading edge applying slight tension to the sail and pulling the leading edge tube out to conform to the contour of the sail.  When you reach the wing tip of the sail/leading edge you should have approximately 1/4" inch of sail extending beyond the leading edge tube.  (I shortened the kite 1/4" and never shortened the templates).  You can trim that off.

  Sew the seam just as the others being careful around the bulk of the leading edge cutouts.  Now tape the other leading edge on and sew it also.  Again, trim away the sail and remove the seam stick.

  Before going any farther fold the leading edge tube and crease it to make it easier to tuck under when we sew the seam shut.

  Measure up 5"  from the wing tip on the inside of the leading edge and make a mark for reference.  Apply seam stick along the leading edge from the wing tip up approximately 6".  Measure off 11" of black dacron bridle line (I use 80lb).  Fold the dacron line in the middle and press the two ends into the seam stick 5" from the wing tip and centered between your seam and the fold.  Press the rest of the line into the seam stick drawing it to the wing tip.  You should have a 1/2 inch loop sticking out the end of the wing tip.

  Place a second layer of seam stick over the dacron line and extending beyond your seam.  Remove the paper backing and fold the leading edge over and into the tape.  The edge of the leading edge should line up with the seam.  Then fold the wing tip of the sail over top of the leading edge and press it into the leading edge making sure the tape sticks.  My sewing machine will not feed the lump we are about to make so I put a length of line through the dacron loop to assist moving the sail under the foot of the sewing machine.  Starting with the wing tip sew the dacron loop into the leading edge.  A walking zigzag works good for this.  I set the stitch length to zero and walk the needle across the end of the leading edge twice to lock the stitch.  Then set the stitch length to .8 mm and sew down the leading edge seam using the walking zigzag.  Use the walking zigzag until you get to the end of the dacron line (5").  As your needle gets to the outside of the fold (where you would normally close the seam with a straight stitch) switch to a straight stitch and adjust the stitch length.  Just a note in passing, I stop sewing and tie off at this point on the right wing then sew from the nose.  I prefer that to stuffing the entire kite through the sewing machine.

Next we will put the nose on.  I promise I won't be so long between parts!