Stitching sails with sewing machine

[allanyed]

Thank you for posting this.  I did a quick look at lawn cloth (100% cotton) on line and it is a woven fabric which usually is terrible for model ship sails as they are so out of scale.  But, yours look really good.  Your seams and panels are right on  scale.  What size thread did you use for the points?  They look to be about the same as the bolt rope but it may be the photo.  Do you happen to know the thread count of the fabric?  

Thanks again for posting this.

Allan

 

[druxey]

That's an impressive result for using a woven material.

[wefalck]

Yes, indeed.

 

I did a little search, but 'tissu de Laon' did not turn up anything useful. Here it probably goes by the name 'batiste' or 'cambray', used for handkerchieves and the likes.

[dcicero]

I just finished a model rigged with a sail.  I used Steve Wheeler's technique from an article he published in Ships in Scale in 2004.

 

He built spectacular 1:12 boats and used 700 count cotton fabric to make the sails.  There's plenty to learn in his article, but the biggest keys for me were 1) use an embroidery stabilizer to stiffen the cloth and prevent deformation and 2) use an automotive lacquer to further stiffen it after it's been sewn.  I set my sewing machine for the finest stitch it could make, used a fine thread and the smallest needle I had.  I'm happy with the results.

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tedrobinson2000]

Hi Allan,

I got the lawn cloth on eBay from mood fabrics.  I got some white at first, but it was too starkly white, so I got some off-white ivory instead.  I considered dying the white, but was afraid that as I got deeper into the sail making (Vic has 22 sails, excluding the stuns'ls)  and needed more I wouldn't be able to match the tone.  The ivory worked out well for me.  I just checked Mood's website, and they don't list the ivory as being in stock, just 4 other colors. Other vendors may carry it, though.  Don't know the exact thread count, but it is very soft and pretty sheer. Only $10/yd on eBay, maybe cheaper elsewhere.

 

I made my own rope using Coats Quilt + thread (Camel color for running rigging, and black for standing rigging) and Chuck's Rope Rocket.  The single Quilt+  thread mics at .009".  I made many different sizes by varying the numbers of threads used, and during prototyping gave them alphabetical tags, which sort of stuck.  A was a single thread of Quilt+, B was 2 threads twisted together (.013"), C was 3 threads (.018"), D was 4 threads (.021"), E was also 4 threads (.021") but consisted of 2 B ropes, etc. In this case the E rope looked better than the D rope so D was abandoned. The reef points on the picture of the sail that I uploaded (it was the fore topsail) were done with B rope - the smallest that I could get thru the eye of a small needle. Tie a knot and inch or more from the end, pull the needle through the reef band, then tie another knot up close to the sail and trim longer than needed.  After they are all in for one reef band, I used two pieces of thin polystyrene sheet, one as a bucker and the other as a length template, to trim them to a uniform length.  The bolt rope for this particular sail was my G rope, which is .025", - 3 B's twisted together.

 

[druxey]

You are the expert reef point tamer! Looks great. Nice photo demo as well, Ted. Well done!

[allanyed]

Ted,

Thanks for the reply and photos.  The reef point method is pretty much the method I use as well.  I do wet the points with matte medium then pull to straighten them while it dries which takes a few minutes.   Well done!  

Allan