Specification and Constraints

My top five desires for my kite are to end with a kite that is bright, colorful, looks neatly sewn, functional and is a kite that couldn’t be purchased somewhere else. So far I have chosen fabric that is neon in a few different colors so my first two constraints have already been met. I have not started sewing the final kite but I have been practicing sewing scraps of the kite fabric and I have been cutting the fabric neatly using stencils and a roller cutter. Hopefully by being patient and making a clear plan before i start sewing I will end up with a sewn kite that looks professional. My next specification I will not know if it has been met until the kite has been finished but since i am following a pattern I feel like I have set myself up for success. I am hoping even if my kite doesn’t fly super swiftly it will at least be fun to fly. If the kite doesn’t end up flying I will have a cheerful wall hanging! While I haven’t looked to find a parafoil kite with dots, I did not see any kites with a pattern like mine being sold. Most of the parafoil kites only make use of striped patterns or are solid colors.

My top five constraints are time, space, sewing skills, patience and kite knowledge. The end of the semester is coming upon me quickly and although I have spent most afternoons this week working on cutting stencils and then fabric for my kite I feel like I have been slow to make a lot of progress and I have plenty of sewing left to complete. Since I have four other classes including senior design I have a very busy April ahead of me but I hope if I can’t finish the whole kite in time I will at least have the bottom finished which will look nice. For space I have been finding that the sheets of fabric I am working with start large and I am trying to keep them wrinkle free so I tend to pretty quickly use a lot of table space at the Idea Forge. Luckily there hasn’t been a table shortage but if more people were working on sewing projects we might start to run out of space. Next, I have sewn before but mostly by hand so my sewing skills while not a fresh beginner are still not super experienced. I have never have a sewing project with so much sewing involved but I am excited to actually begin and am already becoming more familiar with the sewing machines. I am finding that sewing and making an entire plan for how to complete this project has taken patience and will continue too. I think if I start to lose patience I will make more mistakes. Finally, the very last stage of completing the kite is to tie and adjust the bridle lines (the lines that connect the kite to the two flying lines). I am not too worried about tying the lines but since I do to know much about kites if what I have doesn’t work I am not sure I will be able to adjust them properly.