Toms Kite Building Site

building your own trickkite

The Sail

step 2: Cutting the sail, Mylar, Dacron and the fortification for the nose

step 3: Putting together and glueing the sail parts

step 4: Sewing the two halves of the sail

step 5: Glueing the two halves (at the spine)

step 6: Glueing the fortification for the stand-offs

step 7: Glueing Mylar or Ripstop as fortification

step 8: Sewing the fortification for the spine and stand-offs

step 9: Glueing and sewing of the fortification for the upper spreader

step 10: Glueing and sewing the Ripstop for the “trailing edges”

step 11: Glueing of the nose bag

step 12: Sewing of the spine tunnel

step 13: Glueing and sewing of the fortification for the central-T

step 14: Glueing of the leading edges

step 15: Marking the leading edges and the nosebag

step 16: Sewing of the leading edges and the nosebag

step 17: Inserting the leechline

step 18: Glueing and sewing of the fortification of the nose

step 19: Cutting out the space for the yoyo stoppers

step 20: The holes for tensioning the leading edges and placing the stand-offs

Step 2: Cutting the sail, Mylar, Dacron and the fortification for the nose


1. Turn the hardboard with the hard side up.

2. Lay down the Icarex or Chikara on the hardboard and prevent air bubbles or folds.


Watch Out: the fabric can't be tensioned, we don't want problems with deforming the sail.

3. Put the mould on the fabric and check if the lines on the fabric are lined-out well.



- Fix the mould on the fabric with two pieces of paper tape and cut the fabric with a soldering iron sliding against the side of the mould. Rest assured that a soldering iron of 40 watts will not set the place on fire as long as you don't hold it steady in one spot.


- First cut the sides of the mould where there is no paper tape.


Extra: By holding a metal ruler at 2mm of the paper's border, you prevent the mould from deforming or bending during the cutting.


Watch Out: pay attention to the fact that all cuts from the same mould need to have the same line-out of the lines in the fabric. The little squares need to be in the same orientation.


4. Cut a small ribbon of 800 mm long en 25 mm wide out of Mylar for the fortification of the spine. If you don't want to use Mylar, you can also use Rip stop.


5. Cut the two pieces out of Mylar for the fortification of the sail under the stand-offs. Instead of Mylar you can also use two pieces of Icarex/Chicara glued together or Dacron.



6. From a length of Dacron, cut out the fortification for the spine underneath the central-T, behind the upper spreader and the nose bag.