Dennis,
unless you get a pentex cloth with fibers running like they do in the Maxx cloth and it's like (0-90,+-45 and 70 I think, it has beena while) the pentex will distort just as bad as dacron. You need fibers oriented along the load paths and in a squaretop that is hard to to with a crosscut layout. Maxx cloth is pretty well suited. The Maxx Pen09 might fit you, or something heavier. Crosscut is definately the way to go for building from scratch at home. Radial is a lot more work.
Check out Contenders website and give them a call. You might get a good deal on some Maxx for your first deal with them.
http://www.contendersailcloth.com/maxx.asp?Sid=3&SHid=530&SWid=1004Take care with Sailcut. When you e.g. add luff curve , the height of the sail will be changed. What you put in is not what comes out, but is slightly different. On a mainsail this is noticeable, but you can fix it with some creative work with scissors before you put on patches and tape along the foot. For sails that have to measure in, check all dimensions after assembling panels.
Thanks for the info on the sewing machine. As you probably guessed the budget for items like his is ever low.
I now have a secondhand Pfaff domestic machine with their walking foot solution. Picked it up for about EUR120 and it has chugged its way through 5 sails by now. It really struggles with patches and thread tension. Runs out of thread on the bobbin etc. but it works. Let me know when you begin to import the Taiwan machines.
