Sail sewing question

I'm making a cut and resewing a new foot onto a 3/4 ounce ripstop nylon hooter (to shorten the leech and make it fit my boat better). Although I have some help via my capable wife and my father, who used to sew upholstery for a living, nylon is a new material for us. My question is whether anyone has any hints on how to hold the fold along the new foot while stitching. I'm hesitant to pin it, but was wondering if there is some kind of tape or glue that's used. Can a person iron the folds in at low heat with nylon? Or can you just carefully maintain the fold as you feed it through the sewing machine? Any input would be appreciated!

Hey, I slept through the sewing portion of home-ec in jr. high, but I've always thought that doing it myself is half the fun...

Thanks,
Kevin
Trac 14

All of the above...they make super thin double sided tape,low tack spray, and folder accessories depending on your machine, but for one project, maybe just maintain the fold by hand...

Seamstick.

Available at www.sailmakerssupply.com

Sew with V-46 thread, also available there.

How about some thin doublesided tape that you just leave in there after the sew up? No experience talking here, just a thought.

Tami is spot on, seamstick is the way to go together with V-46 thread. Another source is sailrite.com. Make sure you get the right needles as well.

Thanks for the info! I might have the thread already, but I'll check into the Seamstick.

FYI if anyone ever does this, I stumbled across some Seam Sealer (brand) in my garage for nylon tents which works great. Rather than tape, it's sort of like a glue stick for nylon with a small applicator. First trial worked very well, so I'm on to sewing tonight...

Staple it.

When you took apart the old foot, did you save the original foot tape?

You would be amazed at how much stuff we staple at the loft.

Chip Buck
www.whirlwindsails.com

Do you mean staple it to hold until sewn? Also, I didn't take apart the original foot--I just whacked that part off to create the new foot. Would I have wanted it for some reason? I'm new at this and admittedly don't know any of the tricks of the trade!