Sandy, you need to get hold of a copy of The Sail Makers Apprentice, by
Emiliano Marino..

This book will take some of the mystery out of the sail making task..

There is no doubt that you can make your sail without this book but if you
want this to be a good learning experience, with a sail that will look and
perform good and you can be proud of, then find a copy..

One of the most important factors in selecting a material for a sail that
will hold it's shape, is whether it will stretch when you set it and when
you get some wind pressure on it.. The Nylon would have been a mistake and I
hope this other material will resist the tendency to stretch.

There are two methods to getting shape in a sail. The most common with
todays low stretch sail cloth is accomplished by "broad seaming". This is a
method of controling the amount of sail cloth in each sail panel by varing
either the width of the panel or sewing a wider seam in the areas where you
want to reduce the area..

In the old days (when I sewed my first canvas sail), the sail was sewn up
flat with uniform panel and seam widths, and then you cut a curve in the
luff and foot. That was fine for canvas because the material could "set" to
the shape under pressure. Modern sail fabrics can cope with this slight bias
stretching and with wrinkle.

If you were to order a sail kit from Sail Rite, they would computer cut each
sail cloth panel to the width required, the computer would put match marks
on each panel so you would be sewing everything exactly as the computer
calculated. But then "What would you have learned"? How to measure for your
sail and how to operate your sewing machine (which I suspect you already
know).

Ask around for a copy of the book in your area or ask you public library to
get a copy.. (they often have budgets for special book orders and never know
what to the public needs)

If you in the Puget Sound area, I could loan you my copy..

Steve
s/v Good Intentions