Homebuilt Hot Air Balloon: Nearly Complete Gores & Cutting the Parachute

This week was a fantastic week working on the balloon. I have been able to sew panels the last three days in a row! After having to tweak the tension on our double needle machine, I managed to crank out the remainder of my #3 panels. Unfortunately, I don't have my balloon diagram available at the moment so I cant use the color chart to show how far along I am. Once I get access to my computer again, Ill be sure to post the color chart.

After many seam folds, I have finished sewing together my #1&2 panels (32 of them) and my completed the remainder of my #3-4-5 panels (32 of them). All that is left is to combine my 1-2 panels to the 3-4-5 panels to create my 32 half gores! Next will be the tedious task of sewing the 32 half gores (left and right panels) into 16 gores. I am hoping to have this completed by tomorrow afternoon. More importantly, I will have finished cleaning the remainder of my load tapes and I can start sewing gore panels together.

Today while I was sewing together the balloon and recording the process via webcam my boss began creating a pattern for my parachute. This includes the custom artwork of an inlaid cherry in the center spot (not easy). I can already tell the parachute is going to come out looking fantastic. The color choices and attention to detail are phenomenal. Since I was unable to record myself sewing and her working on the parachute at the same time I had her sister (Debbie) take a lot of pictures for me. Here are just a few of the 40+ pictures she took....

Gayle cutting the center spot for the parachute