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First measuring and cutting of cloth

A project log for SoftEgg PVC + Spandex Trade Show Booth

How can my little company stand out from the crowd? How about a 20' tall spandex covered egg for a trade show booth?

t-b-trzepaczT. B. Trzepacz 04/29/2016 at 06:220 Comments

I spent a lot of time trying to find the right cloth. Rosebrand will sell nice flame retardant cloth, but it costs $26 a yard, so that seemed rather out of reach. I went to the garment district and bought nice spandex cloth for $2 a yard. But it needs to be treated with flame retardant or I can't use it at indoor trade shows.

Having acquired some cloth, the next step was to measure, cut, and pin it, a process that would prove to be quite arduous!

In order to keep a clean surface to stretch the cloth out on, I used a huge tarp I had bought as a roof for a show and hadn't used yet. Here it is stretched out in front of 23b Shop Hackerspace in Fullerton.

Measuring.

Pinning the edges using the edge of my couch as a frame.

At the end of this process, I had a 15' high, 27' long sheet of cloth.

So I tried to hang it on the frame. It begins...

And then:

Success... sort of. It actually sags quite a bit more than this picture shows. Pinning this cloth for sewing is going to be harder than I thought!

And it is awfully tight over the doorway. It is clear that I didn't give enough material in that area, and will have to add an extra panel at least a couple of feet wide.

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