I really find this mind boggling. How do decide the sequence of pieces to assemble first? Also, do have to include an allowance for expansion or contraction?
Thanks for sharing all this work.
I started with an overall design for how I wanted the covered wagon to look and work, and from that worked out a plan of the fabric parts necessary for that design and how they'd have to go together to give me the end result I was looking for. Then I worked out a sewing sequence based on how all the different parts were designed to work and assemble. For example, the zipper sleeves for the bows get sewed to the main top panel using the same stitching that holds the top panel parts together, so the sleeves had to be made before sewing the top panel together. I worked through a plan for each step of the sewing, which dictated what parts had to be made first.
The design and planning process really isn't much different than the process I go through for any design and construction project, whether the material be sheet metal, wood, fiberglass, or fabric, the thought process isn't that much different, only the tools, materials and techniques differ. It's all about thinking through the design and planning the sequence. With any of my projects I typically spend more time designing and planning than actually doing the construction, and I usually only post the details of a small fraction of the design and planning work.
This material (Sunbrella acrylic) is very dimensionally stable; it doesn't shrink and stretches very little over time, so no allowance has to be made for expansion or contraction. That's one reason I went with the more expensive Sunbrella instead of the nylon Cordura fabric I was originally looking at, nylon will stretch a bit over time. (Also, Sunbrella is very UV resistant and Cordura somewhat less so).
