Sewing Spacesuits

Gizmodo recently posted an excerpt from Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo by Nicholas de Monchaux, and it’s got my crafty space geek heart racing. I have a bit of an obsession with spacesuits, and reading about the engineering behind them combined with delicate sewing techniques is truly fascinating.

The most valued seamstresses were those like Roberta Pilkenton, who could sew together the outer Thermal Micrometeoroid Garment’s (TMG) 17 concentric layers, with hundreds of yards of seams, without a single tool except her own guiding fingers.

This book has just moved to the top of my must-read list. Thanks, Carol!