present invention in this drawing only a portion of the graft material of a stent graft is shown and only a portion of a self expanding stent is shown fastened to it and stretched out flat as can be seen in fig5 a a self expanding stent 70 which would extend around the tubular body of a stent graft and be stitched by stitches 75 to the graft material 72 of the stent graft is shown a release wire 18 is stitched longitudinally along the graft material of the stent graft as was seen in fig1 with a stitch 18 a of the release wire being exposed to the outside of the stent graft in the region of the self expanding stent 70 a first suture thread 22 of a flexible material is passed around the release wire 18 and extended out to one side of the release wire over the struts 76 of the stent graft to pass over two or three struts and to be looped around a third or fourth strut and into the graft material 72 the suture thread 22 is then pulled tight and knotted as shown in fig5 b with a knot 78 so that the struts between the release wire 18 and the knot 78 are pulled closer together against the resilient force.