Lessons to learn from my first tarp — very critical criticisms to learn for/from a novice — Long

[Jordo _99]

I have plans to make a silnylon tent similar to the SMD Haven or Lunar Duo but decided I should try to make a tarp first with cheaper materials.

…well that is now done and I thought that I would post the results here in case someone is interested. For reference…tarp is roughly 92" long, 48" and 22" tall, 82" and 64" wide…with the black ground (60×100") cloth fitting quite well.

Most materials were bought from DIY Gear Supply — http://www.backwoodsdaydreamer.com/
70D PU Nylon
200D Nylon reinforcements
Gütermann Mara 70 for everything.
3/8" grossgrain (doubled/folded) for tieouts.
Linelocs and 1/8” Dyneema braided guy lines.
Fiberglass replacement (3/8”) poles from Wallmart
Grommets (7/16”) from JoAnnes

** Weights **
Tarp w/ mesh and guy lines — 36oz (34oz but still need 6 “support” tieout loops to add and 4 will have linelocs and a few feet of guy line…then attach an extension of rope if I need to use them)
Poles – 8oz — 27”, 22”, 22”, 5”
Ground Cloth – no weights yet…I have 200D PU coated nylon cut to 60” x 100” and just need to make it into a bathtub with 4-6” walls (still not sure what I want). Also have a 48” x 84” tyvek footprint to use.

** Obligatory pictures **

I’ll try and add more when I get home from work of the inside and the general sewing.

Constructive Criticisms:

First off I should say that I've very happy with how this turned out. For a 36oz tent (without poles) I accomplished all the goals I had made for the project. I wanted to gain experience/confidence to make a tent with $100 worth of material and know that I’m not just throwing away money on something that won’t even be usable. I also had not sewn in nearly 10 years and my skills and knowledge have improved drastically during the 10-15 hours that I’d spent. Also, a great lesson for me is that even though I’m feeling confident I should never try to fold hems as I go…I’ve got about 4 feet of the worst looking rolled hem you could imagine… then I went back to the “iron and pin” technique that was working well for me and it looks great.

*** I made some big mistakes with the mesh ***

– bad pattern in general due to shoddy planning (perimeter required 385 inches…I had a brain fart and forgot to subtract the extra material I left at the bottom of the front/rear triangles so I ended up having with 5" strips of almost 400" long and also had the extra 5" at the bottom of my triangles…leaving me with +150" of 5" strips. I could have easily had used 7" or 8" long mesh for the perimeter if I did the math properly and 5" doesn't give me a whole lot of airflow).

– front triangle doesn't have enough extra width to be versatile to for the different pitches I had planned ( roughly 48" x 84" and dropping the height to 32" x 100" for "storm mode" — the mesh isn't wide enough for the latter pitch and it leaves a foot wide gap at the bottom)

— the latter issue can be resolved by sewing my leftover 5" strips of mesh to the existing parts I have…but I'm not too excited about the durability and aesthetics of this.

– Didn't order enough material to fix my mistakes with extra cut patterns.

*** More stupid mistakes with pattern on the 70D nylon ***

– My front and rear beaks weren't done properly — front beak triangles were cut out of a rectangle so now I have one with the PU coating on the outside and the other with it on the inside…can be fixed by making my own coating but it would've been better to think it out properly first.
– Accidentally confused scrap triangles (red in the picture of the pattern) for the rear beak pattern after it was cut out and then found them later after I'd already sew it up. (doh!) — still works fine. Just had a bit less coverage where I don't really need it anyway.
– Both beaks have the 90 degree angle where they attach to the main body instead of at their points…this causes the beaks to point out instead of down when pitched…easily fixed if I cut off excess material and I had known this before I had attached them…I just thought I would like it better. changing those angles would also allow for a flush edge on the ground if I pitched it in "storm mode"…instead I'm left with two very thin triangles left at the corners like a very wide // instead of /___|___…
–Again…something I had considered beforehand and I decided that I would make a "rain door" that I can snap into place and just leave the tent pitched the same way…but leaves less flexibility for pitch options.

– catenary ridgeline turned out pretty good in my opinion so I'm pretty happy with that. Allows me to actually use the crappy poles I have without much force on them (in the picture the tent is far more taut than needed and the pole is starting to bow…it has very little deflection when it's properly staked/taut. Just didn't bother with more pictures after I set it up a 2nd time)

*** Other plans for this project ***

– Going to add some small loops inside the tent and have a "gear bag" that most tents have…I bring a Kindle, phone and glasses on my hikes so I definitely like a place to stow them.

– Adding snaps to the front mesh doorway to close it. Also considered velcro but I think snaps will look better and weight slightly less…have multiple snap locations for the different pitches that the pole combinations allow (27+22 normal // 27+5 for storms)

– Also thinking about adding a set of clips to the beak…so that I can pull in the sides in a bit and also have 2-foot of rope/webbing to hang clothes and pots from.

[John Donewar]

Jordan,

Dude, you totally copied my first tarp experiment!

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I still have this tarp folded up in the gear closet.

Yours looks better than mine as I did not include the catenary ridgeline in my experiment. That's why mine has all those pretty ruffles a.k.a. wrinkles. ;-)

Your tarp looks great!

I read through your post and re-lived some of the same mistakes that I've made in the past. LOL

Here are some suggestions.

Use silnylon coated on both sides. It removes right vs side wrong side completely from the equation. You'll also save weight per square yard vs the 70D PU fabric.

Silnylon 2nds and I have worked together very well up to this point and I have no complaints. 2nds saves on material costs over 1sts.

I added a waterproof zipper to the beak of my silnylon version of this same tarp to allow me to enter my shelter much more easily when pitched low to the ground.

Here's the link to the original thread concerning the zippered beak if you're interested.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=36489

Congratulations on getting into MYOG. You have now officially crossed over to the dark side and will be hopelessly hooked on sewing everything from stuff sacks to packs and quilts. There is no cure only therapy. The therapy is too make more gear. ;-)

Party On,

Newton

[James Marco]

A good job! I would suggest a slightly longer tarp and slightly wider.
The one I made is 8'11 long (plus a bit for the beaks on the front) and 8' wide. It *just* weighs 16oz. Mesh, I have found, is unnecessary except in spring. It covers an older Go-Lite Nest 2 that weighs 16oz, also. I don't have a picture of that, though.

Here is a shot of a trip into the St Regis Canoe area:

Note that I used a 3 tie out staking setup for the front, but it was not used for setting it up as a lean-too. In variable winds, I get some spray in the front, hence the three stake setup. It is plenty large enough for 2 people. Note the *found* sticks used for poles. The top center pole pocket is tripple reinforced to take that abuse. There is an inner loop for gear bag, but I usually just use my hat. The pack and Nightlite pad are under the sleeping bag. There is about 3"-6" of soft pine needles under that. I got a thunderstorm later that night and stayed dry.

[Jordo _99]

Newton,

That's hilarious that our designs are essentially the same. I swear I didn't see your tarp before I made mine. I came across the "what can we do with 5 yards of silnylon" article and decided to make something similar, but larger…sooo funny that I ended up making something so similar to yours and in the same "desert camo" color as well.

I'm definitely planning to use silnylon from here on out. It was hardly more expensive but I was concerned with how the durability would end up after some very poor sewing was done to it (and probably ripping out some of the stitching as well).

I'll likely be buying 20 yards of silnylon to use for a hammock tarp (edit, thanks Michael for catching this) and a tent. I've also got 2 yards of dyneema in the mail and some leftover 200D nylon that I'll be putting into some bike panniers and a pack or two.

James,

I agree with the sizing on the tarp. I put "tarp" in the title…but I'd consider it to be more of a tent (tarptent?) than a tarp due to the limited pitches and the added netting.

I was going to make a 10×12 or 8×10 as a bivy or net-tent to go with it but ended up thinking that it might be better to just stick to something with limited/simple pitching for now. I think I'll be happy with few pitching options for now but I'll likely end up making a full-size tarp in the future for trips where bugs aren't a problem.

Unfortunately, I'm usually camping in places of the midwest where bugs are a huge concern. (got bitten up a 2 weeks ago and I've still got a few lingering signs of the bites I got from a full day or tubing down a river with friends and then sitting around by the river when we finished)

I'm hoping to take this along with me on a trip to Utah next week and that should really help to determine how well it works and give me a better idea what to change in my next design/project.

[Daryl and Daryl]

I wouldn't worry if it looks like one person copied another or re-invented another's design.

This tarp design has been around since at least 1968 that I have observed and I consider myself to be a newcomer to the field. I'm sure many have come and gone that used the same design in canvas or animal skins long before we entered the game.

I recall some past debates, for example, on the addition of "beaks" to a flat tarp. Some even claimed to have invented the idea. I think beaks are a natural evolution in tarp making. It only takes one windy rainy night for one to come home with the idea of a beak on one or both ends of the tarp.

Party on as Newton would say.

[John Donewar]

Daryl,

+1 and then some for…

"I wouldn't worry if it looks like one person copied another or re-invented another's design".

When ever I post something I've made I quite often show the steps in pictures or spell out the instructions in a narrative style. I've learned pretty much everything that I have ever done in ultralight MYOG from this site. When I post something here it becomes everyone's. I'm in this for the experience and the enjoyment. We are hikers helping other hikers and sharing the wealth of knowledge and experience gleaned from this forum.

"Party on as Newton would say".

Indeed! ;-)

Party On,

Newton

[Michael Duke]

I would get a breathable fabric for a hammock instead of silnylon, which does not breath.

[Jordo _99]

Michael,

I have no idea why I worded it that way…I meant that I would make an asymmetrical silnylon tarp for a hammock…DIY Gear Supply carries pre-hemmed hammocks (just gather the ends and attach to supports it's finished) for around $25.

Sorry for the confusion and thanks for catching that in case someone might have misinterpreted and tried to make one with that fabric.

[Harald Hope]

Jordan, that's a really nice looking tarp / tent.

I have to warn you though, I started sewing on silnylon, and only later sewed 70d pu coated, and I was stunned at how easy the 70d is to sew compared to the sil. By the way, there's also a huge difference between different sils, there's one that is sold as 1.4 oz / yd which is actually 1.6 oz yd, has a slight pu coating on one side, it's very easy to sew compared to the true 1.4 stuff. Haven't gotten thruhiker shield yet to compare.

One issue I noted is that when sewing at faster needle speeds, silnylon starts to slip more and more, at least on my machine it did. The longer the stitch, the worse this problem got. This problem was so bad for me that I went from a 1/8" stitch length to about a 1/32 at worst on the same seam, and it was very difficult to control it. Controlling it also is an issue in terms of the bottom layer deciding that it is really going to go elsewhere than you intend, even with pins.

So sacrifice a few 5 foot or so lengths of silnylon, get some cheap seconds, and try sewing a few large panels together and see how the stitch lengths go on your specific machine, at different speeds, and how easy it is to control them as you go down the seam. The slower the needle speed, the easier it is to control the stitch length. Just cut the seam out each time for each test until you have a good feel for it, you'll not regret spending that time. Shorter seams will not show you some of the problems, like when the fabric weight of larger pieces starts to pull on the seam and wander around.

If you think hemming the 70d was tricky, wait til you try the sil. Ironing at reasonably low temps will sort of crease the sil, but not as nicely as the 70d.

I'd get a 2 yards of cheap sil, and then take your two biggest panels and try doing a real seam all the way down them to see how the material handles, that might save you a lot of grief on your final tent/tarp.

I wish I had the room to sew a tent, but I don't, will have to settle for just getting inspired by the cool stuff I see people do here for now, oh well.

[John Donewar]

I don't find it so much harder as it is different. It is definitely slicker and can slide around a lot. There are ways to control it.

What worked for me was a lot of pressure on the presser foot and about 6 or 7 stitches per inch of fabric seam.

I didn't use pins or an iron. But I did measure and mark about every foot or eighteen inches on the hemmed edges. I would roll the hem and make sure the inside edge of the hem hit the mark.

It helps a lot if you "stretch" the fabric with one hand behind the presser foot and the other holding and pinching the material on the side being sewn. It takes some time but you need to learn to let the machine advance the material as you simply follow along while holding the material taut. It takes a little practice but the learning curve is really short.

Doing some practice runs with some cheaper silnylon is a very good idea. You can play with the thread tension while practicing on the cheap stuff to get your stitches balanced.

Don't try to do overly long runs. Ten to eighteen inches is plenty. I usually work with about 12 to 14 inches at a time.

Party On,

Newton

[MFR]

Buy a walking foot. It has a feeder on top that moves the fabric at the same rate as the bottom. I picked up a universal one at Joanne's for $15, and it saved my tarp project.

I also pinned copiously, every 3 to 4 inches. It took forever, but I got relatively straight seams that way. Also worth it in my book.

[Author]

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