Attaching tent pole sleeves to the actual fly

[Vladimir Kucherov]

Hi guys,

I'm new here – been reading and getting inspired for some myog projects and want try my hand at creating a simple tent with pole sleeves. Now, I've searched extensively and haven't found a solid answer, so I'm sorry if it's been discussed:

I'm curious how the actual sleeve is attached to the fabric. What I really want to do is to attach the sleeve to a solid piece of fly – not at the seam. Is this at all possible? Or do you pretty much have to do them at seams?

I have the following 3 ideas on how to do it:

Method A has 2 seams with enough loose fabric to slide a pole through, but would only work on the inside – if I wanted the sleeve outside I feel like the stitch would not hold

Method B just folds the fabric, but again doesn't feel strong and seems really complicated to do well

Method C is another loop of fabric but sewn only on one side – again, just doesn't feel like it would hold very strong

I'd love to hear what you guys do for sleeves and how you sew them onto the main tent and how strong they end up being!

[Sam Farrington]

"What I really want to do is to attach the sleeve to a solid piece of fly – not at the seam. Is this at all possible?"

Well it's possible – the question is whether the needle holes and stitches put too much stress on the canopy. I think so, but I'll leave it to engineers better qualified to judge.

Would link you to Roger Caffin's outstanding sleeve attachment diagrams, but they are incorporated into a seam, so are not what you are asking about.

[Vladimir Kucherov]

I would love to see those anyway – I've seen many of his articles but not the diagrams you're talking about. Please link away!

[Miguel Arboleda]

It's much stronger if you put them in at the seams, and also doesn't introduce a weakness into the fabric.

You might want to try doing diagram "A" with the edges rolled inward, and doubling up the fabric in the stitched areas. This would protect the fabric edges, too.

Another thing you could do is do diagram "A" and run a strip of fabric on the inside (or outside) of the fly fabric, on the opposite side of sleeve. This way you'd reinforce the fly fabric and the seam of the sleeve, but it would be heavier.

I don't think Roger's diagrams are available at this time because of his commercial venture in producing his tents.

[Dustin Short]

Option B looks like a good start, only orient the seam orthogonally.

I can't add a diagram but basically the seams and sleeve would make a cross shape with the fabric faces. You could then decide if you want to topstitch the inner loose seam flat for some added security. But I'm conjecturing/logicing a lot here.

I should probably add that Option B is also impossible (maybe I'm missing something so at the very least exceedingly difficult) to sew on a machine. The way I describe would eliminate those options. Miguel's suggestion for option A of rolling the seams inward instead of out also runs into the same issue. If there is a technique that lets you do this I'd be interested to know!

I too would like to see how Roger does it!

[Miguel Arboleda]

Option A can be sewn like this. Probably the simplest of the options.

Option B can be sewn with a sewing machine like this, but it would take up quite a lot of fabric and be quite heavy.

[Roger Caffin]

I'd like to see you actually sew option B over more than a few inches.

Yes, pole sleeves are usually placed at seams for two reasons. The first is that it is much easier to do it that way. The second is because fabric stretches, and the bits of fabric on either side of a pole need to be 'shaped' to handle this. It's how you get nice taut fabric panels.

Macpac of New Zealand put the pole sleeve on the inside of the very highly rated Olympus tunnel tent – but it forms part of a full French seam. And the fabric is very 'shaped' at the seam, so the sleeve is almost unnecessary.

The seams for my tunnel tents are quite different from 'industry standard', which simply means that a lot of the industry goes along with whatever the Asian sewing company is used to doing. This is sometimes a good lesson in mediocrity. (Note that the orange tent does not have my current external poles: it was very early. The red tent has external poles.)

Cheers

[Miguel Arboleda]

I'd like to see you actually sew option B over more than a few inches.

It would be maddening! Especially with silnylon.

[Vladimir Kucherov]

Thanks for everyone's responses and suggestions. I definitely agree that all forms of option B would probably lead me to curse the sewing and give up on myog forever.

Roger, it's a shame your diagrams are no longer available, but I'm extremely excited that your commercial venture is continuing. I will probably change the design to do the sleeves at the seams – what I might end up doing is experimenting on a small piece of fabric first to see what seems to work best, because I'm still not quite visualizing how it is attached even at the seam.

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