Last minute question (I'm in the process of doing a myog trailstar)

To be honest, I think it’s just a tricky operation. I’d suggest gathering up the surplus material, clipping it into rolls and/or tying it into bunches to keep it out of the way. Then sewing slowly, checking carefully as you go. Easier if your machine has a free arm, which mine doesn’t :-(.

How are you using the Elastosil? Do you find it gums up the needle? I’m having reasonable luck using basting tape, but I’m always open to finding better approaches.

Elastosil is pretty easy to apply but it’s still a extra step. But I never did a flat felled seam before. This way the silnylon isn’t slipping all over the place. But I’m working now on the long seams. And with applying the the second panel on top of the first I stretches it a bit. So I have about half an inch to much fabric at the end grr.. Let’s see if I can remedy that..

What tape do you use?

Remedy to stretching fabric, I made a cardboard template for the panels so I could make the catenary curve, and it was easier for me to mark the fabric. I layed the fabric on top and used a fes small pins to fix the bottom panel. That way I could match the panels better.

It’s drying now. Later I will sew the seams. I turn the glued seam inwards so that you get a flat felled seam. That way both seams go trough 4 layers of fabric. And it will hide the small holes I made with the pins.

this probably isn’t useful, but I just sew it

mark lines on each piece of fabric that I want to sew the first row of stitches through

put maybe 5 hand stitches – both ends and in the middle.  To keep the two panels aligned

the problem is when sewing a long seam, the top piece of fabric sticks to the pressure foot so it slips a little relative to the bottom piece of fabric.  The hand stitches keep them aligned.  As I sew the row of stitches, I’ll hold the fabric at the next hand stitch and let the fabric feed through the machine

Thanks Jerry!

And when you do the mast seam that closes the tent, how do you make sure you don’t sew on to the other panels? Especially at the peak I’m guessing everything is so close to each other..

But maybe I’m just thinking to much and will be clear when I’m actually sewing theast seam ;)

That is the crux of the project, easy to screw up

Just sew the last flat felled seam through the previous flat felled seams.  You end up sewing through many layers of fabric.  With thin fabric not a big problem

Start at the bottom and sew up to the peak, then it’s easier to deal with that difficult part

Have a seam ripper in case you accidentally “capture” a layer of fabric you didn’t intend.  After doing this occasionally, I have more muscle memory to avoid repeating.

I sew a circular reinforcement at the top.  After you sew the regular seams, set the tent up.  Not really taut or in the wind so it doesn’t rip.  Then place your circular piece over the top and do a hand stitch through reinforcement and each flat felled seam.  You have to make folds in the circular piece to get it to conform to the tent.  That is, turn the circle into a cone.  Stretch the circular piece a little.

Then take tent down and sew a couple rows of stitches around the circumference of the circular piece (now a cone).

This hides the peak where it might be a bit messy, both aesthetically and strength wise.

That is a way to do it

Joost

I’m just using the basting tape from my local sewing shop – it’s unbranded.

Sticks silnylon extremely well so it’s easy to form the seam, But it gums up the needle a bit – I find it’s less of an issue if I let it cure for a couple of days before sewing.

There’s a guy on eBay UK that’s selling the same stuff as Sailrite carry – I’ll try that next.