I see used tents for sale fairly often that are missing their rain fly’s. Specifically, free-standing, double wall tents. The thought has crossed my mind to buy them for a song, and make a new rain fly for them, but I’m guessing that’s a rather advanced thing to make?
I have not used a sewing machine before, though learning how is one of my 2026 “resolutions.” lol
The other thing is cost. For a 2-person, free-standing tent, I’m ‘guessing’ 10-yards of fabric for the rain fly, + 10 feet of zipper material. (That’s for a 50″w x 88″l x 43″h tent.) Add some thread, and that’s around $120 in materials. That’s considering some 1.1oz sil-poly material. 10-yards might be quite liberal, but for a newbie, more is better than not enough.
Considering just the material cost, suddenly, those cheap tents missing their rain-fly’s don’t sound like such a good deal anymore…
Thoughts from those with more experience? Thanks
