Tarp material

[David Morgan]

I've been having fun playing about with a cheap 1.9m x 2.9m blue tarp from B&Q but I'd like something quieter, lighter, a little wider and less... well, blue for when I actually get out to do some wild camping and was thinking of making my own from this;
www.profabrics.co.uk/shop/show_product_info.php?id=NR3S-17
sealed with this;
www.profabrics.co.uk/shop/show_product_info.php?id=TS1

Does anyone have any experience using this material, and do you think it will be suitable? Should I seal just the join between the two pieces of fabric I'll use, or the stiching round the edges as well? Is it worth adding loops, or will eyelets do? ( I can always add loops later).

And any other ideas or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks!

 

[Big John]

Hi Dave,

I've nearly finished making mine now - using 6oz pu nylon. I wouldn't say it was the best material but it was free so what can you do! I'm not sure about the material you're looking at - what weight is it? 6oz is pretty heavy, it's more of a comfort basha than a lightweight.

I've made it comfortably sized as well - 3.2m x 2.5, with a seam along the ridge as the material was 1.5m wide. I've sealed it with Gore-tex seam seal tape - £16 for 100m off eBay (sold half on to a mate) which sounds similar to the stuff you're looking at, it's iron on hot glue type. It was pretty tricky to apply and I had to be very carefull not to touch the nylon with the iron as the pu coating came off after about 2s exposure - test carefully! I bought a cheap iron from Argos (£4.50) so as not to get glue on SWMBO's nice one Hopefully the seam will be well sealed and durable - only time will tell. I didn't see any point sealing round the edges, rain's likely to come under the edge a bit anyway so the odd drip from the stitching won't make any difference.

I've gone with webbing straps rather then eyelets, on the theory that eyelets pull out. Having said that I probably will add a couple of eyelets for pegging down the edges, but I'll put these on short little straps so that if they do pull out I can unpick it and sew a new strap on. Webbing off ebay - about £10 for 100m as I remember.

I've also put webbing all round the edge, folding the nylon all the way round it so that you can't see the webbing. This is to make a nice neat hem and give it plenty of strength - might be a bit excessive but I wanted something durable.

Get a large spool of thread, again I got one off ebay, sail makers thread, it seems to be pretty good and was £3 for approx 2.5km!! Make sure it's not too thick though if you're using a domestic sewing machine. I reckon I've used at least 200m on the basha.

I reckon it's taken about 25hrs so far - measuring, cutting & sewing, just got a couple more straps to put on!

Good luck, post us some pics. I'm out under mine this weekend so hopefully I'll get a pic or two of it in use.

 

[David Morgan]

Thanks John, some good ideas there. I like the idea of the webbing reinforcing the edges, I wouldn't worry about eyelets pulling out of that! Interesting what you said about the coating coming off the nylon, maybe easier to use an uncoated fabric then waterproof it once it's all sewn and sealed? Actually I've decided to postpone making mine for a while; I found an 8x10 green pu tarp at Machine Mart which takes care of size and colour if not weight and noise, so I'll use that for a while to get a better idea of exactly what I want before spending money on making something more sophisticated... and maybe a diy deluxe bivi bag as well . PointNorth have to much interesting stuff!

Looking forward to seeing those pictures.