Another tent help thread

[Just Over That Ridge]

My brother-in-law and I are going to try our hand at making a basic pyramid tent with catenary curve ridgelines.

We are going to be using my grandmother’s old Singer 600E machine. I see a large number of different feet available for this machine at reasonable prices. To those of y’all that have sewing experience, are any of these feet helpful? Are there any other accessories that we should get before we start the building process? We do not want to pause the project and have to wait on things we should’ve known about in advance. Thanks guys

 

[gumbl3]

A zipper foot is a must in my opinion, makes your finished work so much better

I've read good things about walking foot for sewing Silnylon but it has to be dialed in or it's just a giant PITA

A cat cut is going to really cut into the interior space of you, not trying to steer you away from it but you way want to read up on the pros and cons of doing so

 

[gudspelr]

I agree on the zipper foot. I used a standard, regular foot for most of the stitching and the zipper foot for the long zipper. Other than that, I was set. I made my pyramid tent out of silpoly and didn’t do cat cuts. As mentioned above, there are pros and cons and it adds some complexity to the layout, cutting the panels, etc. Certainly doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do them, but depending on size and materials being used, you may or may not gain a lot with the cat cuts.

For other materials on hand, here’s what I had:
Various widths of grosgrain for reinforcement patches and stake down/guy out loops.
Plenty of thread and the right size needle
Noseeum netting for the vents
Stove jack material and Velcro if making your own or installing a pre-made one
Extra material for vent covers
Extra long zip ties to put in the edge of the vent covers to keep them open
Heavier reinforcing material for the peak

Off hand, I think that’s about all the “immediate” stuff that I can remember. After it’s done, something for a pole to pitch it and see how things are looking, stakes, some line for guy outs, and seam sealer. Good luck with the build-you’re going to love having a tent built to your needs and specs.

Jeremy

 

[Beendare]

^Agree with both Gu's above.

I use the reg foot on my Juki....the walking foot is super noisy....works....but once you get the feel for tensioning the fabric by hand the reg foot works as well for me, YMMV.

The cat cut is supposed to help with panel and fabric tension. I suppose it will...if you do it right. I get plenty of tension on my tipi with a straight seam....and like the steeper walls.

 

[Just Over That Ridge]

Thanks all. Our current plan is a 10’ x 10’ footprint with 6’ peak height. With the stretch of the silnylon and larger footprint, that is why we are planning some minor deflection cat cuts, around 2.75” deflection.

We are using 30D silnylon, Gutermann Mara 70 thread, and 90/14 universal needle. The plan is to use grosgrain for stake loops at the bottom of the tent and sew silnylon triangles into the felled seams of the mid panel and ridgelines to guy it out. Cordura for peak reinforcement.

For zipper sizing, is a #8 adequate or should we size up to a #10?

Thanks again. I really appreciate the info from folks more experienced than us. We are both pretty obsessive about researching projects and want to make sure we get it right the first time.

 

[gudspelr]

I’d have to go back and look, but I think I did a #8 zipper... I did 2 pulls so I could unzip it from the top to help vent as well as unzip from the bottom. I clipped off the metal pulls and used some lightweight strong string instead. On a side note, I thought I was going to do a zipper flap/cover but got some suggestions that it wasn’t necessary. I didn’t add one and I’m glad. One less thing to get the zipper stuck on and with careful sewing and seam sealing any exposed zipper tape, you’d really have to work to get any water through the zipper teeth into your tent. Also, I realized part way through the build that I hadn’t settled on a method for zipper stops (to keep the pulls from running off the bottom end). Here are a few different ways to do it, I chose to look up and buy some metal ones that basically clamp onto the zipper teeth that the pull runs into.

As for a design suggestion, I’ll tell you what didn’t work for me. I originally sewed reinforcement and guy out loops between the center seam of the wall and the corner seam. So I had 2 guy out points per wall and it was basically split in thirds by the loops (hope that makes sense). When I tried it out in the back yard, I was pretty disappointed. Much any tension outward simply caused the corners of the tent to be pulled inward...it sucked. I went back and put guy outs on the corners themselves and it was a much better set up. If I was doing it over again, I’d put them on the corner seams and then one loop on the center seam of the walls just to help pull the wall out a bit but also provide the extra bit of tension in the wind.


Jeremy