Sewing curves on ripstop? and other questions

[Coffee]

I would pin it unless you have a lot of experience with roll hems. I thought I did and messed up one pretty bad. After that I pin any seam with a radius to it. The McCats have gross gain ribbon on the edges. I like them for the strength and it hides any mistakes made.

It maybe a little late for this. But my next tarp is not going to be a true hex shape. I made my current one that way. I think it leaves too much un-useable room on the ends. Plus the width was way more than I needed. I want to measure it out next time I set the hammock up, but I am thinking something like 8 feet wide and 12 feet long. Then add some fudging with the angles and the cat cuts to make it work.

[Preacha Man]

My wife is roll hemming my cat tarp right now. When I told her about this thread she just said "I guess none of those guys have ever sewn a dress before " She is pining it all right now, and says that it is the way to go. I hope that she does her best work and not her "here it is quit nagging me work" I'll post pics later.

[Just Jeff]

Haha - when I first started sewing, my wife teased me about making her a dress. One of the first pieces of advice I got online was "Sew the dress." I guess you're the talk of all the wives in the neighborhood if you can sew a dress, b/c they say, "Well, her husband can do something useful."

Anyway, good that she's doing it for you - sounds like a nice dinner for her is in order. (Mainly so she'll do your next one, too... )

HE - I was thinking about 12x8 as well. The MacCat and JRB 8x8 are perfect for me when I'm alone, and even for me and Joker, but I'd like even more room for when all 4 of us go. Probably me and the wife under the big one, and the kids under the MacCat...but the bigger one will give us all a place to sit and eat for rainstorms and stuff.

Anyway, I'm glad this thread came up b/c it's something I've been thinking about. Not close enough to making this project to post the thread about it...so I'm glad you did!

Another question - why are the tarps with aggressive cat cuts in the middle also aggressive on the ends? Then the JRB and Speer tarps, with the less aggressive cuts, more like a rectangle. Has anyone tested a tarp that's almost rectangular, but with an aggressive cat cut in the middle section?

[Preacha Man]

Anyway, good that she's doing it for you - sounds like a nice dinner for her is in order. (Mainly so she'll do your next one, too... )

I just bought her a nice lunch, she got to open her own ketchup packets and everything . She really is doing a good job and is almost finished, I think she is kinda proud of how well her curves are coming. As long as she is proud of her sewing prowess she'll keep making them (I hope). When finished it will be 10.5' X 8.5', the 10.5' will be the ridgeline of course. Thanks for this thread, because once you said it was hard, she thought it would be no problem, and started sewing

[Coffee]

I am going less agressive with the cat cuts on the next one. I just think you lose too much coverage. Plus I want to make one that will work as a ground shelter as well.

How are the end covers working out? I like what the warbonnetbuy did with one cover. Without seeing either I am thinking 2 will allow for more hammock sag with a greater seal on the edges.

[BABO]

Try using some double stick tape. Used it on a cat tarp I made a few years ago.

[Preacha Man]

My wife finished my cat tarp, and it looks good. I would post pics but I cannot upload them, and I can't add them as attachments either . It started raining, and even though I haven't seam sealed it yet it is working great. My wife says that the trick to the sewing the roll hems on the curves is to pin it all and go slow.

[beamarshall]

Just be sure you keep all the pin holes inside the final edges of the "hem zone" -then you will not have to seal up any holes that wandered away from the edges.
just my .02 centimes, Betsy

[tight-wad]

Thanks for all the comments

My wife wants ME to fix some of the hems in some of HER dresses, etc. So, that option is not available in my household!

Warbonnet Guy posted his pix the day after I finished cutting all my fabric. His "door" looks good, and maybe I'll try that. But for a while now, I've had this idea floating around in my head about what to do. Lo and behold, Dave and Ed beat me to the punch with a demo product that has the folded ends for doors I've been thinking about. So... that's what I'm doing. I made a trial tarp using Tyvek and Tyvek tape. 2 issues: 8 tent pegs to hold it down... It's huge!, i.e. lots of fabric weight and space in the backpack... If I ever do a HE, aka Coffee, winter hike, the doors and size would be an advantage, but for my normal trips, this may be overkill, and the extra weight may kill me!

I'll finish this project and take it on a test run this spring.

A tarp is kinda like hammock length... what is the perfect size for you? Big with room? Or, just big enough to keep the rain drops off? One is good for a lot of reasons, the other is good because it minimizes weight. One is very versatile, but the other is light. One can block shifting winds, but the other packs really small. One......

Back to the thread... for darts I took my training piece and just started snipping a little at a time. I still haven't put it under the sewing machine, but maybe in a day or so I'll post a pix or two for you to comment on.

[slowhike]

i like the looks of WBG's new tarp w/ a single door on each end, but my thoughts are that i wouldn't want to be limited to pitching the tarp at the same pitch in order to use the doors.
i still like the thought of two, overlapping flaps.
i haven't made one yet, but i suggested a while back that the flaps could be tied to a point inside like WBG did w/ his.
that's a good way to put them "out of the way" when not needed.