Sewing tarp ridgelines.

[eviscerate3]

Im working on a diy winter tarp and have the basic design down made out of 2 mil painters plastic and duct tape. I ordered 10 yards of 1.1 and a bunch of dutchgear. The tarp is going to be huge and the thought of sewing 140 inches is daunting. On another thread someone mentioned using grosgrain. How did you do yours? French felled seam or something different?

[Nift]

French felled seam, When making the 2nd seam pass the trip for me was to first carefully roll up one half of the tarp material and clamp it with binder clamps to keep it in place then it would pass through the opening on the sewing machine without binding up.

[Mrprez]

This is the way I did mine as well. Turned to be an easy way to go and everything came out looking nice. If you want to go the grosgrain route I would go with a french felled seam and then sew the grosgrain over that making sure that you get at least one set of stitches through all of the material in the french felled seam for additional strength.

[Boston]

Here's how I do my ridgelines:

My DIY Tarp


Sew the 2 pieces together with a 1/4" simple seam, then bind the edge with 1" grosgrain folded in half. Simple, easy, and quick. Leave extra off the ends to fold over and make tie out loops.

[4estTrekker]

As above, I lay the two halves together, right sides out, a sew a simple straight stitch 1/4" from the edge. I iron a crease in my grosgrain so that it's easier to manage and then bind the edge with it, leaving 5" on either side to create a loop with.

You want to be sure that you get a straight stitch along your ridge or you'll get puckers, tight spots, etc. If everything is cut and sewn straight, both halves of the tarp will pull nice and evenly along the entire ridgeline.

[Mrprez]

I wondered if that would be strong enough. Have you had your tarp set up in high winds? Are you only doing one stitch line on the grosgrain? I had though that maybe a simple fold after the first stitch line might add some strength. Overkill?

[The Old Boot]

The alternate way of making French felled seams is actually easier than you'd think once you've done them a couple of times. Real French seams where the fabric is offset or cut after the first row of stitching can be a pain. Simple method instructions are on DIYGearSupply website.

Grosgrain will absorb water where sil won't - just something to take into consideration.

[Mescudi]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought I had read somewhere that the Warbonnet style ridgeline uses a french seam (not french felled) with grosgrain over top of it. I'm sure that would definitely make the ridgeline stronger but not sure if the extra row of stitching would cause more concern for leakage. What do you guys think?

[Mrprez]

I meant to say french seams and not french felled seams.

[Redoleary]

I make mine just like THIS. I don't pin, I use barrettes to hold it together. The last tarp I made had a 17' ridge line, that's a long flat felled seam!