My DIY day (PLUQ and tarp pole mod)

**Mouseskowitz** · 06-01-2014, 23:20

I got my newest tread injector, 1951 Singer 201-2

, running right yesterday and wanted to put it to work today. My wife is the one that always had run them up till now, so I figured I'd give it a try.
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The first thing I did was sew up my PLUQ. I had initially done the no sew version, but after using my 20° quilt we made last fall I was not happy with the PLUQ. The problem was that it was just gathered on the ends and had no side suspension

. So, I decided to add some side channels for some shock cord. I had to run two lines on the open side and one on the folded one to create the channels. I have not sewn the ends up at this point and have a piece of shock cord running through the original hem to provide tension there. If I have too much problem with CBS I'll run some thread across the ends as well. I tacked on some 3/8" grosgrain loops on each corner to tie off the shock cord to. For the suspension I just have a single piece of shock cord tied to both corners on each end. So far on my living room hammock it's working to just put the shock cord over the end of the hammock.
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I have also been wanting to do a pole mod on my tarp for a while. I didn't really want to do any modification to the poles and fortunately they happen to be the same size as my tarp. So, I took a 6" piece of 7/8" grosgrain and folded 2" back to form a pocket, stitching it on each side. Then I sewed the pockets over my tie outs using the multiple W pattern on the 2" tab portion of the pocket. I forgot to take pictures of the pockets before putting the tarp away, but if enough people are interested I'll take some tomorrow. I think I need to find a hand crank machine for this type of short work. I ended up just hand spinning the machine for better control for this short work.

Setting the tarp up was a little bit of an adventure as the wind was a little blustery and the poles turn the tarp into a bit of a sail until it's staked down

. If anyone has suggestions on how to deal with this I'd love to hear them. Anyway, once it was staked out, the pole mod really seemed to keep the tarp from getting pushed in too much. It was still coming in some but most of that movement seemed to be coming from the shock cord in the guy lines. I'm debating on if I want to just go with hard lines when I have the poles in the tarp. Over all I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, auto porch mode even seems to work decent. We'll have to see what I think after I get to use it for a weekend.
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Auto porch mode
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Wind deflection
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**gps4** · 06-01-2014, 23:45

I'd like to see the pockets if you think about it when you have the tarp out. Also, what are the dimensions of the tarp and the poles?

Thanks in advance.

**JTsilverwolf** · 06-02-2014, 02:51

Looks good! I would suggest setting your tarp up a few times and getting a rough idea about what kind of tie out line length you need, then tie out first (a little loose) then put the poles in.

**Mouseskowitz** · 06-02-2014, 16:35

Originally Posted by gps4

I'd like to see the pockets if you think about it when you have the tarp out. Also, what are the dimensions of the tarp and the poles?

Thanks in advance.

The tarp is a 11' true hex. I'll attach the drawings. I had gotten this set of poles. So they are 132 3/4".

**Mouseskowitz** · 06-02-2014, 16:38

Originally Posted by JTsilverwolf

Looks good! I would suggest setting your tarp up a few times and getting a rough idea about what kind of tie out line length you need, then tie out first (a little loose) then put the poles in.

That's kind of the reverse of how I took it down. It seemed to make things a little more manageable.

**meisjoe** · 06-02-2014, 23:16

I don't know what is cooler, that thread injector or the tarp!!?? Great looking stuff!!

**Zilla** · 06-02-2014, 23:57

That is pretty much how i made my pockets exept i used 1 inch webbing and folded it long ways to make a long sleeve to slide the poles in, but as others have said about setting up, once you get the feel for your stake out spacing then go ahead and stake it out first then slide in your poles, it will get easier each time. nice job, looks good.

**Mouseskowitz** · 06-15-2014, 22:46

Here are some pics of the pole mod in use this weekend as well as closeups of the pole pockets. It rained last night and I was nice and dry. What little wind made it through the trees didn't seem to do anything to the tarp.