My First Tarp

NOTE: I moved this over from another thread so as to not take away from that thread.

This is my first tarp. I made it over the weekend finishing it on Christmas Eve. It’s made of silver 1.1 ounce ripstop, 48” wide with DWR. Here’s my process.

1. First I sewed the 2 halves together making the ridge line.
2. Then I folded it along the ridge line and used pins all around the edges to hold the material together and laid out flat on the floor. My ridge is 11 feet. (I only put pins in areas that would be hemmed and not exposed)
3. I came in 2 feet on each edge so the long edges will be 7 feet and took measurement for the end edges. 4. Then I used the cat curve generator that I think Youngblood developed. You have to enter the length and the amount of sag. I chose 3.5" sag for the end edges and 5" sag for the long edges. (I would have preferred having wider material. When I get wider silnylon I’ll make a tarp with deeper curves which I believe will pull it a little more taut)
5. I made two templates on pieces of boards, but each template was only half of the total length of a side.
6. I laid a straight edge along the sides of the tarp from point to point and then laid the template against the straight edge at one point, marked it with a permanent marker, flipped it over to mark the other half of the curve.
7. To cut the material I put pins through both layers of material along and parallel with the marked cut lines. Keep them close the holes won't matter because you will be rolling a hem along the edges.
8. Stitch triangular reinforcements on each corner on the underside. Just sew them down across from side to side and not along the edge.
9. Roll and sew about 8-12" of hem along the edge at a time and you won't even notice that you are sewing a cat curve.
10. When I got near the corners I sewed gross grain ribbon wrapped over the edge with a loop hanging off the ends. It's the same method used on my GG 9X9 camp "Neo Tarp". Some bar tacking is used with the ribbon.

Side View http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery....php?i=280&c=4
End View http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery....php?i=281&c=4
Corner Detail http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery....php?i=282&c=4

looking good! & good instruction.
i'll go back to this later when i get ready to try a cat curve tarp.
what was the board you used for a template made of... wood, cardboard?

That's a really nice looking tarp! How does one figure the sag when using the cat curve generator?


After seeing this I am going to skip making a rectangular tarp and go for the cat. cut.

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Originally Posted by slowhike

looking good! & good instruction.
i'll go back to this later when i get ready to try a cat curve tarp.
what was the board you used for a template made of... wood, cardboard?

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The template I used was a 1X6 I had laying around but you could easily use cardboard. I drew perpendicular lines every 2 inches. From the straight edge on the template draw a line all the way at the width of your total desired sag. From that line use an engineers scale to mark the depth of sag at each interval. Use the scale edge to connect the dots and cut it out.

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Originally Posted by headchange4u

That's a really nice looking tarp! How does one figure the sag when using the cat curve generator?


After seeing this I am going to skip making a rectangular tarp and go for the cat. cut.

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On the generator program you have to input the total straight line length and the sag distance, both in inches. So, you have to determine how much sag (or curve depth) your want

:) wow,excellent job,looks pretty professional to me:cool: neo

Very good, Stoikurt !
(Where is the smiley with the applauding hands when you need one?)

This is inspiring me !:)

So, lemme see if I get this straight... the deeper the curves, the taughter the tarp?


Perkolady

Wow....looks better than mine... :o

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Originally Posted by blackbishop351

Wow....looks better than mine... :o

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It better not.:D

Looks good. A tarp is the one project that I can't get to turn out right. I have started 2 and had to give up on each one for different reasons. One of these days I will figure it out.

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Originally Posted by FanaticFringer

It better not.:D

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LOL I knew that was coming!

Don't worry...while I don't guarantee yours will be as pretty as kurt's, I DO guarantee it'll be completely functional...

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Originally Posted by Perkolady

So, lemme see if I get this straight... the deeper the curves, the taughter the tarp?


Perkolady

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I'm no expert on this but that's what I think.

Thanks, Stoikurt :)

Seems like the more I try to feed the piggy bank for all these projects I want to try, the hungrier it gets ! :rolleyes:

:) Perkolady

I just finished modifying my first tarp with a Garlington Tarp Hood as I described in post 23 http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...p?t=456&page=3.
I think it should give quite a bit of additional rain protection on the ends of a shorter tarp. It’s nothing more than 2 isosceles triangles sewn to the edge of the tarp on one edge and velcro’d together on the short edge with 2 small loops, to tie it off, at the bottom of the Velcro. The Velcro slit allows the hammock strap or rope to pass through. In better weather you just tie it up out of the way using the small strips of grosgrain ribbon. I took several shots of it today.
View 1 http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery....php?i=475&c=4
View 2 http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery....php?i=476&c=4
Corner Loops http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery....php?i=477&c=4
Tied up http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery....php?i=478&c=4
Velcro Slit http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery....php?i=479&c=4

Very cool Stoikurt! :cool:

Now that would be mighty nice to have during some nasty weather.

Great job. Thanks for posting the photos.

Perkolady

great job really pro like .

looks good. a lot like the raw way style tarp i used for quite a while, but the velcro is an improvement. that would allow you to bring the tarp down just over the hammock in really bad weather. good job.

Cool idea. There was talk on WB with adding something like this to a ground tarp. People where thinking about making them work as part of their rain gear to save weight. Might work for a pack cover too.

That looks great. May have to add those to mine.

Thanks, Guys, now I have confidence to use up the pieces I cut off the ripstop when I made the ML no-seam asym diamond tarp last week; cut two triangles off of 4 yds of 60" fabric, then split them on the perpendicular- and have matching pairs of triangles to now add back on as hoods!how efficient use of fabric is that?
(Pics may follow- If I can ever figure how to get them from my camera to my hdrive to the gallery.. haven't quite found those directions yet..)
Thanks again! Betsy

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Originally Posted by beamarshall

Thanks, Guys, now I have confidence to use up the pieces I cut off the ripstop when I made the ML no-seam asym diamond tarp last week; cut two triangles off of 4 yds of 60" fabric, then split them on the perpendicular- and have matching pairs of triangles to now add back on as hoods!how efficient use of fabric is that?
(Pics may follow- If I can ever figure how to get them from my camera to my hdrive to the gallery.. haven't quite found those directions yet..)
Thanks again! Betsy

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Good luck, let us know how it goes.