Greetings,

I currently use a Hennessy Poly Hex tarp which is nice but heavy. I would like to move to a silnylon tarp and I would like your help in sorting out two basic options: make or buy.

I've never made a tarp but I have made two quilts, both of which turned out really well despite my complete lack of sewing experience. They were quite a bit of fun, but time consuming. I plan to make at least one more quilt and a bunch of stuff sacks. You see, I bought myself this $100 sewing machine so it would be a shame to let it go to waste . . .

The Black Cat instructions call for 8 yards and i would probably get a bit more to add doors right away. At $11.45/yard at Speer (oooh, brown . . . ) that is at least $91.60 not including all the other stuff and shipping.

MacCat Deluxe $115
Jacks R Better: $109.5 (sale)
Speer Winter: $119
Warbonnet: $200.

At those prices, I'm having a hard time seeing any advantage to making my own other than for the fun of it. And lets face it, these guys have done it before and worked out the bugs. My first tarp is going to be functional but not so pretty.

I suppose that I could get 2'nd quality silnylon from OWF inc, at $5.60/yard but the fabric is not as wide (60" vs. 65"). Has anyone worked with 2'nd quality? Is it all that bad?

Thanks for your thoughts.

FreeTheWeasel