DIY Cuben tarp help?

[Armor Like Fire]

Hey guys viper here!

Well laity I have been attracted to he thought of a Cuban hex tarp upgrading from my silnylon 30d one.

So first of all people who have made Cuban tarps I need some help!
So I like my tarps being around 11ftx10ish, so let me see if if an explain this right.
I have made a few tarps before out of silnylon and a problem I always run into are sewing the cat cuts and making them not wrinkle up. I sew them fine just they get wrinkled up no matter how many pins I use. So a question I have is how deep do I make the cat cuts with Cuban? Or is it the same? And I dont plan on doing a whole lot of sewing on this, I wana just make the hem buy using the doubble sided tape. I wana use the doubble sided Cuban tape from zpacks would that stuff work? And if so how do I make the hems on the tarp cat cuts look nice and not have the "wrinkles" on them?

So questions summed up.
1.will the doubble sided Cuban tape from zpacks work for the ridge seam/hems?
2.how do I "hem" the cat cuts without making them all wrinkles everywhere?
Thanks a tone guys! Makes me nervous on this because it's so expensive

[Richard Tipton]

Very interested in seeing this answered! Cuben is gonna be a future project for me.

[VictoriaGuy]

And if so how do I make the hems on the tarp cat cuts look nice and not have the "wrinkles" on them?

If you are working with 'non-stretchy' materials like silnylon, hemming on a curve is always going to be difficult. I don't know anything about Cuban, but I think it is quite like plastic (?) so the problem will remain, I think.

You can see the problem by folding the edge of a sheet of paper (or sheet metal!) that's been cut in a curve - there's no escape from geometry!
As soon as you fold over that curved edge, the problem shows up.

Cutting a bunch of slits in the edge of the fabric will help 'loosen it up' to fold on a curve, but that's not something I'd want to do in gear if I could avoid it.

The wider you try to make the hem, the worse the problem.

Using lots of pinning (as you did) won't eliminate the wrinkles (nothing will) but will keep the wrinkles small vs having the 'error pile up' as you work your way along the seam.

With 'ordinary' fabrics, it's easy to stretch the fabric - especially on the bias- and you can get into a whole bunch of different problems. Fortunately, we're not tailoring, just sewing gear!

[Country Roads]

Since Cuben has essentially no stretch, maybe you could do away with the cat cut. Z-packs tarps do not use cat cuts and they seem to work well.
As for whether the cuben tape would work, email Joe at Z-packs and ask him, he will most likely answer your questions. He is a great guy to work with.

[VictoriaGuy]

Since Cuben has essentially no stretch, maybe you could do away with the cat cut.

And a straight-sided tarp works a lot better as a tent on the ground, IMO - should that ever be needed....

[KenDen]

I made mine without cat cuts. It is 11x~8.5. I used 3M F9460 double stick tape for the seam down the ridgeline and all of the tieout reinforcement points. I sewed the perimeter edges, simple fold over.

It has served me will for over two years. I find it easy to get a taught , and it stays that way.

[Cranky Bear]

If you haven't watched Sgt Rocks video on how me made his cuben tarp, I would. He gives some great advise and detail on how he did it.

[WV]

I made an 8.5' x 11' tarp also, using 3M 9460 adhesive transfer tape with 3M Primer 94. Later I was moving some tie-out points and decided to put cat-cats in the edges. I folded them once 1/4" and fastened the hems with the same tape. It was pretty easy to do. The material is more flexible than paper because it's a lot thinner. I had no problem with wrinkles. But, I don't think cat cuts are worth the trouble with cuben. Save the effort and the extra money for narrower tape and just sew a hem around the edge of the tarp. If you do want taped hems, I'd suggest getting 1/2" tape to use for the hems. You can use two strips of tape side by side to make a 1" ridgeline seam. Hint: remove one of the pieces of backing paper from the adhesive and fasten it to one of the cuben pieces. Position the other piece of cuben over the seam, in contact with the tape, and pull the second side of backing paper out from the cuben pieces without moving them. This works for the hem, too. Attach tape, fold over, and remove the second backing paper.

Another hint: if you decide to use 1/2" as described above, do at least one of the edge hems first. You'll learn from it. It's a simpler operation than pulling the backing off two parallel strips for a 1" ridge seam.

[Cranky Bear]

Oh yes and definitely check out WV's thread (and posts) on working with cuben, he too provides an amazing amount of helpful information on the subject.

Sorry I left you out WV, was not my intention!

[gmcttr]

...and a problem I always run into are sewing the cat cuts and making them not wrinkle up. I sew them fine just they get wrinkled up no matter how many pins I use....

Unless the cat cuts are very deep and/or the hem is much wider than needed, there shouldn't be much of a wrinkling problem with silnylon.

Is the problem wrinkles or consistent puckering from too high of thread tension?