Thursday, April 19, 2007

Everyone is getting "in tents"

Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

This is my spoked oval, which is still going strong and still being lovely. I'm still happy with it, which is not too bad.
Soon I will be camping in it at Lilies and WW. Can't wait!






I have 5 friends who are getting period tentage this year. One couple already has a large marquee, but they want a pair of wedge tents and a shade fly and I am going to start sewing them this weekend. I get paid and everything so it works out great for me. Yay!



This is the rough size and shape of the tents I am making. I wrote the pattern and sewing instructions for this tent specifically for people who wanted a period tent but thought they were too complex to make, too hard to transport and too expensive. The tent uses 23-25 yards of canvas and the entire cost including wood, hardware, rope, canvas, grommets, thread, ties, and webbing is $165. You are on your own for stakes and a ground cloth, but with a wedge you can get away with the longer modern metal stakes just fine. The whole thing can be put up by one person (except for raising the ridge) in 20 minutes, about the same time as a modern tent. It measures 8' high, almost 10' long and 8' wide. The 2 I am making will be wider, at 10', so they will use more fabric and a different door design.

My other 3 friends are making spoked round pavilions and I think are doing their own sewing, but I probably will get them started and get the measurements for them, etc. We will start cutting them out on Monday. Although we will need to take a break for Heros. I'm just saying.

At least 3 other people I know ordered canvas tents this year so I am excited to see the spread of canvas in Northshield!

3 comments:

Constanza said...

Way to go! More canvas tents are always good!

Anonymous said...

I love your tent! We're hoping to pain ours to decorate it a bit. Do you know if there's any difference in what you have to do to paint on sunforger vs regular canvas? I have some random sunforger laying around and I was hoping to paint on it for various projects.

It is so nice to see more period tents at events now. Gulf War was just awash with them this year and it looked really nice!

Liz said...

Sunforger is very easy to paint since the paint stays on the surface of the fabric because of the treatment. It is easy to mask it and get crisp lines, or use stencils.

With regular canvas the paint can spread if it is too wet. I would pick up some books on painting floor cloths and lay down a solid base of gesso (diluted latex base)before adding decoration.