More Pavillion Progress
So, it's been a hectic two weeks, for sure - but we have made a ton more progress on both pavillions! I've been trying to log the hours that we get together to work... and just that hasn't been easy. Looks like the three of us have logged 25 hours sewing - (not counting what we've done individually) and Dave, Kevin and Garin put in 14 or so hours on wood work... Gah - I need to stop thinking about it!
Our pavillion is very close to finished. After the last post all the 'big sewing' was complete - but what remained was the finishing touches, all the miles and miles of webbing that needs to be added. Sewing webbing? WAY HARDER than sewing canvas. Groan. Course, we did start with what looks to be the toughest section -- the Cone Loops at the top of the roof. Not only is it sewing through a doubled over section of webbing, but it had to go over the rolled hem at the top. And the webbing sandwiched the canvas so you had to try and keep all layers aligned, while wrestling 20# of canvas in your lap, with this machine that really only likes to sew at about 3 inches a second. GAH!
I can happily report, none of us have managed yet to sew a finger into this project *knock on wood*! Though Rossilin did say if she didn't bleed at least once on a project it was doomed to not turn out well. So it was good that she pricked her finger on a staple last week... ;-) Staples you say? YES! The greatest tip ever on this project -- forget trying to pin this canvas together, staples all the way, man.
Anywhoo, back to the cone loops, it was for awhile taking all three of us to manage those stitches, though we did graduate to only two after awhile. The big life saver came - ironically just AFTER we'd finished the cone loops - when we found a local supplier of industrial sewing machine needles. We'd been led astray at the beginning of the project that regular needles would work. They will, to an extent. But they are definitely different. The pain and effort to wrestle with getting them loaded correctly is a real PITA, and they also broke much more frequently. So we invested in several boxes of the industrial needles... and have only broken 1 since! LOL
Just inside the valance sit some pockets, that the spokes fit into - to hold the eaves of the tent out. There is one for every spoke, which is one for every seam between panels. We have 22 panels in our tent.
And in that little loop in the webbing to the right in the above picture, goes a wooden toggle. That is what the wall loops go around to hold the walls up to the roof.
I should mention that we've had a lot of help along the way - we certainly didn't dream up this design ourselves. Rossilin has researched pavillions through the years, but we've also had a tremendous amount of help from a guy who has made a business of sewing pavillions - Friedrich. His website has a ton of info and pictures, but he also invited Dave and I down and walked us through a tent he had partially completed. It was incredibly valuable for us to see that work in progress before jumping in to our own. We took a slew of pictures - including those above of the sample pocket with toggle.
After cone loops, pockets, and wall top loops, you still need the loops at the bottom of the walls for stakes. And toggles / loops for the door closures. Sod flaps attach to the bottom of your walls and tuck under your ground cloth, and then finally, a canvas cap to fit over the loop / lacing / ring assembly at the top.
We spent a full day over there on Saturday - brought snackies and all hung out to sew, staple, press, destaple, lace, fold...
And... as of today we have everything done on our tent except the top loops and stake loops for 1 wall (there are 2 walls total) and the door toggles/loops. Oh, and the canvas cap. And the great news is that we have made a lot of progress on Rossilin's tent too - the 'big sewing' is nearly done, maybe will be done tonight. We finally figured out how to get our home sewing machine to work on the canvas -- it was a tricky tensioning thing, so I hope we haven't gotten so far on her tent that we can't do some parallel sewing in the days to come.
Oh yeah, we also still have to lace in the top ring. This ring will sit on top of our center pole - and laces to the cone loops with rope. We're expecting our rope to be here any day now. I'd started to put it in with another skein of rope we'd purchased, but it turned out to be no way near long enough -- we figure we need 22 feet of rope to lace that ring in at the top!
Still to post: the wood working days that Dave, Garin and Kevin have put in. That's coming up soon!
Our pavillion is very close to finished. After the last post all the 'big sewing' was complete - but what remained was the finishing touches, all the miles and miles of webbing that needs to be added. Sewing webbing? WAY HARDER than sewing canvas. Groan. Course, we did start with what looks to be the toughest section -- the Cone Loops at the top of the roof. Not only is it sewing through a doubled over section of webbing, but it had to go over the rolled hem at the top. And the webbing sandwiched the canvas so you had to try and keep all layers aligned, while wrestling 20# of canvas in your lap, with this machine that really only likes to sew at about 3 inches a second. GAH!
I can happily report, none of us have managed yet to sew a finger into this project *knock on wood*! Though Rossilin did say if she didn't bleed at least once on a project it was doomed to not turn out well. So it was good that she pricked her finger on a staple last week... ;-) Staples you say? YES! The greatest tip ever on this project -- forget trying to pin this canvas together, staples all the way, man.
Anywhoo, back to the cone loops, it was for awhile taking all three of us to manage those stitches, though we did graduate to only two after awhile. The big life saver came - ironically just AFTER we'd finished the cone loops - when we found a local supplier of industrial sewing machine needles. We'd been led astray at the beginning of the project that regular needles would work. They will, to an extent. But they are definitely different. The pain and effort to wrestle with getting them loaded correctly is a real PITA, and they also broke much more frequently. So we invested in several boxes of the industrial needles... and have only broken 1 since! LOL
Just inside the valance sit some pockets, that the spokes fit into - to hold the eaves of the tent out. There is one for every spoke, which is one for every seam between panels. We have 22 panels in our tent.
And in that little loop in the webbing to the right in the above picture, goes a wooden toggle. That is what the wall loops go around to hold the walls up to the roof.
I should mention that we've had a lot of help along the way - we certainly didn't dream up this design ourselves. Rossilin has researched pavillions through the years, but we've also had a tremendous amount of help from a guy who has made a business of sewing pavillions - Friedrich. His website has a ton of info and pictures, but he also invited Dave and I down and walked us through a tent he had partially completed. It was incredibly valuable for us to see that work in progress before jumping in to our own. We took a slew of pictures - including those above of the sample pocket with toggle.
After cone loops, pockets, and wall top loops, you still need the loops at the bottom of the walls for stakes. And toggles / loops for the door closures. Sod flaps attach to the bottom of your walls and tuck under your ground cloth, and then finally, a canvas cap to fit over the loop / lacing / ring assembly at the top.
We spent a full day over there on Saturday - brought snackies and all hung out to sew, staple, press, destaple, lace, fold...
And... as of today we have everything done on our tent except the top loops and stake loops for 1 wall (there are 2 walls total) and the door toggles/loops. Oh, and the canvas cap. And the great news is that we have made a lot of progress on Rossilin's tent too - the 'big sewing' is nearly done, maybe will be done tonight. We finally figured out how to get our home sewing machine to work on the canvas -- it was a tricky tensioning thing, so I hope we haven't gotten so far on her tent that we can't do some parallel sewing in the days to come.
Oh yeah, we also still have to lace in the top ring. This ring will sit on top of our center pole - and laces to the cone loops with rope. We're expecting our rope to be here any day now. I'd started to put it in with another skein of rope we'd purchased, but it turned out to be no way near long enough -- we figure we need 22 feet of rope to lace that ring in at the top!
Still to post: the wood working days that Dave, Garin and Kevin have put in. That's coming up soon!
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posted by Monica |
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