Was I a little ambitious on jumping right in with a tarp shelter? Maybe, but I would never admit that.
—Jeff Garmire, BPR Cofounder
I had one sewing project to my name but I was ready to add a second. Simply because tigers are cool, I cut off the sleeves on a tiger face sweatshirt and hemmed them before setting the Long Trail FKT. The garment held up and I still use it to this day. That sweatshirt has more miles on it than any pair of shoes I have ever had. But taking on a DIY shelter project proved to be right about the limit of my capabilities. I have always wanted to learn to sew more than just the hem on a sweatshirt, and this was finally my chance. I chose to go with a winter tarp simply because it would be a larger shelter than tarps I have previously used, and it turned out to be lighter as well.
The package came from Ripstop by the Roll and I was immediately overwhelmed. How would I turn this folded-up piece of material into a functioning tarp? I didn’t even know how to read the stitch types on the instructions. But, after consulting my aunt and breaking down the process into manageable steps, I was ready to dive right in. Measure once and cut twice … or something like that.
The most difficult part of the process came at the beginning when the cutting occurred. The nervousness of cutting a hole right down the middle of the shelter overwhelmed every action. It reminded me of when van life friends talked about punching holes in the metal for windows. Same concept but a different shelter. Even with measuring numerous times, I still managed to make some errant snips that were modified with some small alterations to the template to make it all work together. Once I had the tarp laid out, trimmed, and ready for the real sewing it all made sense.
The process quickly fell into place and became more of a battle to position such a large piece of Dyneema around the sewing machine. I was a natural … not fast … but I quickly grasped the stitches, concepts, and reasoning behind the construction of the tarp. I was off to the races. A lot of learning was involved. The instructions looked so foreign at the start, but page by page I slowly figured out how to read the new language of DIY.
The curved edges on the bottom (called cat curves) proved to be the most difficult to correctly draw and cut but also turned out to be less important to get perfectly than the effort I put into them. In fact, each careful measurement seemed to work no matter if I was a few millimeters off. It was a good lesson in following the instructions, but also continuing to progress through them instead of painstakingly fretting over lines and curves that were fractions off, only to be hemmed later.
I sewed the whole thing together. It was trial by fire on the sewing machine. The pedal was a lot touchier than I expected and the fabric nearly flew off the table. The smooth silky, slick fabric also made it tough to hem all of the edges as I worked around the outside of the tarp. A few missed stitches occurred and I simply pulled them out and redid them.
Finally, the tarp looked like a shelter. It was the right shape and the edges were hemmed and sturdy. All that was left were the attachments and guylines. My patience with measuring was about gone, so I used a series of folds to mark the right spots for the floating guylines. After making it this far over multiple hours, I simply marked my attachments and kept going. The corners were simple and signified the final steps of the construction process. I just hoped it would work!
“I had a tarp, it looked correct, but the only way I would know is by testing it against the elements.”
In the middle of a Pacific Northwest rainstorm, I took my new shelter out into the yard and began setting it up. It was pouring. My clothes were soaking wet before I had the first guyline adjusted to the right length. But I was committed. A few minutes later the tarp was standing and a few small adjustments away from crawling inside. I fully expected the roof to leak, or some unforeseen issue with it when I crawled inside, but I was dry! The DIY project actually worked and I had a new enclosed shelter with more area than my comparable, heavier shelters. The project took longer than I thought, but it was a success.
Recommendations
—I would order the precut versions of the shelter or DIY project you are looking to make. The cutting took a lot longer than I expected and having it done by someone with experience and a large space would make it easier.
—Don’t fret about the small measurements. I didn’t realize that the hemming process would negate the fractions of inches that I was trying to adhere to on curves.
—Adjust the guylines when you have the shelter actually set up. It was hard to guess where and how to attach the guylines to the shelter until I had it set up in the backyard.
