Tentttttt

I didn't get any good photos of my tent when we went to Goblin Valley at the end of May, but it was in perfectly fine working order.

It's that green one in the middle.

And then about a month later I'm using it again, and the thing is basically falling apart.

You can see here how sadly saggy the canvas is. The loops that hold the canvas to the top bar are becoming unsewn from gravity. The whole thing was so loose that I had to keep pulling the canvas to the ends of the poles to try to keep it in the right shape. It was very sad.

Now, I could fix the thing... again... but I think I have learned everything I need from this one, so it's time for me to make a new one.

The changes:

♠ Light color for heat control, but not pure white to reduce brightness. Yes, people told me that the dark canvas would be too hot inside, but it wasn't until Goblin Valley that it did get toooooo hot.
♠ Same size, except door flaps bigger for more overlap.
♠ Trim with tabs on top to hold top bar (as shown above), but trim goes all the way down the sides to distribute the weight, and reinforced like crazy at the top to reduce unsewing.
♠ Loops at the center edges to loop over the cross bars to keep it stretched out.
♠ Ties on sides of poles to ties to upright poles to further help with the stretching in shape.
♠ Ties along the top inside for hanging things like lanterns, clothes that need to dry, etc.
♠ Ties along bottom side to keep the floor tarp in place.
♠ Makes bags for stakes and pins.
♠ Make the upright canopy poles stakeable at the bottoms.

I've already drafted a pattern for the new canvas that uses 12 yards of 72" wide fabric instead of 15 yards of 60" fabric. The two fabrics cost about the same, so this will be a little cheaper than last time. And I don't have to remake the poles.

This is the fabric I'm using. Same fabric as the green, but different color and size. This fabric, while heavy, has not any any problems with being weatherproof. It does smell like crayons, even 7 years later, so that will probably never go away, but it airs out well while in use. Really no problems with the fabric, only with my construction.