My Tents

Greetings, I seem to have a small passion for tents that all started after spending my first camping event in a one man pup tent shared with two other people. I ran straight home to build myself a tent! 

My first tent was a Norse A-frame. I built it in AS31. It was just the right size for one and it could be put up by myself. There wasn't any terribly hard woodwork. It was some pretty straight sewing. It also left a large canvas for decorating. I found the instructions in the Known World Handbook. It was waterproofed before Thompson's changed their formula. It repels rain still to this day and narry a bug enters it!

My second tent is an eight sided round pavilion. It was finished in time for May Crown in the year 2000. 

It all started with getting more stuff so I needed more room. I started researching tents and how to make them. I eventually came across "Making a Medieval Single-Pole Pavilion" by David Kuijt, ska Dafydd ap Gwystl. This article gave me everything I needed, space, no guy lines, an easy sewing pattern and a beautiful tent that looked right. 

I started pricing out fabric and making a mock up of the tent on graph paper to save as much fabric as I could. I got my friend Dane to help make my hub and my Uncle Dieter to help me drill the hole for the spike at the top and then I started sewing, and sewing. I learned that when making this tent you want to do the decorating when the tent is still flat and not sewn together. I also learned that measure twice and cut once really means you will still have to fudge measurements eventually. I changed a couple things from the original article. I made the valance attached all the way around, I turned the pockets for the spokes so that they are hanging from the roofs vertical seams instead of the horizontal seams, and I put loops at the bottom of the walls to hold a small loop of cord for the spikes to go through. 

Here are my tent costs that I can remember: Total with tax = $301.94 Approximately

There were a few mishaps. I did waterproof the tent, at great expense, only to find that the stuff didn't really work in a two day downpour. My tent leaked like a sieve. Then because I couldn't dry it quick enough, it mildewed a bit and the color from the roof ran onto the walls. We finally got a sunny day, I laid it out and with much help we scoured and scrubbed and tried all kinds of mildew remover and soap. Much rinsing came next and finally we air dried. It looked better, but to me it still looked awful. Most of the waterproofing came off when we scrubbed. The sun has done much to remove the color stains and the tent has been tested in the rain again with not too many problems. I made a small treated canvas hat to cover the hole at the top of the tent and I stapled it to the bottom of our flag post, so it doesn't leak through that hole. I am hoping for the best but now I think I want to make another tent! Who knows..............

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