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Last updated on September 4th 2007.
While this tent is very "historical" looking in concept and basic shape, this tent is being made to suit a purpose more than for historicaly accurate re-enacting. The purpose for this tent, is that it is to serve a "vendor's" booth at a Rennaisance Faire, and other similar events. The tent needs to look like something period, but also need to be accessible, and easy to browse within, as well as be firmly sealed and be able to hold up to the weather. The main point this tent fails in authenticity on is in the point that the roof is a gabled roof, a center-pole square pavilion would have made the tent a lot more historically accurate, but would have failed to be as easy to browse within. There are instances when the forementioned comprimises could serve the re-enactor best in similar situations, or in other instances, which is why I am writing this article and including this project on this web site.
First off, the colours. Originally the person this tent is being made for had wanted a two tone, teal and natural to tan coloured tent. Due to a great deal I got on canvas, some comprimises were made. I managed to get a 30 yard bolt of tan canvas (which did fit into the vision), but I found a 26 yard bolt of dark green canvas at a similarily great deal, so the vision of teal, got darkened into a dark olive green. Based on the two colours of canvas I got a really good deal on, and the discussions about how the person wanted the tent to look, I came up with four sketches (to the right) of deisngs on how the two colours could be done. Sketch number three most closely resembles what I believe was wanted based on early conversations regarding what was desired in the tent. Sketch number two is the design I most strongly recommended as far as a two-toned tent of that shape goes.
The decision wound up being to go with design concept number one. Going with this concept will cause the tent to be approximately two thirds (~66%) tan, and one third (~33%) green, which will affect my material usage, but not in a manner that will have any negative impact on the overall project. As design concept one is being used, I will most likely use all of the tan canvas, and leave me with only green canvas left for future projects. No big deal, I think I can get more of the tan canvas anyways. Or as I was staring at the image for design concept number one, I came up with an idea for a fifth design concept that closely resembles concept one, and yet uses a more even distribution of the two colours of canvas. After a review of the added design concept, the intended decided that they did indeed like concept five best. Going with design concept five will make the canvas usage close to even, perhaps at most ~40% green and ~60% tan.
The next item I needed to do before seriously beginning construction was to get a decision on the type of dagged edge that was desired for the tent. Click on the small graphic to the right hand side of this paragraph to see a full sized sketch of the 5 designs I proposed. I tried to name the styles of dagged egdes as accurately as possible, but ultimately I may have used a name that may be only meaningful to me. I also included a sixth option, which is basically any combination of the five different egde designs in alternating patterns. I'm not sure that I like any of the combinations I used as examples, although I imagine the correct combination of alternating designs could look really good.
Another major design point was to have a seperate roof section and walls. This would allow the tent to be openned fully to maximize light and ease of access, but also allow the tent to be set to various levels of closure for different levels of light/shade etc. The roof is to be one peice, and after some discussion with the intended owners of the tent, it was decided that the walls would be divided into four sections. Each section of wall would be for a corner of the tent, and not be a wall. This would allow for the opennings in the tent to be centered within a side of a wall rather than on a corner where a support pole could get in the way. I decided that hanging the walls off of a rope running the entire circumference of the tent just above the level to where the dags were to hang from. Having the rope just up a bit from the level the dags hung at, would keep the tent weather proof. I decided to have the dags hang down about 16 inches (~40 cm) from the end of the roof, and planned to have the rope at about 4 inches (~10 cm) down, providing about 12 inches (~30 cm) of overlap.
As stated in the above section, I managed to score great deals on two bolts of canvas. The first was a 30 yards (~27.4 metres) bolt of dark tan coloured 12 ounce (weight per square yard or ~340 grams per ~.9 square metres) army duck canvas. The second was a 26 yard (~23.7 metres) bolt of dark olive 12 ounce (weight per square yard or ~340 grams per ~.9 square metres) army duck canvas, although I find the "dark olive" title misleading, and would call this canvas's colour something closer to dark forest green. Normally I include links to my sources and share resource information, but as this fountain will eventually run dry, I am going to try and keep this source under wraps so that I can take as much advantage of the source as possible before the source runs out. I only anticipate using slightly more than 40 of the 56 total yards of canvas, which will hopefully leave enough to make a small geteld tent (but that will be another article).
I also used standard upholstery thread (Gutterman brand bought at the local sewing supply chain store), and lots of 5/16 openning brass grommets (from Tandy Leather Factory). I cut some 2 inch (5 cm) wide strips on a 45 degree angle out of the canvas to use as bias tape to bind and finish the edges of the dags on the tent. I used denim weight needles for the sewing machine, which I also purchased at the local sewing supply chain store. I tend to try and keep a few packages (package of 4) of these heavy weight sewing machine needles, as I invariable break quite a few needles in the process of making a tent. I beleive breaking three or four needles on this particular tent makes it a record low for broken needles in the construction of a tent for me.
I also bought and used a 72 inch metal ruler at the local hardware/building supply chain store. I would have prefered a ruler with both metric and imperial measurments (I'm more familiar with metric), but as this was purchased in the USA, my options were limited. Another item of extreme use was a Clover brand name pen style Chaco Liner. I was so happy with this style of chalk liner, I wound up purchasing two of these Clover fabric chalk liners (one in blue, one in yellow), one from JoAnn's and one from the Stitching Post. They are great, easy to use, and wonderful with straight edges or rulers, unlike the pencil style chalk liners which I find break up too easily.
I started with the roof section. I had decided in advance to have the dags be an integral part of the roof rather than sewn on. I thought this would be fast and involve less stitching and this was (as I found out) a correct assumption. First I cut out and stitched together the two ends of the roof section.
Grey Dragon Has a very good little pictoral on Flat Fell Seaming that could be of help to those who have not done that kind of seaming before.
This page from the "Sew Neau" web site has a more detailed look at flat fell seaming.
Gutterman Thread, my prime choice for thread for making tents.
JoAnn's, where I got the Clover brand name pen style Chaco Liner.