I just finished a Jardine tarp, but there probably won`t be pictures until I seam seal it in the spring. Right now it is muddy and wet most days. I started this project a long time ago, and ended up in several years of going nuts when my sewing machine, a sailmaking one that worked perfectly before all this, took a dive. I just figured it out. Only upside to this long struggle is that I learned a lot, and the problem was not with me, it was a QC problem with the sewing machine.

I started making tons of stuff sacks sewing machine covers, notions, so now I am really confident. I used to make more complex backpacking and climbing gear, but it was so long ago that I needed to relearn a lot. After making all the bags, the rest is easy. Most stuff, panniers, sleeping bags, tents, is just a bag in different form.

Most times, a well regulated home machine will do this stuff just as well as my walking foot machine, but once I started down the path, I had to solve the problem. There is a good chance that most of you would have no problems, and that your machine would sew a couple of layers of sil nylon, with ease. I am really liking making this stuff, it is a lot of bang for the buck. There is about 15 bucks of material in one of these tarps, and for some people in less buggy climes, a tarp is all they use.