Sharpie
08-13-2009, 09:09 AM
I've had the REI camp Dome 2 tent (http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=47975297&parent_category_rn=4500457&vcat=REI_FINDERS_TENT) now for 3 years and love the tent. It's cool in hot weather and warm in cooler weather (with the door panels zipped up) It's never leaked and holds up well to moderately high winds like a champ...and the price was right. :)
My only complaint with the tent is that it did not come with a vestibule to keep wet gear in. I don't like to keep wet stuff in the tent with me so I wound up toting around a large yard bag to keep my wet stuff in when I was moto-camping on rainy days, which worked fine but, as you know, it's not fun putting on soaking wet gear in the AM.:eek:
I was thinking out loud the other day about yet, another tent purchase, when Sharpie wife interjected with "No More Tents!" :p
She said I could build a vestibule if I could find the right material. So, I started looking on the interweb for suppliers. As it turns out, there's a great supplier of outdoor materials about 30 minutes from home P^ Seattle Fabrics (http://www.seattlefabrics.com/nylons.html#poly%20ctd%20rs) has everything you could imagine for outdoor gear crafters.
Sharpie wife said that I would need about 3 yards of material that was 60inches wide so, I took a ride down there....Holy cow, they have every type of tent and outdoor material in every color you could imagine on huge rolls. The guy there helped me chose the material and thread to use.
I wound up purchasing 3 linear yards of the 1.9oz Polyurethane coated Ripstop Nylon in a grayish green color.
I had some basic requirements for an add-on vestibule-
-It had to be large enough for my motocycle gear and then some.
-It had to go on easily with clips to the tent frame.
-It had to go on with the rainfly already in place.
-It would have no seams exposed to the weather.
-Had to be accessible from the outside.
-Had to pack down small.
-Wouldn't cost more than 40 bucks.
My wife suggested making a pattern to follow from some craft paper before hacking into the material with a pair of sharp scissors. I wound up using two large white plastic garbage bags taped together held in place with some clothes pins to outline a pattern on to the plastic. This went pretty smoothly.
After I was comfortable with the shape I over layed it on the poly material and traced the shape with a pencil. Then cut a test piece of poly material with sharp scissors. It was very easy to cut however, I did notice the cut edge would start to fray overtime even though the material was coated. This meant sewing a border seam so I increased the outlined dimension by 5/8 inch on all sides to allow for end seams.
Sharpie wife offered to teach me how to use a sewing machine to get that done. Oh brother, this was going to be interesting...
Anyway, the vestibule came out great and was worth the small amount of effort and cost to add it to an already great tent.
Here are some pics of the final creation-
Clipped to tent frame w/out the rainfly in place. I crafted up some webbing loops for stake down point using 1in webbing (which I already had) with some 5/16in grommets inserted. These were hand sewed in to the fly material on both sides-
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2267
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=652
Rain fly in place and cinched down-
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=653
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2268
Center point of vestibule staked out-
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=654
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2269
I used the Sierra Designs Grip Clips (http://www.sierradesigns.com/tents.accessories.php) for the clip-on attachment points. These are great little devices to keep tent material in place when needed and come with small plastic hooks on one side. Perfect ! They are also easily adjustable too.
Half of vestibule clipped outa the way-
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=655
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2270
Grip clip at the tent side anchor point (looped para-cord around tent stake loop)
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=656
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2271
Packed down it's small-
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=657
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2272
Set up out in the wild. :)
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2273
Materials List 3 yards of 1.9 oz Polyurethane coated nylon material $22.50
1 roll of white polyester thread........................$2,00
1 bag of 4 grips clips ....................................$9.00
5 ft of 1inch wide webbing material................. $2.00
Grommet kit (Home depot)............................ $9.00
Picture of Sharpie operating a sewing machine for the first
time.............................................. ...........Priceless
.................................................. .......Total $44.50
This was actually easier to make than originally thought. Hope you enjoyed my Moto-camping craft presentation for this week...
:)
Edit: 3/21/11 to add back photos upon request.
My only complaint with the tent is that it did not come with a vestibule to keep wet gear in. I don't like to keep wet stuff in the tent with me so I wound up toting around a large yard bag to keep my wet stuff in when I was moto-camping on rainy days, which worked fine but, as you know, it's not fun putting on soaking wet gear in the AM.:eek:
I was thinking out loud the other day about yet, another tent purchase, when Sharpie wife interjected with "No More Tents!" :p
She said I could build a vestibule if I could find the right material. So, I started looking on the interweb for suppliers. As it turns out, there's a great supplier of outdoor materials about 30 minutes from home P^ Seattle Fabrics (http://www.seattlefabrics.com/nylons.html#poly%20ctd%20rs) has everything you could imagine for outdoor gear crafters.
Sharpie wife said that I would need about 3 yards of material that was 60inches wide so, I took a ride down there....Holy cow, they have every type of tent and outdoor material in every color you could imagine on huge rolls. The guy there helped me chose the material and thread to use.
I wound up purchasing 3 linear yards of the 1.9oz Polyurethane coated Ripstop Nylon in a grayish green color.
I had some basic requirements for an add-on vestibule-
-It had to be large enough for my motocycle gear and then some.
-It had to go on easily with clips to the tent frame.
-It had to go on with the rainfly already in place.
-It would have no seams exposed to the weather.
-Had to be accessible from the outside.
-Had to pack down small.
-Wouldn't cost more than 40 bucks.
My wife suggested making a pattern to follow from some craft paper before hacking into the material with a pair of sharp scissors. I wound up using two large white plastic garbage bags taped together held in place with some clothes pins to outline a pattern on to the plastic. This went pretty smoothly.
After I was comfortable with the shape I over layed it on the poly material and traced the shape with a pencil. Then cut a test piece of poly material with sharp scissors. It was very easy to cut however, I did notice the cut edge would start to fray overtime even though the material was coated. This meant sewing a border seam so I increased the outlined dimension by 5/8 inch on all sides to allow for end seams.
Sharpie wife offered to teach me how to use a sewing machine to get that done. Oh brother, this was going to be interesting...
Anyway, the vestibule came out great and was worth the small amount of effort and cost to add it to an already great tent.
Here are some pics of the final creation-
Clipped to tent frame w/out the rainfly in place. I crafted up some webbing loops for stake down point using 1in webbing (which I already had) with some 5/16in grommets inserted. These were hand sewed in to the fly material on both sides-
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2267
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=652
Rain fly in place and cinched down-
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=653
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2268
Center point of vestibule staked out-
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=654
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2269
I used the Sierra Designs Grip Clips (http://www.sierradesigns.com/tents.accessories.php) for the clip-on attachment points. These are great little devices to keep tent material in place when needed and come with small plastic hooks on one side. Perfect ! They are also easily adjustable too.
Half of vestibule clipped outa the way-
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=655
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2270
Grip clip at the tent side anchor point (looped para-cord around tent stake loop)
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=656
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2271
Packed down it's small-
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=657
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2272
Set up out in the wild. :)
http://www.motocampers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=161&pictureid=2273
Materials List 3 yards of 1.9 oz Polyurethane coated nylon material $22.50
1 roll of white polyester thread........................$2,00
1 bag of 4 grips clips ....................................$9.00
5 ft of 1inch wide webbing material................. $2.00
Grommet kit (Home depot)............................ $9.00
Picture of Sharpie operating a sewing machine for the first
time.............................................. ...........Priceless
.................................................. .......Total $44.50
This was actually easier to make than originally thought. Hope you enjoyed my Moto-camping craft presentation for this week...
:)
Edit: 3/21/11 to add back photos upon request.