Oil Cloth Tarp

[Pigman]

I have several yards of brown oil cloth.

This winter I want to make a trekking tarp.

Does anyone have any plans and advice on how they made theirs?

Size, location of loops or ties, seams on the sides, Etc....

Thanks,
Foster From Flint

 

[coloradoclyde]

op: op: I brought you some popcorn.

Is this show ever going to start?

Iv'e been wanting to make my own tarp for some time now.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Gee Uncle Pig,
It kind of makes you think tarp is a 4 letter word or something. More than 60 views but no responses. :idunno:
So what size were you planning on making and how do you plan to sew the seams?

 

[George]

OK, OK, I'll play! :haha:

I hadn't responded because what I did may not be anything like what you are thinking about. I made my own tarp/groundcloth according to what were purported to be period directions, but I can't swear to that. I don't know what you mean by 'oil cloth', but I made that, too. I bought some light canvas material, lightest I could find. It came in 4-foot width, so I bought 16 feet of it, cut it in half so I had two pieces 4' X 8'. The material had a selvedge along both long sides, so I didn't have to do anything with that to keep it from raveling. I sewed the two pieces side by side so I had a tarp 8' x 8', used what is called a flat-felled seam. Two sides had that selvedge, but the other two had been cut, so they had to be hemmed, did that with a standard hem fold and stitch. I put no loops or ties.

The end product was 8' x 8' with a seam down the middle. Since most period looms were not wider than 4 feet, I believe larger projects like blankets were commonly made of two strips sewn together.

Once it was sewn together I treated it with boiled linseed oil and iron oxide to waterproof it. It turned out well, worked well, and I used it as a ground cloth for quite some time. I usually didn't bother to hang it as a shelter, just spread it out, spread a blanket on top, lay down and folded both over me. Spent quite a few rainy nights that way, it was noisy, but kept me and all my gear dry.

I never had any complaints about it except the weight, and I stopped lugging it around several years ago. Don't sleep out much, any more, so it's not a problem. I made it more than 20 years ago and it's still in good shape, cloth is strong. Here's a recent picture.



Spence

 

[Stophel]

I've been intending to do one, myself, but haven't gotten around to it. Maybe I'll get the chance next year. Too much to do and too tired to do it.

My intention is to use some relatively lightweight linen (like 5 oz.), painted with good quality linseed oil (not hardware store), lime (to reduce the acidity of the oil and to add a bit of solids), and a burnt umber pigment (both for color, solids, and to act as a drying agent. Umbers are high in manganese, which is a catalyst for drying linseed oil). Will end up doing about like Spence's with one seam up the middle, though I'll probably make mine a little bigger. Maybe 8' x 10' (I'm larger and taller than the average 18th century man). Might put loops on each corner and maybe one in the middle of each edge.

No, such a thing is not historically accurate. I think that in the 18th century, when it rained, you had two basic options. 1. Stay inside. 2. Get wet. I don't like being wet, and today we often don't have the option of building a "squirrel's nest" or a "half face" or "lean-to" type shelter of logs and leaves and branches. So, something to keep me dry that I can pack around and that looks "old timey" and is something that at least did exist at the time (they did have oil cloth, but I doubt anyone really packed one around in the woods with them without canoes/boats and pack horses), is ok with me.

 

[George]

I think that in the 18th century, when it rained, you had two basic options. 1. Stay inside. 2. Get wet.

You may well be right about that for the people in the uncivilized parts, fringes, frontiers, but the townies had it much better. A few things referenced:

oil cloth umbrelloes, both common and patent oil cloth
common and patent oil cloth hat covers
men's oil cloth great coats
women's oil cloth capuchines [hooded cape]
oil cloth bonnets
"oil cloth sleeves which cover arms and shoulders prevents the rain"

Spence

 

[BrownBear]

Dunno when they started, but bedrolls (wool blankets folded in oil cloth) were a really common thing on horseback in the southwest.

 

[Stophel]

Cool, I had no idea something like an oil cloth greatcoat was ever available. I'll assume this is a merchant's advertisement?

Wearing a wool coat/blanket will provide a fair bit of water protection. Wool is somewhat water repellent anyway, and when it gets wet (or gets heavy with water droplets stuck to the outside surface of the wool!) you just shake it out and go on.

 

[George]

Yes, all the items except the sleeves were offered for sale, 1751 (great coat) or on runaways, 1785 (bonnet}, The sleeves were worn by a Revolutionary officer 1774. Then, of course, there is the item that the French army which came at Fort William Henry 1757 had "for every four a Kettle and Oil cloth for a Tent."

Spence

 

[Pigman]

I am thinking about a 8x8 or 10x10. As for the sewing and construction details I was hopping that I could get some assistance from you all.

Foster From Flint

 

[Stophel]

Not much to the sewing, just a lot of it. Long, straight stitches. Any seam down the center should be flat felled and double stitched. Raw edges can also be felled and single stitched, or simply hemmed with a so-called blind stitch.

For loops, I was thinking about hemp tape, about a half inch wide or so. Tape will lay flat without being bulky like rope. Well-stitched onto the underside of the tarp, and then a "patch" neatly sewn over the raw ends of the tape, and for reinforcement. :wink: