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sealing edge of silpoly ground cloth without doing a hem?

raisins

raisins

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Jan 17, 2019
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Hi, I'm hoping one of our gurus of textile arts can give me some guidance

I bought 3 yards of this.

dutchwaregear.com

Xenon Sil Wide Fabric | DutchWare Gear

A newly developed fabric and coming in at 75 inches wide. The first wide, waterproof polyester fabric made. Low stretch fabric with a ripstop grid. Shop now!
dutchwaregear.com dutchwaregear.com

to get a 6' x 9' piece of durable ripstop silpoly to make a ground cloth out of for camping

it has selvage (a sewing line a melty area and then some threads) on each side (selvage to selvage distance is 6 feet)

the other 2 cuts are clean cuts that they made with a hot knife

this will be a ground cloth but i want to hand sew a few webbing lashing loops on the corners and mid points of all sides and maybe the center of the tarp so that in an emergency it can also do double duty as an overhead shelter

i don't care how it looks, i just want it to stay in one piece and keep me dry

so, instead of doing 30 feet of hems around the whole perimeter, i'm thinking i can just rub some gear aid seam sealer or something similar into the edge really good and then sew my webbing on it

do you think that would work?
 
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Sewing it would probably be faster than any other method to be honest. With the right machine anyway.

You could use some seam tape and iron it on.

If you want to be very fast, duct tape or something like it folded over the edges will probably last longer than the ground cloth itself. Cheap fast and easy repair. Double or triple it up where you’re putting grommets or stale holes or whatever.

It’s mostly your pride at stake with the tape.
 
kyler1945 said:
Sewing it would probably be faster than any other method to be honest. With the right machine anyway.

You could use some seam tape and iron it on.

If you want to be very fast, duct tape or something like it folded over the edges will probably last longer than the ground cloth itself. Cheap fast and easy repair. Double or triple it up where you’re putting grommets or stale holes or whatever.

It’s mostly your pride at stake with the tape.
Click to expand...

thanks, no holes....that's why i'm sewing the webbing loops on....the holes and grommets are famous as a weak point....the survival/ultralight backpacking tarp shelter makers all make a big deal out of that one....but to buy this tarp from one of them made pretty (using same materials) would increase the price by well over $100
 
I’ve been camping floorless, and on occasion a single man tent the last five years in Colorado. Probably 50-60 nights. I use tyvek.

I think I’m about 20 bucks in, none of my gear is ripped or ever got wet. I taped together with duct tape when I needed bigger sheet.
 
Jellyfish (YouTube) is on hammockforums.net. Same person in video above. She may have some more videos that could be useful to you.
 
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