Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Got this waterproof "canvas" though I'm pretty sure it's nylon or something by the yard online and made a shelter tarp out of it. I've had it set up for a few days in my yard and we had really bad wind the other day which caused this to happen. Any ideas to repair? Picture 1 is is the material front and back, picture 5 is one of my ideas so far.
Also yes I spelled grommet wrong in haste.

Yeah, patching is probably your best option here, but personally I'd probably recommend patching it with another heavy canvas of some kind if possible, rather than leather, mainly just because leather is less resistant to the elements over time and will start to rot if you're not careful. Also, you may consider putting a heavy-duty loop on the corner instead of a grommet. I hear that setup tends to be a little more sturdy, and doesn't tear out as easily as metal grommets.

Manveruon wrote:Yeah, patching is probably your best option here, but personally I'd probably recommend patching it with another heavy canvas of some kind if possible, rather than leather, mainly just because leather is less resistant to the elements over time and will start to rot if you're not careful. Also, you may consider putting a heavy-duty loop on the corner instead of a grommet. I hear that setup tends to be a little more sturdy, and doesn't year out as easily as metal grommets.

I agree, from experience mending tents without grommets, loops on the corners works better when sown in place with thick nylon or waxed linen thread. My previous repairs have looked something like this: If you use leather you will have to keep it regularly waxed with dubbin or something similar or (like Manveruon says) it is likely to rot, and its a good idea to keep the shape curved at stress points to reduce risk of tearing. If you use fabric a rectangle is simpler because it will need hemming, unless you do what I did once and just stitch a bit of old car seatbelt material on to the tarp (not very period )
Just a thought: If the tarp is large enough can you repair the tear just by cuting it smaller and re hemming it?
Hope this helps :

I can't quite see what the tear is like from your pictures, but you might be able to put everything back where it was with a baseball stitch before patching-



Then you can reinforce it like Iodo said, or do what a lot of commercial canvas tarp manufacturers do and use a double or triple layer of cloth at the corners/tie-out points -

Great info thanks everyone! I'll get back with an update when i repair it.