This is the first post in a series outlining the construction of my Kensho 2 Tent. For a full overview of the project, check out this post.
The MYOG gear tent project has begun! The start of this project has been quite delayed for various reasons, however I jumped at the opportunity to submit it as a class project so it is finally getting completed.
I’m using the Kensho 2 Tent pattern, which can be found here. I am making some minor modifications, but mostly I plan to follow the pattern. For a more indepth look at why I went with the Kensho for this project, take a look at this post. In a nutshell, I want something lighter and more durable than the tents I currently have for 1 person + both dog trips. By making my own tent, I could choose the materials that suited my needs and have a bit of fun with the fabrics.
I decided on using 1.1oz Outdoor Ink silpoly for the fly and HyperD300 (edit: due to availability, I went with Hex70 instead) for the floor (both from Ripstop By the Roll). Is that floor overkill? Maybe, but dogs can be hard on tents, and I would rather it last! I will pay the ~4oz penalty there. I waffled about using zippers and then putting a vent into the top, but can’t find the appropriate zippers at a decent price in Canada. I ended up shooting down the vent just based on complexity. With the overlapping doors the construction of a vent is harder, and I’m not planning on doing a mock-up to work out the kinks for this project. I don’t want to waste my expensive fancy fabric working those out. We will see how that goes.
I bought a very special fabric for this tent, and am very excited about it!
It is an expensive directional print, so I spent some making a 1/10th mockup of the pattern pieces and yardage to make the most of the patterning while maintaining the directional pattern’s orientation. Turns out I only need 8 yards of fabric where the pattern I am using called for 10. Whoohoo! That shaves ~$70 off the project right there.
With the materials ordered, I drafted all of the pattern pieces out onto kraft paper. I could have drafted these out directly on the fabric, however given the more complex nature of using this directionally patterned fabric I decided to make the pattern pieces so that I could lay them out. This would let me audition various layout to see how to use the most of the fabric and make the most pleasing arrangement across the pieces.
As the pattern suggested, I did decide to add 3″ cat cuts on the ground edges of the doors and roof panels. Unlike the pattern, I decided to draft them onto the pattern pieces instead of directly onto the fabric and used a cat cut generator instead of the good-old string method. I just find this easier! I used XTrekker’s cat cut generator to generate the measurements.
Now with all of my pattern pieces done, next up is to cut them all out! A task for another post…
Mountain Dog Adventures 