My Dear Needleworkers and Hive Friends,

This is a project that I finished this week: nice and straightforward, very very satisfying, and a most important aspect of my outdoor adventuring…

This is the big sack that my 5m bell tent (from Soulpad) goes in. The last couple of times I have used my tent, the strap broke and the canvas has suddenly come apart – though there were already some holes in it before. It is no longer a functional sack! I had to drag my tent up and down from the car these times, without the solid sack to hold it in.

The tent is heavy: I think about 35 or 50 kg, but I don’t remember. It feels like carrying my own body weight, that’s for sure. I happened to be tidying up an old piece of canvas recently, and noted that it might be good for making a whole new sack, however the heat, the busy-ness of the wine festival, and my general overwhelm this week, made a repair preferable to a starting anew – even if the necessary repairs were quite extensive.

I began with the smaller holes patching-up. I cut some of the canvas fabric to a general size like the hole, laid it at the back (inside) of the hole to cover it generously, then sewed around the edges and across the middle of it, to hold it well in place.

making the straps stronger - this is the part that goes all the way around the sack

The larger hole was quite a challenge, as were the holes on the bottom of the sack, as the sewing machine had to have the whole bag scrunched up around the needle area, and I had to make sure not to oversew or catch other parts of the sack…

I had to reinforce a good way around the length of the straps

I reinforced the cord cavity too – the space which the old rope used to run, along the inside of the top of the sack.

the canvas border which I used for the cord...

Then onto the tie for the closing of the bag: usually I can’t quite get the tent rolled up neat enough to really sit inside of the sack – but it seemed like a nice neat way to finish the project and make it look new. I spent about a half hour, whilst chatting to Alessio, another artist here in Guardia, in my botega, on the last night of Vinalia – and the cord stretched out all lovely and cleanly new. It was from the edge of the canvas I had, so had a hem that I could incorporate into this nice strong cord.

However! The hardest part of the tent sack was the insertion of this cord for the closing: it just would not go through the cavity, which had had a thinner rope in it before. I persevered, cutting the cavity open in a couple of places to let the cord through.

Oofah: two hours later, and well after midnight, I finished the cord misadventure – with two nice neat knots at the ends of the cords. And this is it: a fully functioning – if rather dirty! - tent sack!

Okay; I decided it was too dirty, and could benefit from a nice soak and a wee touch of bleach to clear up a lot of grass, mud, paint and oil stains on it. An overnight soak in cold water and candeggina, then a short period on the washing line under the scorchio southern Italian sunshine – and the sack is complete for now.

very proud of the finished and cleaned sack!!

I cut the edges of the spare canvas carefully, to keep the greater part of it, for when I will have to make a new one. The tent is around 18 yrs old, and was not used for some (recent) years – so it has become quite tattered from both intensive use, and then being neglected. I cannot wait to get it back in its repaired sack!

Happy days to you, and I look forward to seeing what you’re all making, over on Ecency, later today. Oh, and if you'd like to see the tent in action, look at my recent posts, in which I share about my sewing trips and mystical inspiration up the mountains behind Guardia....

LoVe!

www.claregaiasophia.com