The dayshade lives!

[melaniesuzanne]

Hubbyfink and I erected the dayshade behind the neighbor's house (the land is slightly flatter) this morning so we (meaning he) could spray the shade down with Canvak. I snapped photos before the spraying began.

	Dayshade front, 6/13/09. The design on the valance is composed of two stencils: the blue curliques and the gold medallions. The curlique stencil has lotus flowers as well, but I taped over them.
	Dayshade side, 6/13/09. The poles in front are 7' and the poles in back are 6.5'. With ropes, the shade's footprint is approx 16'x16'.
	Dayshade rear, 6/13/09.

We also worked on the clothing rack by cutting down the uprights and rod to the correct lengths and staining the rod. I need to look for the appropriately sized bit to make the holes for the rod, make those holes, give everything a good sanding and then stain the uprights. At this rate, the only Pennsic project left will be painting the pavilion. Oof.

Comments

[silverstah.livejournal.com]

Oh, cuteness! I really, really need to make me one of those. They're dirt-simple, I just need to *do it*.

What did you use for your fabric? I don't have any canvas, but I have a metric butt-ton of 9 oz cotton twill - wonder if that would work, if I sprayed it with that Canvak stuff?

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

I used 7oz cotton canvas which made the construction of the fly sooooo easy (aside from the occassional sewing goof). murieldechimay (whose shade flies I based my design upon) uses cotton twill or duck for her flies, although I don't know what weight she uses. She hasn't waterproofed any of hers yet. I was under one of her flies at a very rainy Crusades a couple of years ago and we all managed to stay fairly dry.

I hope that the Canvak works. My fly is just under 150 sq feet and I purchased two gallons of Canvak from Cabelas. Most folks suggest at least one gallon per 100 square feet of material to be treated. Scott sprayed the fly this morning, let it dry for a few hours and then sprayed it again around 4pm. When we took down the fly at 9pm, it had gotten rained on. Unfortunately, I didn't think to check the grass beneath the fly to see if it was dry. If we get rained on at Storvik Novice Tourney next weekend, I'll let you know how the waterproofing did. ;)

[silverstah.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for sharing your experience. :) The fly just looks so bloody easy, and it's so much nicer than a pop-up!

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

It was really easy. I had trouble with the valance because I was being an idiot. But the rest of the assembly and finishing was a snap.

[silverstah.livejournal.com]

What kind of seam did you use to join the two long pieces together? Flat-felled?

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

Yep. I messed up the flat-fell seam on my first attempt and then I found this tutorial on Master Terafan Greydragon's site. Aside from a couple of places where my fabric bunched up, the seam looks pretty good.

I also flat-felled the valance to the roof, but that wound up looking ugly so I pulled that seam towards the inside of the shade and sewed another seam, which basically made that join look like a French seam. That had the side effect of shortening my valance's height by about three inches. D'oh! Oh well, that's what learning curves are for, right?

[silverstah.livejournal.com]

Oooh - good tutorial on the flat-felled seam, thank you!

Hee! Yep, that's what learning curves are for.

Thanks for posting this - I'm really inspired!

[valkyr8.livejournal.com]

I'm making shade flys out of 7 oz cotton/ poly twill and I don't spray them with anything. They aren't designed to keep people dry, just out of the sun. They'll keep the majority of weather off you, unless it's a downpour and then you are going to get wet.

I choose colored fabric as I have had issues with undyed plain cotton mildewing. The Canvak might help to prevent that but I haven't used it.

Your 9 oz cotton twill should work and if it is undyed, just seal it with the Canvak.

[silverstah.livejournal.com]

Awesome - thanks for sharing your experience! :) I think that might be one of my summer projects, then!