What sort of material shall I use please anyone for outside tent type thing?

Lizbetty

Hi everyone!

My husband has removed a wall or two and half of the roof from the garage and we now have a garage half the size with an attached seating area if you know what I mean?

I want to make a sort of covering for the top of the seating area bit to attach on with hooks in each top corner for when it's sunny or a bit drizzly, seeing as the roof's now gone.. I had wondered whether I might be able to simply cut a large square of oil cloth and put some holes in each corner, then attach some hooks to each top corner of the seating bit of the garage to fasten the oilcloth to?

It's to save us using up space having a parasol as it's a small area, and it'll be less storage space when we take the material down to store.

I'm not very good at sewing, or knowledgeable about material, so I'm not sure if oilcloth is the right stuff for the job. I'd love to buy a square of the Cath Kidston stuff and just be able to make holes/eyelets in it and put it up, but I have a sneaky feeling it might not be that easy..is oilcloth ok for outside and will it last ok if there are holes in it?

Sorry for long post, hope this makes sense?

Thanks for any ideas!
Best wishes
Lucy

Pitlanepiglet

It's very easy to put eyelets into fabric, you buy a kit (from a camping store) and just bang them in.

For fabric you could use a waxed cotton type fabric perhaps? Our local remnant shop usually has some of this, that would give you some water protection as well as shade? You would probably have to sew a couple of lengths together to get the width you want.

Or you could get some ordinary fabric (something pretty) and fabsil it - I'm not sure how effective that would be, it might be worth a try though. You could also perhaps have two pieces of fabric, one for rain and one for shade if it's easy to put it up and take down again.

I'm not entirely sure what oilcloth is?

Teria

I think oilcloth is the fabric that the better quality wipeable tablecloths are made from.
I nade something similar as a cover for my bikes, I think I used a tarpaulin - sort of a plasticy woven material? It worked quite well, except in winter the material ripped where it was so windy.

Seakay

The stuff that is usually sold as oilcloth now is actually cotton with a sort of pvc coating. As it is plastic I'm not sure how it would stand up to sunlight longterm, but it should be fine for short term use. Alternatively, you could adapt the technique used to make painted floor rugs or cloths by painting several layers of acrylic varnish onto canvas or other tough material

Softstuff

It's quite common to do that in Australia, but we use shade cloth - it's rated for sun shielding, and very strong. A piece as you describe would be a shade sail. I'd be cautious what you do use, and make sure the eyelets are strong enough - the biggest thing they have to cope with is wind.

You can buy Shade sails all ready to go even in England it would appear, there's a range of companies if you google.

Lizbetty

Aha! Thanks so much for all your replies. The shade cloth sounds just the job! It's greta to know what to google, I've never heard of shade cloth but now I have I've found it on the net in quite a few places.

I'm wondering whether to try oilcloth for light use, too, as the Cath Kidston stuff really is lovely..our garden is quite tiny and mostly taken up by chickens, so it'd be nice to pretty it up a bit.

I'll do some more googling and let everyone know if I find any bargains! Thanks again everyone!
Best wishes
Luce