By Signora Giovanna Theresa Battista di Firenze

Summer has come at last. SCA events have started to become more frequent on the weekends and we all know what they will finally lead up to, PENNSIC! Yes the camping season is here and for many people this is a time for great excitement, but for others it is a time for great dread. When they think of their hot and cramped Coleman dome or cabin tent, only one thought comes to their mind, "I want a Pavilion"!!!!! We've all been there. However, there is a lot to consider before we make that type of investment. Most of us do not have $800-$1000 at the ready to buy a pavilion from Panther or Tentmasters, so many of us have opted to make our own. To date, I have made four dining / shade flys and four pavilions. Needless to say, I have learned alot about what types of fabric, thread, wood, stakes, rope, designs, patterns, etc. work, and I have made my fair share of mistakes as well as discoveries. I do not consider myself an expert in any way, but I do have a fair amount of experience and I know whom to turn to when I have questions.

This is the best time of year to think about a pavilion because there is still time to put in an order to Panther or Tentmasters, and get your pavilion before Pennsic, however there is also time enough to make your own.

At the next event you attend take time to talk to the people you know who own a pavilion, keeping these questions in mind: What type/size/style pavilion do I want? What amount of space do I need? Do I tend to camp alone or bring my family/ significant other/spouse? How easy is it to set up/ take down? How does it handle varying weather conditions? Can I transport it in my vehicle? Do I have the skills to make it, or should I start saving now so I can afford to purchase it for next year? Ask people what they like and don't like about their pavilion. Ask if they would recommend the company that they got it from. If they built it themselves, would they do it again? Where did they get the materials? Don't be shy.

Start making sketches. You don't have to be Leonardo. You are just drawing squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles. For a guide, look at Panther's or Tentmasters' catalogs or their web pages. They have the rough dimensions for their tents written next to the diagram of each tent style. All you should need is some graph paper, pencil, ruler, compass (for the circles), and a calculator. The two equations that you will use the most are the Pythagorean theorem "the sum of the square of two sides of a right angled triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse" (a² + b²= c²) and 2r p (to calculate the circumference of a circle. [p = 3.1415, r = radius of the circle]. Make a good clear drawing and label all of your dimensions and look at the amount of wood you are going to need, as well as fabric.

Unless you are really good with fabric (and you should be if you are thinking about doing this), it might be a good idea to get someone to help you figure out how much yardage you are going to need. It's usually a good idea to overestimate instead of running out of a certain color and not being able to find any more. It's also a good idea to talk to someone who is good with wood/ engineering to suggest which dimensions of wood you should use to support your pavilion as well as suggest places where you can find it. You may want to take this person with you to help select the individual pieces if you are not confident in your wood picking abilities. It's also a good idea to talk to someone who has made a pavilion before; they may have suggestions for you that you didn't think about. They may also be able to offer changes or improvements to your design that will make a huge difference in the end.

You have your design, now what?

You want to sit down and seriously assess your sewing/ building skills as well as your tools. I have an old 1953 Singer that handles anything that I put through it beautifully. I sewed my first pavilion, a 10' high, 10' wide x 12' long modified Viking A frame, on my portable Kenmore with few problems. My Singer is a better choice, but my point is you don't need an industrial machine. You do want to use a strong 100% COTTON thread (buy quilting thread) and size 16-18 (leather) sewing needles. You want to use a flat felled seam when you sew your pavilion together. This is the type of seam perfect for pavilion together. This is the type of seam that you will find on the side of your jeans. It can be tricky to use, but once you get the hang of it, it's a breeze to do. For an example on how to make this stitch, try looking in the manuals that come with your sewing machine.

I usually sew a cotton webbing, that you can but at upholstery stores, over the seams that run along the tension points. I also use it to reinforce the fabric at any point where I'm putting a grommet. This will keep the fabric from ripping away from the grommet, as well as keep your tent from stretching when it is staked out. The cotton will move with your fabric when it expands and shrinks.

For these items I go to "Do it Yourself Upholstery" in St. Paul: they have a good selection, they are really helpful, and they also sell grommets, so you can get everything in one trip. They are located next to "Mill End Textiles as well.

In the past I have used a variety of fabrics when constructing my pavilions and I have found that if you want it water tight use the heavier canvas. What you want to look for is a 100% cotton fabric with good weight (at least 10 oz), little to no stretch and a tight weave! Cotton denim, and Trigger are good choices. I've used Sportweight in the past, but I've found the weave too loose to keep out the weather as effectively as the heavier fabrics have. Make sure you fabric is 100% cotton, use the burn test if unsure.

Do not get a natural undyed fabric !!! I made this mistake one year, and my pavilion and dining fly mildewed completely while they were still up at Pennsic! Upset doesn't cover what I was! If you still want to use natural undyed canvas, you must treat it! There are products out there made especially for canvas that you can buy at tent suppliers or United Stores: Camp Coat is one that I know of. Some people have used Thompson's Water Seal, and have found that it works fine. I found it left the fabric tacky and it took forever to dry and for the smell of the product to fade. I have also heard of a watersealer sold at Wal Mart called House Beautiful Watersealer. It's about half the price of Thompson's. I applied it to my pavilion by using an inexpensive plastic garden sprayer. It went on really quickly and dried rapidly. The fabric does not feel tacky, nor did it discolor the fabric. However, the water-repellant smells very strong, and I estimated it took two days for it to dissipate. In other words, don't expect to treat your pavilion and sleep in it the same night.

Despite this side effect, I suggest treating any outdoor structure, no matter what fabric you end up using. When canvas becomes wet, the fibers swell, and act as a barrier to keep the rain out. However, before the fibers become saturated, the canvas will allow moisture to pass through in the form of a fine mist. This isn't a big deal, but it can be annoying. Essentially, what you are treating against is mildew getting a hold of the fibers in your fabric. Because once it's there, you're not going to get it out, and it will eventually destroy your fabric.

You can buy fabric at tent or awning stores that is already treated. However this fabric tends to be extremely expensive!!! ($12-$15 for a yard of fabric that is 37 inches wide.) Once you start spending that amount of money, you might as well go and but a ready made pavilion. Most commercial pavilions use Sunforger for their tents. Sunforger is actually a treatment applied to a heavy cotton canvas, and not a brand. This treatment makes the canvas water resistant, mildew resistant, and fire proofed: something that is very important to think about considering the amount of open flames that are present at your typical SCA event. I've recently been directed to a web site for Hamilton Dry Goods http://www.hamiltondrygoods.com/ which sells Sunforger canvas for $3.50 - $4.00/yard for 36" wide canvas, and $5.00 - $6.00 for 58" wide canvas. This is a very good price, and I would certainly recommend them as a source. The fabric I've bought in the past is typically 60" wide and costs anywhere from $1.99-$4.99/ yard. One thing I've discovered about using 60 inch fabric is it tends to sag. To prevent this take your fabric and cut it in half lengthwise, and sew it back together with the salvage edge to the cut edge. This may sound like a lot of extra work, but it will improve the structural quality and longevity of your canvas. The fabric for the pavilion that I made in 1998 cast approximately $87. This didn't include the wood framework, stakes, rope, webbing, grommets, binding tape for the dags, plastic ground tarps, needles, and thread. All of this probably added another $80, making a grand total of $167; not bad for a 13 foot round pavilion. I attended class at Pennsic XXVII where we discussed various types of pavilions; which period they were used in, and by whom. We also discussed the types of fabrics used. Most fabrics used in period were linen, silk, hemp, wool, and leather (not really a fabric per say). I found 100% hemp fabric at S.R. Harris for $14.99/ yard, which I'm tempted to use on my next pavilion, especially when you have a 50% off coupon.

Stakes and ropes:

In order to support your pavilion, you will have to use metal stakes and good quality rope. The rope I use is the 3/8" hemp look rope you can get at most lumber stores. For my first tent, I had my friend bend an angle in the end of a 12" piece of 1/2" steel ribar to use as a stake. This worked all right for a while, but the hard angle broke off after several uses. If you have access to a torch, you can soften the steel and make a curve on the end; these last a lot longer.

Last year I decided to order a couple of dozen tent stakes from Panther, and I found the quality really good and the price reasonable.

At WWV I bought another dozen stakes from a merchant who sold iron forged items. He made them up for me that afternoon, and I am very impressed with their quality and durability.

I usually put slides on the ropes to tighten them. I buy one inch diameter hard wooden dowel, and cut it into 4 inch sections, and drill two holes through the dowel that I fish the rope through. It makes adjusting the tension on the tent a lot easier than pulling the stakes up and hammering them down over and over. A trick that I learned from Sir Tristan von Eisig is to fish the rope through the slide in such a way that the slide has less of a chance to slip. With the slide facing you and the drilled holes running north/south, you fish the rope up through the hole on the right, loop it around to the hole on the left and up through that hole.

You tie a knot on one end of the rope and a loop at the other. The loop goes over the top of the spike on your vertical supports and the length of rope before the slide goes over your stake.

Wood Supports:

Most of the structures I make don't require lumber larger than a 2" x 2" to hold it up. My Viking tent uses 4, 10' tall 2 x 4's. Originally I had the uprights made out of 2" x 6"'s that I had ripped in half, but when three of them shattered in the tornado at Lillies, I decided to upgrade.

The center pole for my round pavilion is a pressure treated 2x4. I've seen some pavilions with center poles made out of 4x4s which is a bit much in my opinion. Once again if you have any doubts about what dimension of lumber you should use, don't hesitate to ask a professional.

Some good places in the Twin Cities to get fabric for tents: S.R. Harris, Mill End Textiles, Suburban Tent and Awning INC, Harris Warehouse and Canvas Sales, Canvas Plus, and Minnesota Fabrics. Take a look in your area's Yellow Pages under Fabric or Tents for places that sell canvas. Do a lot of shopping around. I have found that businesses can be very accommodating. One supplier offered to send in any order I made with his regular order for the store so I wouldn't have to pay the fee for a special order and still get the colors I wanted.

If you don't feel up to making your own pavilion, there are many companies that sell finished pavilions. Take a look in the advertising sections in magazines for Civil War/ Revolutionary War/ Black Powder groups. A lot of them have adds for people who sell canvas. The wall tent, that is primarily used by the Civil War groups, can be researched back to Roman times; don't limit yourself

Use the World Wide Web as your guide. Panther Pavilions http://www.RenStore.com and 4 Seasons Tentmasters http://www.tentmasters.com both have web pages

Friends of mine, Steve and Deb, originally from Chicago, have a great web page dedicated to pavilions http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/sca/tents , they have a lot of links to other sites as well as great pictures (a particularly colorful round pavilion comes to mind). They camp with the Enchanted Ground at Pennsic each year, and I encourage you to go talk to them, if you have a chance, and admire their pavilion up close. Lord Joshua (Steve) also teaches the pavilion class at Pennsic each year, that I mentioned earlier.

Another great source is the A&S page on the Atlantia home page http://www.moas.atlantia.sca.org

The Complete Anachronist has a pamphlet for sale titled "Pavilions of the Known World" which I really like. Good designs and clear instructions make this a great source for beginners. I made my dining fly using the plan for the tournament gallery in this booklet.

I'm sure that I didn't cover every question you had, but I hope I provided a reference point to guide your decisions on certain products. As you can see, there is a lot to think about when undertaking this project, and we have just scratched the surface. A pavilion is a very challenging item to make, and can be frustrating and difficult. I don't want to discourage people, but I do want to be honest in letting you know that this is not easy. You should be very confident about your sewing skills as well as your sewing machine.

I will tell you that when you do complete your pavilion, it is extremely satisfying, especially when you think of the money you have saved in doing it yourself. Do plan on spending anywhere from &150 - &400, not cheap, but a lot less expensive than buying one ready made. The part I like the most is you don't have to have a white tent! Look at the illuminated manuscrits, you'll find pink, blue, gold, green, a whole rainbow of colors used for tents. People who have seen my tents will certainly attest to their "vividness".

Have fun and be creative! A roomy pavilion is worlds better than a nylon tent any day, and they add so much to the decor and character at our SCA events.

Good luck in your project!

In service,

Signora Giovanna Theresa Battista di Firenze

valkyr8@yahoo.com

She was recently recognized by Their Majesties with a Silver Oak for her skill in pavilion building, woodworking and cooking at Nordskogen's 12th night ASXXXIII.