Tent Repair for VW Westfalia

“Hey there! This is Mike in Bothell! I just found you on Etsy. So great you’re into sailboats and VW’s. Perhaps I have a project for you! Would you be interested in  mending my old westy tent?”

I probably would have ignored the text message from an unknown contact had it not been the reference to Bothell – a suburb of Seattle that I used to brush up against. And then there were the attached pictures…

No, I’m not talking about yet another picture of a lady with certain qualities who just happens to want to ‘catch up about old times’ or to share some stock tips.  But instead a beautiful vintage VW Westfalia with a unique tent attached to it.  A holy tent. Not that kind of holy either.  Did I want to try my hand at patching the rips, tears, and holes in the tent?

Mike and I ended up talking and it was clear that the tent was beloved and that he had struck out with finding someone closer to Seattle who was willing to try patching it.  Before I knew it – the table in my workshop was covered in what looked like a small scale orange and white circus tent.

What can I say? I learned a lot about patching and mending this summer. I worked on it in between other projects as well as some paddles including a fun canoe trip in the Adirondacks.  It took a good amount of trial and error to figure out what fabric, needle size, and machine would work best for doing the repairs and eventually I settled on using the Sailrite LSZ-1 with upholstery thread and fabric sourced from the local ‘Fabrics Plus‘ store in Anacortes. (much thanks to them for helping with the color matching). And also a shout-out to Bryony for her advice on proper patching techniques!  I was also able to replace some of the snaps that had torn out (fortunately Mike had ordered a box of these as they were a design I wasn’t familiar with).

In the interest of finding the right balance between getting the job done within the timeline and budget- I went with zig zagging the borders of the backing fabric to enclose the raw edges. When there was a hole, I also zig-zagged a patch onto the hole – otherwise I darned it with the same.

In the end – I think the patches add to the character of the tent. In studying different approaches to patching I became intrigued by the trend in visible mending and ‘Sashiko Stitching’ a form of Japanese embroidery (wikipedia);  not done here, but something I hope to put into practice in the future.

I hope these repairs give Mike and his family some additional years of enjoyment with the tent.  A week after delivering the patched tent – I  was delighted to get a  text from him with the words ‘Mission successful!!’ and the picture below…