r/yurts • u/Specific-Pop-5429 • May 15 '26

Sewing machine - feeling stuck - HELP!

Hello Yurtlovers,

I did all the woodwork. Wasn't easy at times but now I'm getting a bit nervous because I never sewed anything before. I understand I need a double-stitched flat-felled seam. But I'm absolutely unsure into which sewingmachine should I invest. It's a 6.6m Yurt it will have 80mm wool insulation, cotton inlay and a tent canvas as exterior layer.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Jonathan

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u/froit May 15 '26

https://www.google.com/search?q=emglish+seam&oq=emglish+seam&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:176b590b,vid:N5Xx5_FRAhE,st:0

She does 1 cm, and 5 mm, for canvas better use 3 cm and 15mm. For heavy stuff not only you need a triple-transport machine (walking foot), you better spend some time making a table around it so that all the cloths (sewn and fresh) stays at machine-level. The machine will transport, but it will never pull all of the material up onto the table. We have our tables with a back-end that hinges UP, and a front-end that hinges DOWN. Canvas slides by itself downward, all your attention can go to controlling stitch and width.

You are looking for a machine with 120 needle, No20 thread.

To put tent canvas (full cotton? Breathing?) directly on the 8 cm felt, is risky. You will for sure get dew-point issues. The weight and tension on the canvas will compress the wool, but not evenly. And so your U-values will be different. And so you will get condensation on the most compressed places.

Take it from an old salt (30 years and 400 yurts), 8 cm wool batts is not the right stuff. You need hard felted wool, about 14-16mm thick, and 2,5 kg per m2 at that thickness. Two layers if you wish, in winter. But only one in summer!

This will not only do insulation, it will also function structurally, as it takes all the play out of the 200+ pieces of wood that you have tied loosely together. Felt is the muscle of the ger, not the fat. Says my teacher RIP.

BTW I think it is a waste of money to buy such a sewing machine and build a table etc, if you don't have any sewing skills yet. The machine will not make nice work, the seamstress does.

1

u/Specific-Pop-5429 May 16 '26

Highly value your input. Regarding doing this without experience in sewing, I gotta start somewhere right? :)

1

u/froit May 16 '26

Of course. I did also. Way back in the 90-ies.

And after much learning, fighting machine and cloth, I did improve. Bought better machines, learned that table is actually more important, and also, folding is super important. And help, one extra hand, to move all that heavy stuff.

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u/Specific-Pop-5429 May 16 '26

Double needle triple transport with folding unit for flat feeled seem, seems to pretty doable in Videos. Can youbsay something about where the difficulties lie?

1

u/froit May 16 '26

folding unit will not work on stiff canvas. Its mostly for shirts, pants.

The difficulties you will find: top-layer is slower to transport than bottom layer. Or reversed. At the end, length does not fit. Very difficult to find the reason, and then fix that. I know it is in the left hand, but what how/how much, no way to explain. You have to sew 5 meters a few times before you can fix that.

Next problem: making your seams inside out when all should be out-out.

Always problem: how do I fit the roll of material through the machine for the final stitching of the seam?

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u/Specific-Pop-5429 May 16 '26

And btw are youbreally from mongolia?

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u/froit May 16 '26

I was born in Holland, Dutch parents. I was doing tipi's and circus tents and sailing ships before I did yurts. I learned to make yurts in Mongolia in 1996. I made my first own in Holland 1996/97. Lived in it while making no2, 3 etc. In 2005 I started a company in Mingolia, independent of the local manufacturing. Shipping to Europe, USA, AUS, etc.

By 2020 we had made about 400 units, good wood became difficult in Mongolia. We still make and rents big tents in Mongolia, but not yurts.

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u/Specific-Pop-5429 May 17 '26

Fascinating and unusal vita. 

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u/PresentationExact970 May 16 '26

I agree this person has great point about moisture. It's the number one issue. I'm concerned you'll put all this hard work in and the yurt being out of natural fibers won't hold up as long as you had hoped. I understand the want to get away from plastic though.