Page 02. Summer 2016. The dawning of the awning.

It took some time to save up for the work required to create vehicle access at home. We decided that this time would be well spent sorting out an awning, especially as there was more space at the farm than in our garden. Having discovered awnings small enough to fit our Viking are rare, we thought we had struck lucky with one on ebay. After driving all the way to Stoke to collect it, our first attempt at fitting showed it was much too big. A combination of my measuring and a misunderstanding with the size of the awning meant we had one several feet too long on each side. The sensible thing to do would be sell the awning and wait for a smaller one to come up; but being the resourceful people we are, we elected to alter it to make it fit. After all, as the saying goes, how hard can it be?
The plan was to remove a triangle from each side of the roof panel, thus shortening the length of the piping to match the awning rail, but keeping the full length of the sides and front in order to retain the opening sections. We were so disappointed on the first fitting, we didn't take any photos. These pictures show the awning after the first adjustments.
After the first adjustment.

Roof to side seam unpicked then pinned in new position.

Triangle shows how much roof was cut away.

Firstly, Lou unpicked all the stitching between the top and the sides. Back to the farm for a fitting, and we could see how much material needed to be removed from the top.  This was marked, and we returned home to pin it together. Another fitting at the farm to check, and we could see it taking shape but still not quite there so adjustments were made.




Back to the farm again and it was much better, but we weren’t satisfied. The puckering in the corners would mean leaks in the future, not to mention poor tension in the structure.


We worked out (thanks to Pythagoras and his hypotenuse) that some long, tapering triangles of material from the back of the roof had to be removed. More unpicking of stitches and pinning. At last, after many trips to and fro, the awning was the right size for the caravan.

Countless hours at the sewing machine later (manoeuvring the material to feed it into the machine was like wrestling with the Kraken!) and four boxes of bent pins, not to mention cut fingers and much swearing, we finally had an awning. Lou used a sewing machine purchased for £35 at Lidl, and standard sewing machine needles. Industrial equipment was not required, although she did use extra strength cotton. She tells me she used an adjustable zip foot on the machine to enable her to double stitch along the seams, and an overlock foot to prevent the seam edges from fraying.

Diagram highlighting removed sections of roof panel.



It does have an unusual trapezoid footprint, but, as stated earlier, it fits the awning rail of the Viking, and has retained its fully removable front and side panels. We will seal the seams and waterproof the fabric at a later date.






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