Picture this - you just finished up a fun-filled weekend with family and friends and it is time to put your tent away. You remove your tent from the frame and are left with a have a huge pile of canvas that is definitely not going to fit back into the bag you took it out of without being rolled-up properly. Where do you start? How do you do this? Well, in this blog I am going to explain how to accomplish this.
You will want to get your canvas tent spread out on the ground with the roof facing down (in contact with the ground - almost like your tent is upside down). During this step you may want to put a spare tarp or your floor underneath your tent to keep excess dirt, leaves, or moisture off of your roof. Pull each of the four corners of the roof tight so that the entire surface area of the roof is spread out.
Once the roof is spread out, fold your walls and doors back onto the roof of the tent in the most neat and orderly way possible. This is easier said than done, so it may take a few attempts before perfecting this technique. You are trying to accomplish having only the footprint of the roof spread out on the ground with the doors and walls folded back in on the tent. Your goal here is to make everything as flat as possible.
This next step is easier with a partner: You are going to take the tent and fold it 1 time widthwise - this would be like taking a square tortilla and folding it in half. If your tent is a 14x16, you will fold it to make it 8' wide by 16' long. You will want to continue completing folds widthwise until your canvas is in the 2-3' width x 16' length range.
Once within this size range, you will want to fold your tent 1 time lengthwise, stopping about 1' short of a complete fold. You will want to stop about 1' short so that when rolling the tent up the top layer of your folded tent doesn't roll past the bottom layer and make an awkward roll. From here, you will start at the folded crease and roll towards the end. To get a tighter roll, you will want to place a good amount of your body weight on the tent to assure your tents stays compact.
Once you have reached the end of your tent your mission is complete! Tie a rope around your tent, place it in your tent bag, and you are done!