6.Pin the bands together. Once the second band is in place, use pins to attach it securely along its entire edge to the previous band. Make sure that all pins are 1/4 inch away from the edge of the second band, as this is where you are going to sew the two bands together.

Mark the newly added band again, 4 inches from the edge of the roof, and cut off any excess material.

7.Sew the two bands together. Carefully remove the sheet of material from the roof, and sew the pieces together with stitches as large as your sewing machine can make them and 1/4 inch away from the edge. This should also be the line that your pins follow. Pull out your pins as you come along them. Rolling up the material which is to travel through the sewing machine is a great help if you’re sewing heavy canvas. You could also place the sewing machine on a skateboard or something comparable to allow the material to lie still and the sewing machine to travel past it. The stitch you’re sewing will be hidden inside the real seam and so only serves a temporary function, which is why it can be a bit messy and have large stitches.

8.Once you have finished stitching the two bands together, go back to your roof frame, and place the material back on it, but upside-down. You can now clearly see where the overlap is greater than the 1/2 inch. Trim the material back so all along the edge, the material only has an overlap of 1/2 an inch. The cut should also be 1/4 inch away from the line you stitched earlier. Flip the material back over into its normal position and fold the seam underneath the right band, and allow the left band to fold underneath the seam. Make sure the fold is neat and as close to the original seam as possible. You should have four layers of cloth in this fold and the fold ought to be around 1/2 inch wide.

9.While you’re folding 2 inches at a time, insert pins to hold the fold in place.

Folding the seam in this manner will allow you to produce a much stronger joint, and also means that water runs off and cannot force its way through the material. As the sewing of the roof progresses, at some point, you’re going to have to switch to fold the seam underneath the left band instead. When exactly this happens depends on the width of your bands of material. If in doubt, place the material back onto the frame, and check to see which way you’d need to fold the seam to allow run-off. In any case, when the fold is complete and runs the entire length of the material, place it back on the sewing machine, and run a smaller, neater stitch along the entire length of the left edge of the fold. When finished, run a second one, parallel to the first, along the right edge of the fold. (As the fold is under the material on the right, you will have to do this by feel and observation of the left stitch. Alternatively, you can flip the canvas upside down.)

Note: As you are sewing through so many layers, if you’re using heavy material, you will need a strong sewing machine and a large supply of sharp needles. Change them regularly. Nothing will mess up the stitches more than a blunt needle.

10.Add the next band. If your bands are as wide as mine, you will find that the second band of cloth extends at least somewhat over the roof ring. If not, add a third band of cloth in the same way you added the second one. Once your bands are extended over part of the roof ring, gather any excess material in the roof ring and pin them together.

Make sure that the sewn canvas is placed over the roof frame so that the outer rounded edge overlaps the edge of the roof by the 4 inches we left earlier, and the inner rounded edge overlaps the roof ring by 2 inches. Smooth out the canvas and secure it in place with clamps if needed. Lay the next band of canvas over the right side of the roof so the left edge overlaps the existing canvas by 1/2 inch near the roof ring and more near the ends, just like when we placed the second band earlier. Clamp the band in place. When you’re happy with how it’s lying, tuck the new band underneath the previous bands, so when sewn, the water can run off. Pin the band in place and sew it together using the same method as before. Keep in mind you have to reverse the fold, so the water will run off.

11.Complete the final band. After you have sewn both joints together, place it back on the frame and pin the next band in place. Sew it together, and fit it back over the frame to make sure it fits correctly. Add more bands if necessary.

12.Cut out the roof ring. I cut my cloth to follow the inside of the roof ring. You can seam the edge, or use webbing or other strong material to reinforce the cloth.

13.Reassemble the ger frame. Now that the roof cover has mostly been finished, you can remove it from the frame, and disassemble the frame itself. If you still have daylight hours left and are happy to continue sewing, you can set up the entire frame again, starting with the walls. Place the roof cover back over the ger frame, and check that it is nicely centered. You may need to use a stick or pole to help you reach the higher parts of the roof. You will find that it probably fits a little bit differently over the frame due to slight differences in how the roof sits over the frame compared to how it sat on the ground. You’ll see that the pitch of the roof is slightly less now, though it shouldn’t impact negatively on the fit of the canvas. Make sure your roof cover is perfectly centered; use webbing or rope to tie the canvas in place.

14.Finish the roof canvas. Trim off the edge of the canvas so it only extends 4 inches beyond the roof poles.

Where the door is, you will notice that the shape of the canvas is not perfectly rounded. That’s okay. Measure the distance from the center of the door all the way around the ger back to the center of the door. In my case this is about 17 yards; for measuring purposes, add 2 feet to your total for a total of 19 yards. Using your off-cuts and leftovers, create a band the length of your calculated number. This band is going to be sewn to the roof cover so it hangs down over the top part of the wall. We want the band to be at least 1 foot wide so that there’s plenty of material to fix a rope around it, which will hold it to the frame. This band can be longer than 1 foot in width; the only limitation being the weight and bulk you’re allowing your roof cover to be. If your material is light, you can even just fix the whole wall cover to the roof cover into one big cover for the whole ger. In any case, for this example, I am going to have just a short band and keep roof and wall cover separate. Just to be sure that the width of the canvas is enough to reach from the top to the bottom of the wall, measure the height of the wall and the width of the cloth you bought. If you find that your cloth won’t quite reach the top of the wall, you’ll have to leave more material on the roof canvas, so it will overlap the wall canvas by at least 6 inches. Sew this band onto the roof canvas.