10 Steps to Sewing a Yurt

So I figured you all would be curious to see how all the pieces of a yurt go together! I included a picture below that lays out the basic structure of a yurt so you get an idea of what it is and how it's made.

I tried to make it as easy to follow as possible, but included all of the basic steps for preparing and sewing our yurt. This is just a post for the fabric and insulation, I'll include a follow up post with all the woodwork and another on the day we finally put the yurt together!

Step 1: Cutting and Taping Wall Insulation

It all begins with insulation! Using radiant heating, this thin foil will keep the yurt warm in winter and cold in the summer! The insulation comes in one continuous roll, which we then have to cut to the same size as the wall panels for the yurt. To connect all the insulation panels together, we go through and use a white tape on the white side of insulation and a tin foil reflective tape on the foil side. This allows the insulation to reflect the most radiant heat. 

It gets wrapped up at one big roll and is ready to be put up at the yurt site! The left side of the roll will be the bottom of the wall, and the right side will be the top. 

Step 2: Cutting and Taping Roof Insulation

Cutting roof insulation is a bit trickier than the wall insulation. Essentially, we need a single piece of insulation in the shape of a cone. Each roof size has different measurements, but in our case, we're making a 30' roof in a 30' yurt.. not an easy task! In order to have enough room to work, we fold the roof into quarters.

To do this, we tape together long strips of insulation and fold it so it is four layers thick. We then go through using a big PVC compass and draw out a quarter of the diameter around the roof. 

After the measurements are made and drawn out, we make one cut for the entire roof! Above you can see what a quarter of the roof looks like.
(Note: the Cut we made is only enough to make the insulation a flat circle. We make a few other measurements and cuts so that the finished insulation fits together to make a cone.)

This is what a finished roof looks like. This is actually a 18' yurt roof, because it's the only one big enough to fully open inside!

Step 3: Cutting and Sewing Wall Panels

Just like the wall insulation, we roll the fabric out and cut it so it's the height of the wall and then sew it all together so you get one long roll of fabric for the wall!

Step 4: Sewing Webbing onto Wall Panels

Once all the panels are stitched together, we go through and put a Webbing Band around the top and bottom of the wall panels. With a 30' yurt, that's about 100 feet of webbing on the top and another 100 feet of webbing on the bottom! The Webbing Band reinforces the fabric so you can connect it to the roof. 2+ hours to sew all this!

Step 5: Punching Grommets onto Wall Panels

Here's our wall panels with the Webbing Band attached. (The bottom Webbing Band is on the underside of the wall panels.) Here's Allison measuring out the location for the grommets before we punch them in!

Once the grommets are punched, we put clips in them. The picture above shows the top band of our wall. The clips will get attached to the tension cable that supports the yurt.

Step 6: Cutting Roof Fabric

To get the fabric for the roof, we adjust the measurements a bit and repeat the same process we did for the roof insulation! Here's Eli and Hal giving us a hand with the roof! 

Step 7: Prepping Bands to go around Roof

Now that we're done with the walls, we go back to the roof! After the roof circle is cut, we have to attach a few more support bands that will go around the circumference of the roof. We stretch out a long piece of fabric and fold it over until we have 8 layers so it's easier to cut!

There's three different size band widths that we cut for the roof. These get joined together to create three long bands that will go around the circumference of the circle.

Step 8: Folding and Grommiting Roof Bands

The one band gets folded and grommeted. Once the band attaches to the roof, it can be hooked to the tension cable around the yurt.

This is the grommet press that punches the grommets into the fabric. Here we are grommeting the band just as did to the wall panels.

Step 9: Sewing Roof Bands to Roof

Here's a picture where you can see the three bands attached to the edge of the roof. 

Once it's all folded over and sewn, the edge of the roof is complete! This picture actually shows the underside of the roof. The widest band acts to protect and cover the edge so you can't see the tension cable when it's all hung up! The tension cable will then weave in between the grommets and connect the roof to walls.

Step 10: Sewing Webbing to Inside Dome on Roof

Here's the middle of the roof. We cut out a circle so this is where the solar dome window will go when the yurt is built!

Sewn and the roof is finished!

That's it for the fabric and insulation! All together, it only took a couple of days to complete, and that's while we were learning the ropes! The next step will be cutting the lattice boards for the walls and the rafter beams for the roof.

It's been such a fun process to be working with great people while we get to put a little bit of time and love into building our own house! We'll keep you all updated as we continue the building process!