I haven't found specific instructions about edging shade cloth, and assumed this was because it's totally straight forward. I have an industrial, needle-feed, straight-stitch machine, and though I've never used it for something like this, I figured it could handle stitching through a couple layers of nylon and shade cloth no problem. I'm willing to spend the hours binding and sewing, and BF is prepared to grommet a million grommets, since our previous tarp setup required a decent amount of elbow grease with one of those hardcore grommet thingies.
This morning I was reading yet more shade cloth threads, and in one someone mentioned how difficult it is to edge shade cloth yourself, or find anyone who will do it, or even a machine that can do it. Now I'm full of doubt! Well, just a little. Enough that I wanted to run this by ePlaya, because someone has had to have done this before, or seen it done, or heard tales... So: is this something we could reasonably handle with an industrial machine? Would this take many more hours than I'm imagining? We would have two 30x12 panels and one 20x12, and I'm thinking that could be done in a day, assuming the machine is actually happy doing this. Am I nuts?
A compromise would be to use a FIGJAM method I read in one of these threads, which was to fold the edge over a cord and then use a plastic gripper clip. Certainly easier, but I still wonder about longevity of cloth that's not "properly" edged. But then I wonder: could we hypothetically edge it this way now, then edge it properly later? How much would it stretch out or deform from one burn (if at all)?
Bonus question: what is the re-saleability of shade cloth, on the off chance we spend a bunch this year on a compromise, only to upgrade later when we have more lead time? Seems like the stuff has several years of usable life, and burners love a deal
