Tipi project: Part one

Now it's been a loong time since I last wrote something here. It's not because I haven't done anything, but rather because I have been doing a lot!
The biggest thing being planning for a 7 week canoeing trip in northern Finland (Ivalojki) the next summer. But more on that later.

As some of you know I lived 2 years in tipi in Sweden while studying bushcraft. After that unfortunately I moved and have been living inside for two years. But recently I spent one week in a tipi while building a canoe for the upcoming canoeing trip.And that really reminded me of how fantastic it is to fall asleep to the sound of the fire, and to wake up to the sound of the birds flying inside the tipi.

So when I got home I started researching how to build one. The one I used to live in was built after this instruction (Swedish):
http://www.naturligt-ute.se/pdf/tipibygge.pdf

So while designing my tipi I use that as reference. There is, however some things I see could be improved on that design:
The smoke flaps, for example. They are REALLY big. Both too high and too wide. So I wanted to make them smaller. The big size makes them flap in the wind and heavy to move.
The pinholes that keeps the tipi together are too big (3 cm in diameter). And they are on a separate piece of fabric, which is usually the first seam to break on a tipi. So I wanted mine on the main fabric, with no seams, possibly even some reinforcement. I also believe the holes are too close so I moved them further apart lengthwise.
The "doorstep" is very low, which makes the door quite low. As my friend Lovisa pointed out it's a good idea to make it higher to move the door up a bit.
I also adjusted the top of the tipi, where you tie the raising pole, after THIS instruction. That way I don't need the wedges to lengthen the smoke flaps.

So I needed some canvas for all this. In the Swedish instruction the width is 160 cm. There is no mention of the thickness. So I started researching the thickness needed. And damn it's confusing with the English/American oz per square yard and the rest of the worlds grams per square meter. I came to the conclusion that it should be at least 12 oz after reading THIS.
There is a Dutch site called Esvocampingshop which has some different canvas to good prices.
But even with these prices a tipi would cost over 400€. That's more than I can afford. So I kept looking.... and looking..... and looking.
And finally I found a good deal on EBAY. A 40 meter roll, which is exactly as much as I needed, of 12 oz cotton canvas. Only 147 cm wide though. But after some planning I came to the conclusion that it would still work. I ran 12 oz per square yard in a converter to g per square meters. And it says 406 g per square meter. Now if that is correct it's quite thick. I am not sure if my sewing machine will be able to sew it... But that's a later problem!

The fabric is scheduled to arrive around October 10. Until then I hope to find a big enough room to sew it in. I'm also gonna start looking for poles for the tipi.

Finally, here is my current tipi plan. It's not final. So if you have any input I would be happy to hear!

Update: The final plan is in part 2