That sounds like a great way to start! Have fun! By the way, the "price" to pay for all this advice is to file a trip report afterwards to tell us how it went!

Another article you might want to check out is this one: Dirtbagging and Deal Shopping You should be able to find a lot of gear right in your own home (or barn)! That "$300 Challenge" I cited earlier leaves out thrift shops and yard sales, but those are also great sources of inexpensive gear. You may have to visit several times throughout the year.

Thru-Hiker.com carries a lot of excellent lightweight fabrics. They have the really high quality silnylon (hiker-speak for silicone-impregnated nylon). They have kits for clothing and other items which include pattern and materials, but unfortunately they don't sell the patterns separately. If nothing else, looking at the kits online may give you ideas. That site also has lots of articles on sewing your own gear (look under "Projects"), which should help.

There is lots of DIY info on this forum, too. One of our members just made his own pack, using a pattern from Gossamer Gear.

You might want to smell that old tarp before you start sewing. If it smells bad, the coating is deteriorating and it's not worth the work you'll put into it. If that is the case, just set it up as a tarp (lots of info on YouTube on how to do this) for as long as it still sheds water.

I'm glad you're learning to fix a car! I'm afraid I've spent my life raising the hood, trying to look intelligent instead of perplexed, closing it again and calling AAA. I do know how to change a tire and, thanks to living downwind of Mt. St. Helens during the 1980 eruption, the air filter.