Tarred Fabric is a mid-tier crafting material in Windrose used for durable armor pieces, weather-resistant clothing, and higher-grade sails. It's water-resistant, which is why recipes tied to sea travel and tougher biomes lean on it. Making it requires two ingredients from two different biomes and a single crafting station back at your base.
Recipe and station at a glance
The craft itself is simple once both inputs are gathered. The Tanning Rack is cheap to build and unlocks the recipe automatically once you have access to both materials.
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Station | Tanning Rack (10 Wood + 5 Rope to build) |
| Input 1 | 1 Linen Fabric (crafted at a Spinning Wheel from Flax Fiber) |
| Input 2 | 1 Tar (harvested from Tarwood Trees in the swamp biome) |
| Output | 1 Tarred Fabric |
Get Linen Fabric from the Foothills
The first half of the recipe is Linen Fabric, and that traces back to Flax Fiber. Flax grows in the Foothills, the second biome you'll reach. It's a raised, rocky area with plenty of elevation changes, and the plant itself is easy to spot thanks to its distinct blue flowers.
Step 1: Travel into the Foothills and sweep the terrain for blue-flowered Flax plants. They appear in good density along the southwestern stretch of the biome, so anchor your search there if you want to gather efficiently.
Step 2: Harvest Flax Fiber by interacting with the plants. Pick up more than you think you need, because Linen Fabric feeds into several other recipes later. Dropping a teleporter nearby is worth the cost on your first trip.
Step 3: Return to base and interact with a Spinning Wheel. Select the Linen Fabric recipe and convert your Flax Fiber into cloth. That finishes the first ingredient.
Get Tar from the swamp biome
Tar comes from Tarwood Trees, which only grow in the swamp biome. You typically reach the swamp after progressing through the Foothills questline, though, because the map is randomized, you may also stumble into it earlier while exploring. If the Tarred Fabric recipe doesn't appear at the Tanning Rack even with Tar in your inventory, it usually means the swamp unlock has not fully triggered yet on your save.
Step 1: Push through the Foothills quest chain far enough to open access to the swamp. Defeating the Foothills boss is the most reliable trigger for unlocking the recipe listing.
Step 2: In the swamp, locate Tarwood Trees. They have a darker, distinct silhouette compared to regular trees in the area, and chopping one yields Tar directly, no secondary processing required.
Step 3: Fell more trees than the single unit you need. Tar is used for Tarred Planks as well, and the swamp is a longer trip than the Foothills run, so stock up while you're already there.
Craft Tarred Fabric at the Tanning Rack
With 1 Linen Fabric and 1 Tar on hand, head to your Tanning Rack. If you haven't built one yet, it costs 10 Wood and 5 Rope. The station has no upgrade tiers tied to this recipe, so a basic Tanning Rack is enough.
Step 1: Interact with the Tanning Rack and scroll to the Tarred Fabric entry in its crafting menu.
Step 2: Confirm the craft. The finished Tarred Fabric will appear in your inventory and can be used immediately in armor, clothing, and sail recipes that list it.
Recipe not showing up? Common reasons
Several players run into a situation where they have Tar in storage but the Tarred Fabric and Tarred Planks recipes never appear. The recipe is gated by progression, not just materials, so carrying the ingredient alone is not enough.
| Cause | Fix |
|---|---|
| Swamp biome not fully unlocked | Complete the Foothills questline and defeat the Foothills boss to trigger the unlock. |
| Tar picked up as a world drop without harvesting a Tarwood Tree | Chop at least one Tarwood Tree yourself in the swamp so the game registers the material source. |
| Missing Linen Fabric, not Tar | Confirm you have Linen Fabric, not just raw Flax Fiber. The Tanning Rack only accepts the spun version. |
| Wrong station open | Tarred Fabric is on the Tanning Rack, not the Workbench. Tarred Planks use the Workbench once unlocked. |
What to use Tarred Fabric on
Tarred Fabric slots into gear that has to hold up in rougher conditions, including several of the stronger armor sets and sail upgrades for larger ships. Because demand scales quickly once you reach the swamp-tier content, it's worth keeping a steady feedstock of Flax Fiber and Tar rather than crafting it one unit at a time. A teleporter in each biome pays for itself within a couple of runs.