here's some pics showing how i made my DIY hammock. there's nothing new here, except how i made it two layer, which i'll explain more later.
a BIG thank you to U.W. and upthecreek for reawakening my desire for hammock camping.
ok, here's the pics and the steps:
start off by cutting two pieces of 5 foot wide nylon 10 feet long
fold over and iron the long sides 1 inch, i've found that ironing first makes hemming a whole lot easier...
hem the long sides, i prefer a zig zag stitch for simple hems
fold over the short side 1 1/2 inch and iron
and hem the end channels on the short sides, again using the zig zag hem
now the main body of the hammock is sewn, with hemmed edges and 1 1/2 inch channels on the ends. do this again with the other piece of fabric, so that you have two identical pieces of fabric.
now place sticky velcro 3 feet from the channel on the long edge
and place another piece 3 feet down from that one
and stick the two large pieces of fabric together with the velcro.
feed cord thru the bottom layer channel
and into the top layer channel
now tighten and tie off
repeat on the other side...
add suspension, 9 feet of amsteel per side attached using a slipped bowline.
here you can see how the cinching created a ball of fabric that the suspension line wraps around. very secure and places no stress on the channel...
attach the structural ridgeline. this is 8 ft of amsteel. it sets the sag so it's the same every time.
and attached at the other end....
for straps i have two six foot pieces of 1 inch webbing, and one two foot extension, just in case i try to lash to a big ass tree...
all finished. total weight with stuff sack is 1 lb 2 oz
one option i added was to apply a
stretch side footbox and headbox made by a HF member named Knotty. if you do this, make sure it's on the bottom layer, it works better that way.
