As part of my quest to make everything I own out of Olive Yellow fabric, I made a single layer hammock over the weekend. It is made out of HyperD 1.0 from Ripstop by the Roll. I included a Knotty mod at the head end and a stretchable foot box at the foot end. I used eyelets as the channel openings for the shock cord. Before doing any sewing, I whipped the ends of the fabric to three different lengths - 11', 10' 6", and 10' - to see how short I could make it while still being super comfortable. I decided on 10' 6", though the actual finished dimensions ended up being 10' 5" due to a minor design error. I forgot to included the 0.5" on each end where the hem was sewn to the hammock in making the end channels while setting up my measurements. I used the full width of the fabric.
It came out really great. It is super comfortable, and I am able to get a fair bit more diagonal than I could on my other hammock, a modified Streamliner from Simply Light Designs. I'm excited about the footbox because I've had several instances where the short pad I put under my feet inside my top quilt on cold nights has slipped over the edge of the hammock. Hopefully that won't happen anymore. I'm also pretty proud of how straight the stitching is, given I only touched a sewing machine for the first time in my life less than 2 months ago. Hemming the half-circle for the footbox was a freaking miserable experience, though. I had to rip out the thread and start over 4-5 times, and only succeeded in getting it done after pinning it every couple of inches.
Between this project and my fleece underquilt, I think I've decided that 1/16" shock cord is pretty much useless. I've got some 3/32" and 1/8" on order to see if I like those better for using in channels.
The hammock ended up at 6.3 oz. I am 5' 9" and weigh about 165 and have slept in it the past 4 nights with a continuous loop run through the end channel. There are no signs of wear, damage, stretching of the fabric, or anything else at the end channels, which are triple stitched.
My next project is an olive yellow tarp made out of SilPoly from Ripstop by the Roll. I'm going to try an idea that I haven't seen done before so hopefully it will work out. If the fabric gets here on time, I plan on making it this weekend.
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Bask in the olive yellow glory.
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Knotty mod
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Stretchable foot box
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End channel after 4 nights of use
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With its matching fleece underquilt
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