I just finished my first hammock and tarp. Much thanks to HoosierT, RSBTR, Dutch, and all of the other helpful people on this forum. Sharing and paying it forward for anyone new looking for instruction. Happy to help!
1.6 HyperD XL from RSBTR, Dyneema straps with Ti Dutch clips, Sewn end channels, Amsteel ridge line, integrated noseeum bug net w/ zippers.
1.1 Silpoly from RSBTR, Lawson reflective guy lines and linelocs from Dutch. I used the DIYGS/RSBTR winter tarp instructions. This became a hybrid plan as both methods are similar and each of great ideas that I combined together. As recommended by HoosierT, I did not cat cut my edges. I'm not completely new to sewing, but sewing a rolled hem with material this light and slick is not easy - as you will see in my next pictures. I probably will never cat cut any tarp, seeing that its main function is a tighter pitch. I did not end up with very much slack in the material at all and could not imagine how difficult it would have been to sew a rolled him on a curve.
I had a lot of issues starting out with sewing this silpoly fabric. Luckily, my good friend HoosierT lives down the road and helped me out a ton. Originally, my fabric was puckering really bad, as you can see in my reinforcements. I have a midline Singer FashionMate that I bought my girlfriend for Xmas a few years ago. It does not allow you to tighten the bobbin thread tension with a setting wheel on the machine. After quite a bit of trial and error, we found a way to tighten the bobbin tension by removing the bobbin housing from the top load plate on my machine. This was key- the rest of my stitches and sewing were great outside of my error. I also realized that I was putting a lot of tension on the fabric... i.e. holding it tight under the presses foot and dragging it though the machine. After final adjustments, I realized this wasn't necessary and the presser foot/feed dogs do a fine job of moving the fabric along. Also, as you can see, my two door reinforcements are different sizes. After having difficulty with my rolled hem, I thought it might help if squared up my edges a little better. In the process, I cut off too much from one side. I thought this would be helpful for anyone debating the size of reinforcements to use. The top right reinforcement is only 1.5 inches from the rolled hem, and I have had no issues at all- even after pitching this in 20 mph gusting winds.
For ground tie out reinforcements, I just used regular triangles instead of squares, diamonds or rounded edges as I had seen in other posts. Worked out great for me, was easy to sew, and still created even tension with out slack in the material when pitched.
I made a snake skin for the tarp out of silpoly membrane from RSBTR. By far the easiest part of the whole project. It is not tapered as some of the designs I saw floating around. I just sewed three pieces of material (9"x57") together via a french/flat felled seam and then, sewed drawstring channels on either end. The hammock stuff sack is the same design - another gift from HoosierT.
I used grosgrain and linelocs for all of my tie outs including the ridge line. I sandwiched the grosgrain over the silpoly and sewed two bar tacks within the rolled him - none of the bar tacks were sewn directly on to the reinforcement patches.
Very happy with the finished product and couldn't have done with out the great help I received. I've already ordered material for a second setup - using Robic on the next hammock. I am by no means an expert, but after finishing my first setup, I have gained great experience not only with materials and design, but also with general sewing. Happy to help anyone new to making a tarp or hammock!
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Originally Posted by willys05tj
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