Three piece vs single piece hammocks.

[mmachenry]

Hey everyone. I'm looking into making a DIY hammock sometime soon. Likely a fairly large, hangout hammock. A friend of mine showed me her 10' x 88" hammock the other day from some brand I'd never heard of. It was really nice. I know 88" is pretty insane for a camping hammock but I might go that wide for the DIY hangout.

One question I have is with the cut of the fabric and the fact that most of the hammocks I've seen are made from three pieces of fabric. Take the ENO Double Nest for example. Their classic hammock has a teal under body with a strip of yellow on one side and purple on the other. They are sewn together. I have noticed that along the sewn ridge is where the fabric gets a lot more loose. I might be laying in the hammock and the teal part will be pretty taught on the walls but the purple dangles out. I sometimes makes a shelf where I rest my arms in fact.

Is the reason there are three pieces of fabric here because they cut them differently and sew them together to create more of a 3D shape? Or is it just to give the hammock extra color? If I were to unroll the collected end, would it be a rectangle? If I made my own from a perfectly rectangular piece of fabric, would it perform the same and just be monochrome or is there something about this sew line that's giving the hammock its shape?

I would like to avoid the extra sewing but I don't want to sacrifice anything that gives the professionally made hammocks their shape or performance.

Thanks a bunch.

[leiavoia]

1) Its mostly for color/style. It does not improve performance.
2) Fabrics generally come in standard 60" widths. So in order to cheaply manufacture a "double hammock" (a term that means almost nothing) without resorting to expensive wide-fabrics, they just sew on extra fabric on the sides.
3) You may find the extra width is not useful. I dont. You're going to slide into the center whether it's 60" or 6000".

Verdict: just use a single piece rectangle. If you want extra-wide single-piece, check out the krinkle-taffeta at tableclothsfactory.com

[TrailSlug]

If you are going to do your own I'd recommend using a kit like these from Ripstop By The Roll.
https://ripstopbytheroll.com/collect...y-hammock-kits

[sloanie]

I bought a hammock from a hammock forum member maybe 3-4 years ago who would make large tie-dyed hammocks. He basically would sew 2 long panels (12+’) of white ripstop nylon together and then tie-dye the combined panel of fabric— so the seam runs right down the middle but it’s fairly large. I do use it as a recreational hammock.

The seam down the middle has never really been uncomfortable, and it actually can kinda create 2 separate “beds” when a couple of people are in the hammock (never really tried it with two adults— usually it was one adult and one kid or two kids.)

I’ve also had some pretty awesome naps in this thing— if you hang it between 2 anchor points that are closer together than traditional (but higher up), with that much sag it starts to a approach 90-degree hammock. Again, this thing is about 12’ Long by 10’ wide.

Man... I buy new hammocks on somewhat of a regular basis, but I love this thing.

50D84BB2-49BF-41F3-9182-0229A536BB0F.jpg

[Phantom Grappler]

There are some hammock fabrics available from Dutch and RipStopByTheRoll and others that are 72 inches wide.
And I’ve forgotten name of Tablecloth taffeta fabrics that also are wide.
For your comfort and to avoid extra sewing work, you might want to buy wide fabrics. A solid fabric is usually stronger than two fabrics joined with seam.
To reduce loose floppy fabric on sides, some use knotty mods. This is elastic cord with cord locks inside of edge hem about a foot or so long.
My hammock is 12x6 and very comfortable. There is a point of diminishing returns on extra length and width as it applies to comfort.
I’m thinking you can get a very comfortable hammock 11 feet 6 inches long by
5 feet 6 inches wide, finished size after all sewing is complete.
Or 138 inches long by 66 inches wide finished size (allow extra for hems and end channels)

All this is my best guess
And a more common size is 11 feet long by 5 feet wide. While some are comfortable in hammocks that are 10 feet long or less. Their comfort level on these shorter hammocks might be due to their short height and or their all round toughness.

Have fun getting your rig just the way you want!

[mmachenry]

Great thanks for clearing all that up for me folks. I'll probably end up going or the single-piece of wide fabric to make the project that much easier. Looking forward to it. I'll post pictures once I do.