NEW BRIDGE DESIGN BY MULE, with elbow room

**Mule** · 04-06-2009, 19:22

I have had this idea for a long time. Finally, up all night and all day, it is a reality in my back yard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkoU52yO3Qg

Sorry for the lousy sound.
In the movie you can see a handsome model showing off the space found in the new MULEBRIDGE bridge hammock! Elbow room and leg room never before found in a bridge hammock.
For now I wanted to show you all the video and a few pictures of how it was made. I pleated folds into the length of the hammock. It took sixteen feet of fabric to make a 7 foot bridge. The extra length makes it possible for you to sort of PUNCH a hole or space wherever you want it. You can now have elbow and arm room as well as knee and leg room. Wherever you Punch yourself some space it just takes up some of the extra linear fabric and the cross section of the bridge remains the same for wherever your weight is born.
The Photos show how I had to pleat it temporarily to get the folds to be correct at the point of cutting the parabolic into the overall hourglass shape of the hammock body. Shows my little toy I made where I put heavy marble type things in it to see if it would work.

**Ramblinrev** · 04-06-2009, 19:28

Neat... are we going to see a tutorial set of instructions for this?

Did you try a simple gathering stitch instead of the pleating? Or are the pleats specially configured? gathering them might be a faster and easier construction technique if extra fullness in the body is all that is required.

**sclittlefield** · 04-06-2009, 19:34

16' for a 7' hammock... wow. wow. wow. I love it! Brilliant idea Mule. I've been interested in a bridge hammock and this intrigues me. I love the innovation here.

You may want to look into patents before that gets snagged by a manufacturer.

**Mule** · 04-06-2009, 19:34

Originally Posted by Ramblinrev

Neat... are we going to see a tutorial set of instructions for this?

Did you try a simple gathering stitch instead of the pleating? Or are the pleats specially configured? gathering them might be a faster and easier construction technique if extra fullness in the body is all that is required.

Yes, if enough interest is found in it. It is very labor intensive. I sewed through the night and into the day today, perhaps 16 or 18 hours all total. I broke my sewing machine again too. It won't sew after I bent a needle in two layers of webbing and three of ripstop. I found I had to make the webbing double, putting webbing on both sides of the fabric which had been roll hemmed. This needs to be made in a more robust way because the points of weight bearing are now smaller than on a normal bridge which uses straight and angle forces on the fabric, whereas this uses only cross sectional forces to hole up the weight.

**Mule** · 04-06-2009, 19:35

Originally Posted by sclittlefield

16' for a 7' hammock... wow. wow. wow. I love it! Brilliant idea Mule. I've been interested in a bridge hammock and this intrigues me. I love the innovation here.

You may want to look into patents before that gets snagged by a manufacturer.

Thanks for the kind remarks. I don't have money for a patent but publishing here is a sort of safety in that area. If I had the money for a lawyer I might have gone that way. Mule

**turkeyboy** · 04-06-2009, 19:37

Dang, That is AWESOME. Looks like I'll have another project to work on soon . . . .

**TeeDee** · 04-06-2009, 19:46

Great - even more innovation.

It looks like that would solve the problem some people have with "shoulder squeeze".

Also, it would make it a lot easier for stomach and side sleepers. Can you get a full fetal position? Some people like that.

**TeeDee** · 04-06-2009, 19:47

Are the zig zag stitches temporary. It looks like you use them to hold the pleats until the arcs are cut and sewn and then remove them.

**slowhike** · 04-06-2009, 19:50

Nice Mule! I like the freedom it gives!

**Mule** · 04-06-2009, 19:51

Originally Posted by TeeDee

Great - even more innovation.

It looks like that would solve the problem some people have with "shoulder squeeze".

Also, it would make it a lot easier for stomach and side sleepers. Can you get a full fetal position? Some people like that.

Probably not Full Fetal, that would be upside down you know LOL. But a person could make this hammock to be loose in one place or the other. I left the knee area relatively in an unfolded state, but had I had another ten feet of fabric I may have made it pleated over it's entire length. Mule