As to zipper length, I had the same question because I wasn't sure what the length of the cat cut would be. Many thanks to whoever the math geek was who figured it out for me!
Short answer - a 72 inch length bed with a 7" cat cut resulted in a sewn length of 74 or 75" - not a great increase at all.
The length of zipper will depend on what you want to have in the way of zippered opening. I chose to have the bugnet fully attached at the foot end because I didn't figure I'd never NOT want to be taking it with me. For me the zipper length was both sides and across the head end and added a foot to the measurement for safety. I also wanted to be able to open the zipper from either side depending on which way I wanted in and out of it so I put double zipper pulls on it - one one way, the other the opposite.
I also used grosgrain instead of bias tape on both the bugnet and the hammock body - probably way over engineered but I'm comfortable with it.
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