Sewing a cut up comforter to a hammock??

We have a barn out at my parent's place that used to be a 1 story shed, and my husband made into a gorgeous 2 story building (work is still being done). Anyways the bottom will be his work shop, and the top is for whatever my son and I want it to be. For obvious reason we've chosen it to be a hammock fort ;)

We got to sleep there for the first time last night. I've been doing some flop experiments with under quilts for colder weather :( My son did fine....but my butt and shoulders were cold, which just seems to be a continuing problem with my experiments. (Don't bother telling me about down UQ, right now they are out of my price range).

....but it got me thinking....

What I want to know, is if anyone has ever just sewed an old down quilt under the hammock...or any comforter right to the bottom of the hammock? Keep in mind these are primarily stationary hammocks (not the ones we use for camping, I'll have to continue experiments with those), I have several that were inexpensive and surprising quite comfortable. In the warmer months I could take down the sewed up versions and hang up the other hammocks and use our poncho liner uq during those mild seasons.

Would this work?

It sounds like it would work to me, anyone with more experience have an opinion?

can you post pics of the hammock loft?

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Originally Posted by grantizzle

can you post pics of the hammock loft?

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Yes, I will do that. I meant to take pictures the other day...but forgot my camera. It's going to be raining the next couple of days here, so after that I will take some. We can easily hang 4...possibly 5, but 4 very comfortably. My plans are to have hammocks at night, then take down only one end of the hammocks, and hang hammock chairs during the day when we're "hanging" out there.

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Originally Posted by DivaB

What I want to know, is if anyone has ever just sewed an old down quilt under the hammock...or any comforter right to the bottom of the hammock?

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WV has an insulated hammock where he attached a down underquilt directly to his hammock. It seems to work very well for him and it looks darn nice. He packs it up in a large silnylon snakeskin for hiking. Since yours is staying put, I see no reason why it wouldn't work. You might want to check some of WV's threads on it or PM him directly. He's a wealth of knowledge. Good luck!

Thanks, Syb. The UQ is actually part of the hammock, but it took some experimenting to get it the right shape.

Diva, large saftey pins are a good thing to start with. Attach the centers of the two sides first, then figure out where you need to put in darts as you do the rest. The weight of the quilt will be your foe. It will tend to drag down the edges of the hammock. It helps to use tie-outs on each side (left shoulder and right ankle). You can also tie the edges up to a structural ridgeline with shock cord - use a slippery half-hitch and adjust as necessary. It won't be pretty, but you'll learn a lot and might stay warm. Good luck! :)

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Originally Posted by WV

Thanks, Syb. The UQ is actually part of the hammock, but it took some experimenting to get it the right shape.

Diva, large saftey pins are a good thing to start with. Attach the centers of the two sides first, then figure out where you need to put in darts as you do the rest. The weight of the quilt will be your foe. It will tend to drag down the edges of the hammock. It helps to use tie-outs on each side (left shoulder and right ankle). You can also tie the edges up to a structural ridgeline with shock cord - use a slippery half-hitch and adjust as necessary. It won't be pretty, but you'll learn a lot and might stay warm. Good luck! :)

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Will any type of old comforter work? They are king, so I'll have to cut the width down anyways (and length), and I'll try the pinning first or the ties. I hadn't even realized that darts may be needed. I had visioned that once it was sewn onto the hammock that the gathering would just sort of happen naturally and the stitching would keep it closed, but I was having a hard time picturing what would happen in the middle.....guess it doesn't matter since my vision was incorrect in how it would work anyways.

The other thing I "pictured" was leaving some width the comforter on one side, sewing half to the bottom of the hammock, then flopping one side up and over yourself as a cover??? Is that vision up there with raining glitter and unicorns too?:laugh:

DivaB,
You're right - darts are not absolutely necessary. The JRB No Sniveller is just a rectangle with a channel for draw cord at each end. It works, but there is a fiddle-factor (not extreme, but there). It works because there is a clever shock cord suspension at each end (simple but effective = clever) and because the UQ is not very heavy.

If you're going to cut and sew to adapt a larger quilt to your hammock, you could try shaping it to fit so you reduce the weight. For a semi-permanent or test set-up in your loft you have many options. Try the idea of folding the extra over you in the hammock and tell us how it works. :)