I'm new to this sewing thing. But these forums (the people here!) rock! So here I am, making stuff. Thank you, people.
I made a few hammocks, a couple fronkey style bugnets and stuff sacks prior to this underquilt, but those are relatively easy.
Then I turned two of my first DIY hammocks into 'underquilts.' One of them worked fairly well - was just some crib batting from Joann's sewed asymmetrically into it, then hung under my Hennessy.
The other one didn't work so well. It wasn't wide enough, hung a little odd, and was made with some funky insulation from Joann's again, Insultex maybe? It's this stuff- (I created the ridges)
This was all fine, I was in the learning phase. The basics I mean. Still a crap load of learning to do obviously.
Backyard Hammock Research Facility, with a couple DIYs hanging-
Back to the point.
I wanted a proper underquilt, and I figured I was ready to tackle at least a simple one.
I ordered some 1.1oz ripstop in the 'seconds' section from DIY Gear Supply and some 3.6oz Climashield from Dutch.
Both orders arrived very quickly, and on the same day. Nice.
Measure twice, cut once, stick a couple hundred pins in it.
On my plastic tables the nylon slides around easily - almost too easily. But the Climashield would cling to the surface with static electricity. It took me a second to figure out what was happening. I thought the insulation was getting caught on something, or something sticky had somehow gotten on the table. Nope, just static, firmly holding on. This makes me want a hammock-size rotating table so I can have the edge I'm working on right in front of me constantly. The mechanic's stool I use helps with that, but I don't have enough room to roll myself around the whole project.
After some sewing-
I had trouble wrapping my brain around how the end channels are supposed to get sewn in. So I did them after. But the moment I turned the thing right-side out, I realized how it should have been done, and how easy it would have been. Seems simple now. Next time.
Thankfully this little snafu caused zero problems, except cosmetically.
It's reversible-
It's suspended from loops on the corners, there are no channels on the long edges. Works great.
I started with 48" x 72" pieces and ended up with finished dimensions of 44" x 68". This turned out to be perfect for me, but I was aiming for 46" x "70. I know more about seam allowances and how to properly add them up now. One plus one is two, but more importantly two plus two is four! Catching on, slowly..
More difficult than I thought to show scale of this. It's 2-3" taller than the DVD, and weighs 1lb, 1oz.
A compression strap would make it at least a 1/3 smaller. This sack was for demo only. The underquilt will stay attached to my hammock and stored together in a stuff sack I made for them. The sack has a drawstring on one end, and a reinforced hole on the other end so it can live on the suspension.
This was a marathon build. Once the materials arrived mid-afternoon, I didn't stop until 3:30am when the quilt was complete. These are rookie hours of course, but I couldn't stop.
I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. Some of my first projects stitching looked like a drunk toddler was at the sewing machine. Much better now. It's one of those skills where your hands need to learn how to work the materials and tools and get a feel for the sewing machine.
It's been a humid heat wave here for the last couple days, so I haven't had a chance to test it properly, but I don't doubt that it's going to work quite well as a 3-season underquilt.
Thanks again to all here for the wealth of knowledge. Not sure I would/could have done this without you.
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Originally Posted by Kalamazooligan
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