A few weeks ago, I made my first DIY hammock, nothing special, just 126" of "Sample Fabric" from the clearance rack at walmart. All I know of this fabric is it's calendered, and it holds my weight, and made a nice proof of concept for my wife to allow me buying mats from DIY gear supply to make a good one.



Well, the order came in from DIY, and part of it is 4yds of 1.9 oz ripstop 2nds.
After doing simple folded hems (not rolled, I'm not that skilled with a T.I. just yet ) all the way around, and channels, I'm left with 140" of fabric.

My problem is, I'm 6' even, and 200lbs. I know it's about 3ft longer then it needs to be, but I don't want to cut it. So what I did was make a loop out of the fabric, and then whip it.



I then used amsteel, with a fig-8 on a bight on the end, and ran it through the loop with a larks head. (See pic above)

I'm doing this for 2 reasons, #1 because I want to keep testing various lengths, and folding methods for the ends before committing to cutting the fabric, and #2 because it solves a simple lingering paranoia in the back of my head: That the larks head will slip, and I'm gonna hit the deck hard.

However, I'm not sure if this method will hold, the whipping is tight, but I know with a standard whipping, or channel end that the whipping itself holds no weight. I'm no engineer, but my head says folded like this, the whipping is holding weight. For that matter, I may be creating a weak point for the fabric itself to fail.

Has anyone tried anything like this before? Should I just stick to looping the larks head below the whipping?

Any advice you can throw my way would be greatly appreciated.

-Justin