How many people DIY their hammocks???

[WV]

Pros: Fun, Useful, Unique products
Cons: Time, Money, STORAGE SPACE! (Sorry for shouting.)

[JohnSawyer]

I DIY most of my stuff... ok, that's decreasing...

$$$?? It has cost me MORE, but been fun to do...
Keeps me out of my wife's hair...
Gives me gear to share with my HF friends.





Hmmm... no pics of my down UQ...

John

[mudsocks]

I didn't read through all the comments so maybe this has been mentioned already but making anything yourself is a good way to learn how something is constructed. The benefit to that is being able to alter/fix/repair your gear in the field with skill and confidence. I find that I pay more attention to the condition of my DIY gear because I want to know how well my craftsmanship holding up. The upside is spotting issues before they become problems out in the field.

[Hawk-eye]

Hawk Eye---I would like to get a copy of those plans too.
....

Gunner76 and Latitude918 ... I can't find my templates that I used to make the hammock so maybe Jerry will see this and post about it. I think they were a victim of my wife's cleaning rampage while I was overseas last time. If I do find mine I'll post here. But basically it's uniform on both sides with the tapering cut with pull outs like you see on a Blackbird ... I modified the netting, the width and used a full 11 foot (after stitching) long body. If I had to do it again I'd make the panel you see on my in Camo ... noseeum for the top 2/3rd's for more visibility.

OH a couple points ... the hammock body is a simple rectangular shape, the two panels (camo) are rectangular strips the full length of the body with the zippers between the body and the panel on both sides for mine. The shape you see is formed by the netting and that can vary in the arch to fit your needs. Just remember to keep the curves some what shallow. Then ends of the body and panels are sewn with a channel and you just gather it like you would any gathered end hammock. It looks a lot more complicated than it really is to make. My hardest part was the seam binding (bias tape) ... what you see on the picture is the large one I started out with and later ripped out and sewed with thinner 1/4" double fold bias tape and of course Jerry was right. It wasn't as hard as I thought and looks MUCH better.