I tried making a hammock out of an old parachute and... failed

[kender]

Hey guys,

Some time ago I purchased an old parachute on an auction site. It costed like $10. I thought I could use the fabric to sew some stuff sacks, bike cover, etc...

The fabric turned out to be some kind of nice in the touch ripstop at around 1.9oz. Not sure exactly :)

The parachute was made from 10 triangles sewn together, so I cut 4 out of them and sewn them to create kind of a parallelogram. Like on this image:
cut1.png

I then measured the dimensions and got something like: 110" long and 80" wide. I cut the top and bottom borders to a straight line. I wanted to try the really "wide" hammock material.

2014-05-02 19.45.00.jpg

I rolled-hemmed the edges (sides first, then the head and feet sides). Then sewn the borders together, 10 inches from the top and the bottom, like they have it in HH to have the bug net connected to the edges all the way. (I sneaked the idea from https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...ock-A-Tutorial this thread.

I then fed the cord through the rolled edges on top and bottom and whipped them together. I tried to lay in it.

Honestly, the fabric is too short. Having it a feet longer would be great. But the worse thing - the edges get high above me, with the middle of the hammock extremely stretched, I get squeezed inside and can roll myself like a sausage inside - but can't get a flat, diagonal lay inside. I'm wondering if it's a matter of the ends whipping, or the fabric being this wide and this short... any ideas? I thought adding more width would only result in better, flatter lay.

[gmcttr]

...I thought adding more width would only result in better, flatter lay.

In my opinion, additional width does very little good without additional length to allow it to be used.

[e_2]

yeah the gather and whipping greatly affect how the hammock will feel. You could try drawing a straight line with a charcoal/fabric pencil at each end to help keep your gather consistent. Then, if out doesn't feel right, take it apart and draw curved lines (different colored pencils help keep the lines from being too confusing) in one direction our the other. So the lines might look like this: (|) (|)

[kender]

In my opinion, additional width does very little good without additional length to allow it to be used.

Ok, so now I have 2 options - either cut some of the fabric width and try to make it into a smallish hammock on both sides, or add some length (I still have over a half of that parachute:)).

Is it a good idea to sew additional fabric length-wise? I'm not sure if the stress the fabric is under won't make it tear...

[gmcttr]

You can try removing the whipping, folding an edge (or edges) in to a narrower width and re-lashing to get a feel for how it would lay it cut down.

I personally would not bother adding length. While the seam could be made to hold, I think you already have too many existing cross seams from the original parachute messing with the lay. Fabric to do it right is not that costly. Just my .02