DIY - Emergency Blanket UQ ($6.00)

[LeDude]

I wanted a lightweight UQ that could work in a number of ways, but mainly for those windy days in warmer climates.

I had a couple of emergency blankets on hand so I decided to give it a try and see how it would work out.





As great as the blankets are for keeping one warm and the winds at bay, they are a bit fragile and need to be protected somehow for long term use.

My solution was to enclose the blanket in its own protective mesh cocoon to keep it from tearing and for quick setups and take downs.

It's a rather easy project that can be done in an about an hour or so.

I had to come up with a way to secure the emergency blanket inside the mesh cocoon and because of its thiness I opted against sewing it and using two
side foam tape instead with a satin ribbon on the outside to keep the tape from sticking to the hammock.

Here is the materials list:

One emergency blanket ($2.00)
Enough mesh netting to cover the blanket on both sides ($3.00) I bought 5 yards Elastic cord to hang the UQ ($1.00)
Two sided foam tape ($1.00)
Satin ribbon ($1.00 10 yard roll)

I got my supplies at Joann's with a couple of their 40-50% off coupons

This is how I made mine:

1. Lay your mesh on the floor



2. Open and lay the emergency blanket ontop of the mesh and center it on all sides



3. You want enough margins at the top to be able to make a 1-2" channel for your elastic cord

I wanted a strong channel that would not tear easily so I decided on a 2" channel by measureing 4" from the top and folding the mesh on itself to form
a 2" channel and then sewed it in place. Repeat the process for the other side



4. Once you have your channels sewn, lay the emergency lanket back on the mesh and fold the sides in.



5. I cut 1/8" wide x 1" long strips of two sided adhesive foam and placed them about 1.5" apart along the entire length of the blanket on one side and
folded the mesh on top of it and pushed down hard on each piece to form a solid bond between the blanket and the mesh.

I then ran a strip of satin strip on top of each foam strip and pushing down on it hard to form a solid bond there.

I repeated the same procedure for the other edge



6. The mesh not being wide enough to fully enclose the emergency blanket requied the addition of a second strip in the middle between the two edges.

Followed the same process as above to secure it in place.



7. Now that the cocoon was complete encasing the emergency blanket, it was time to run the eleastic cord through the channels.

I cut enough elastic equaling half the width and fed it through each channel to form a loop for hanging the UQ.




8. I had a small mesh bag for keeping the UQ in so I rolled it up and put it there.



Took the UQ to the park and tested it out today and it seems to work rather well... Will have to do a bit of fine tuning but the basicconcept is sound.

It does a great job of keeping cold winds at bay and one rather warm without a lot of bulk.

Setup was rather easy, I used two small s-loops at either end to connect / hanG the UQ under the hammock.

You will hear the foil make a bit of noise when moving around in the hammock as is expected from any foil material, but it will not make any
moise in windy conditions on its own.

The UQ weighs next to nothing and will decompress well once inside its carrying bag and will lay super flat in a back pack.

You can see the full size pics in this album: DIY - Emergency Blanket UQ