Squaring up material for a hammock

[Mtnmanmike]

I'm trying to square up material to make a hammock. Is there a trick to this?
I don't have enough room to lay a full 11' x 60" sheet of material on the floor, and I tried to fold it in half, but I don't have a square edge to start from. I was thinking of buying a 2" closet hanging rod, and suspending it from a wall so the material would hang straight. I've spent a couple of hours trying to get it right, but it's not working. Any ideas? I'd like to make a hammock in 1/2 hours time. I can sew it up pretty fast, but getting a square cut is tough. I have to make ten hammocks for friends, which is why I'm trying to find a way to get it done faster.

[Boston]

Don't stress too much about it. It doesn't need to be 100% perfect. You'll introduce more eroror sewing it then cutting it.

If it's ripstop than just follow a grid line.

You can also use another ruler set perpendicular to help judge.

[ShooTa]

Fronkey has a superb video on making a tarp - where he goes into how to do it with restricted space.....

[sargevining]

Don't stress too much about it. It doesn't need to be 100% perfect. You'll introduce more eroror sewing it then cutting it.

If it's ripstop than just follow a grid line.

You can also use another ruler set perpendicular to help judge.

What he said. Just fold your end channel along a ripstop line and tuck the ragged edge in.

[Mountnman]

What kind of material you using?

[Mtnmanmike]

I'm using 1.6 oz Hyper D material. Because the grid is on a 45 degree angle, I can't use it as a guide.

[punkisdead]

Dave Xtrekker also has a nice video showing how he cuts his hammock body.

[daneaustin3]

I've done all of my work in a 30' RV. Make sure the long edges all line up and square off of that and cut. Effectively the long edges of the material are pretty straight from the mill. The short sides are not from where whomever cut it off the roll didn't cut straight. So fold the fabric in half giving you a 11' x 30" piece. Fold that in half giving you a 5.5' x 30" piece. Make sure the 5.5' sides are lined up and cut the open end off square. If you need to measure from the fold up 5' 6" on each side and use a straight edge to connect the dots.

[Ramblinrev]

Read this carefully and suit yourself.... You have three choices in terms of squaring fabric ends. 1) Square to the selvadge. Usea T-square or sheet rock square and mark off the the line you want. But don't count on it staying square while you work on it. Fabric is very rarely woven and shipped square. That's becoause the weaving just doesn't work that way so 2) Square to the weave. The easiest way to do this is to tear the fabric across the grain. That will result in the ends being square tto the grain. But don't coun on it being very helpful. That's because as you tear it it will distort and the grain will shift somewhat. So my choice of option is 3) Don't sweat the small stuff. By the time you get done horsing the thing around you will introduce more irregularities one way or the other. So phfffft.. just sew it and you'll get the beast result you can.

[Monkeyboy42]

I use two methods. Typically I'll lay out as much of the fabric as I can, and I tape the edges to the floor. I then pull out three tape measures and make the largest 345 triangle that I can. A 3, 4, 5 triangle always makes a square corner, and they can be as big or little as you need.

Option 2 is the drywall square.