I finally got my DIY UQ to the point I am ready to post about it.
It took all of last weekend to get the thread injector (TI) working properly, so what I wanted to finish on Saturday did not even begin until almost dinner time Sunday.
I started with a 2nd hand sleeping bag. No label but probably a 40° to 50° bag. I had a selection of several bags, but chose this mainly one mainly because of the color. On Saturday night, I used Gorilla tape and 550 cord to baste the bag into a usable shape and secure it to the hammock. It was loose and I ended up slightly cool, but it showed me where and how I figured I needed to dart this.
I laid out the SB and measured how I wanted this to be sized and shaped. Never having seen a real UQ in person, I really had to scrutinize photos here and work to figure this out. I used a marker to draw my outline and just stitched along the lines. I then cut out about 1/4" - 3/8" outside the stitch. I could have done a real bump up job on this, but opted for the quick stitch and cut, which worked (were I to do this again, I would certainly take more time to make more attractive better seams).
Once I had the basic shape, I planned my darts. Again, I went with the quick stitch and cut. I made 2 triangles in the middle (one on each side), pinned the fabric along the lines, and then just stitched it together. I then cut off the excess material. This also made a “point” along the center of each side, so I marked, stitched, and cut this to the "correct" shape.
I bought some 2" polypro webbing at JoAnns, and stitched it along the seams as a channel to accept some shock cord (which was left over from the SB Pro netting, with which I am using a different system). This turned out fairly well, both hiding the ugly cut seams and reinforcing the edges. It also was easy to fish the shock cord through the slot. I ran out of webbing, so as of this post, the ends remain crude looking.
I had some little plastic hooks, so I tied them on to the shock cord. Then, yesterday, I went out and hung the hammock and tried out the SBSBUQ. It hung fairly well, but it obviously need some suspension/connection on the middle of each side. I had guessed that would be necessary, and fortunatly, the SB Pro has 2 attachment loops on each side which should be perfect. with the hammock strung up, I was able to easily ascertain the required location of these attachment points. I will be adding some loops this evening, but I will discuss this more later, as I feel this may need to be adjustable, rather than being anchored to a fixed position.
I would guess this will get me down to 50° to 55°, but I am considering some IX as a supplement, at least for this season until I can get something downy warm.
Not too bad for a first DIY project (other than suspension).
**Warning: these photos show explicit examples of crude workmanship and may not be appropriate for all diy hammockers!!!**
Bookmarks