Spendthrift to thrift, thanks to Knotty, TheBrewGuy and Dutch

[JimmyFergus]

Hi All,

Thank you all for this little helpful little community, responsible for setting me down the satisfying make-your-own-gear route, and given new lease of life to an old discarded mechanical sewing machine.

I'm a day-hammocker so far, with an eye to camping in the next few years. For now my children are fairly small and we really enjoy sleeping all together in a big tent. I hope we'll do some backpack camping in the next few years, perhaps in hammocks.

As of this past weekend we are now a two-hammock family, thanks to Knotty and his clear and easy gathered end hammock instructions, TheBrewGuy for his excellent whoopie sling instructions, and Dutchware for supplying all the bits: Argon 1.6, tree straps, Dynaglide for a whoopie sling, splicing needle and some Lash-It for whipping and a SRL.

I had to make another as the kids never let me into the Kammock Roo I bought. Yes I was sucked in by marketing and a nice website, but to be fair it is well made, and very nice cloth - just a little heavy and expensive. If I knew where to buy that cloth I'd get some to make another hammock.

So now my two hammock & suspension kits are one @ $128 and >2lb, and another @ $35 and <1lb.

The sewing machine — er — thread injector — I scored from my MiL's attic is an old Riccar mechanical, I'd guess 1960s, which has a 'silk' setting, which seemed like the right choice for the silky nylon, and will do zig-zag, and buttonholes if I get the right foot. Perfect for me at this stage. I found the manual online, oiled it up, and it worked like a champ. Those few times playing on scraps with my mother's Singer as a child actually turned out to be a little useful.

Next, a stuff sack, then maybe a bug net ... then a tarp ... and probably another hammock...

[Dux]

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

[grannypat]

Welcome to the forums. Sounds like you might have been infected with the DIY bug.

[JimmyFergus]

Thanks - successfully made a rectangular stuff sack. Terrible stitching but it looks good if you don't peer at it. I might make it square bottomed. I also managed to put a pocket on the side of the stuff sack for the tree straps, though I made it too baggy and they fall out. NVM, learning experience.

Reversing on my machine really doesn't work well, and nor does trying to stitch over multiple layers (stitching hems into other hems...). I should experiment to see if the silk setting wasn't the right choice after all.

[Kelly Campbell]

Those old sewing machines are amazing! They’re there to outlive you! My mom’s long gone but her Singer is still there pitching, this time for my married sister who sews for her kids.