Today I bought 12 bolts of fabric. I think those 12 bolts, combined with the two I already had and what people bring, should give us a full 90 hammocks for the first time in the Hammock Hangout’s 10 year run. I am super excited! Please bring your fabric and your hammocks so we can be sure to reach the goal!

14 bolts of hammock making fabric

Here are three different ways to make a hammock, starting with the easiest:

1. And the easiest of them all. This one requires more fabric, but that is it… wish I would have thought/heard of this a few years ago:
   http://www.instructables.com/id/Instant-Hammock/
   Two issues not mentioned in the instructable are:
   • fabric should be at least 12 to 15 feet long
   • edges may need to be hemmed if it doesn’t have a tear stop or is of itself tear resistant fabric
2. this is the type I was making. Easy to do, but requires a sewing machine. (site sucks, instruction are below the fold!):
   http://www.uniqueprojects.com/projects/hammock/hammock.htm
3. No material needed, but the most work:
   http://www.hammocks.com/howtomakeyourownhammockarticle.cfm

We have plenty of the heavy rope to type the hammocks to the polls with.

Hammocks inside the Hammock Hangout, BM 2003

The design of the hammock is simple. You start with a ten foot piece of relatively strong fabric that is somewhat tare resistant.

Then you reinforcing the long edges on both sides of the hammock by folding it over and preferable sewing some parachute line into the edge to keep it from ripping.

I put some extra reinforcement on the ends for the loop and Now fold both ends.

and make very sturdy attachment on the edges.

When I started things were rough, but practice makes perfect.