DIY YOUR OWN HAMMOCK
We are SO amazed at how incredible this summer hammock DIY turned out. This thing has been super highly requested and we’re here to show you how to make it! Let’s get into this!
Cost: $50-$100
Difficulty: ✂ ✂
Materials:
- Outdoor canvas material
- Fabric cord
- Decorative beads
- Metal ring
- Wood
- Nails
- Braided poly rope
Tools:
- Hammer
- Fabric scissors
We started off with our fabric. We chose a fabric that is strong, weather proof, and canvas like. We had this pre-cut to 79” by 41.5”, the size that we want out hammock to be. We are going to lay our fabric out and hem the sides. While we are hemming the sides an inch, we are going to be adding some cotton string cords for a macrame decoration that we are going to be doing later. These fabric cords are 19” long, and we have 30 of them (meaning we’ll have 15 on each side). We will be spacing them 5 inches apart along the hem. Now that everything has been pinned in place, we can run it through the sewing machine and sew it in place!
This next step is optional, but we are going to macrame a pattern with the cord we sewed into the hem. Take the first two ropes and knot them together a few inches down, and the same with the next two ropes.Then take the two inside ropes and knot them together. Next, slide a decorative wooden bead onto one of the rope ends and tie another knot to hold the bead in place. We also decided to unbraid the rope to give it more of a natural look. For the ends without another rope to tie to, just add a bead to the individual strand. Continue this until all of your rope is finished!
This next step is going to lead us into the rope step that is going to help us hang the hammock. We’re going to be cutting little slits in the short ends of the hammock to act as little tabs to attach our rope. Draw small marks every 3 ¼” down the short side of the fabric. Once you make those marks, cut in at each mark about 2 inches deep.
Next we are going to make a clew, which is essentially a series of knots, and attach a ring that is going to help us hang our hammock. First we are going to make a simple weaving jig using scrap wood and nails, just to make the weaving a bit easier. We are going to nail 12 of these nails into the wood, 1 ½ inches apart.
Now that we have the nails in, we are going to clamp our jig to the table. We are going to next place our steel ring about 24 inches away from the centre of our jig, and tape it in place on the table.
To actually braid the clew, we are going to need 100 feet of braided poly rope, 50 feet per side. Start by taking one end of your string and pull it through the ring from the back to the front and pull out 4 feet in length. Leave this tail out. With the rest of the rope, wrap it around your fist nail from the outside to the inside. Bring the rope up and through the ring from the outside to the inside. Bring the rope back down to the second nail and continue wrapping the rope from the nails up to the ring and back down to the nails all the way until you reach the last nail. Bring the rope through the ring one final time and this should leave you with an extra 4 feet of rope on this side as well.
Now it’s time to get weaving. You should notice each loop has a top side and a bottom side. With a pencil, loop it through and gather the bottom rope of each loop. Push the rope tight to the top with than pencil. Using your two outside ropes slide them through to the other side, through the gap you created with the pencil. With your end ropes now on the opposite sides, remove the pencil, and pull tight. Repeat the process of gathering the bottom ropes of each loop and stringing your outside ropes through the ropes in opposite directions. Once you’ve done two lines, we’re going to start skipping the outside ropes to create the triangle braided pattern. With your pencil, skip the first loop of rope before gathering the rest of the bottom ropes. Make sure to skip the last loop of rope as well to keep it even. When you bring the side ropes through, make sure you string the ropes through the centre of the outer loops we skipped. Pull tight. For the next row. We’ll be skipping another set of loops again. This will leave us with two loops we have skipped on either side. String the pencil through the remaining inside loops and again string your outer ropes through the centre of the new loops we just skipped. Repeat this process, skipping an extra rope on each side each time until you’re left with the final 2 inside ropes. Bring your outer ropes to the front and tie them together in a tight knot. Cut off any extra rope. You can now take the ropes off the nails, and there you go, you’ve completed your first clew! Repeat this whole process twice as we’ll need a clew for each side of the hammock.
Now that we have out two clews made, we need to attach them to the hammock! Taking each loop of the clew, we are going to loop each tab through each loop and pin.
Next we are going to sew two lines on the top side and bottom side of each clew loop and tab, creating a tube. Now that the clews feel sturdy, it’s time to hang using tree straps!
Aaaaand you're done! How unreal does this look?!
Thank you SO much for reading! Please check out the hammock video below!