I salvaged a sewing machine from a house clearance with lots of good intentions but I've hardly used it much. Now the nights are drawing in I might get cracking with a project of some kind.
What's the idea of the bridge hammock Stephen ? Not knocking your work in anyway but it doesn't look that comfy, maybe I need to do some reading.
Its very comfy actually, way more so than a standard hammock, reading up I would suggest hammockforums as a place to start, basically its the flattest lie hammock out there, very comfortable whether you are a side, back or stomach sleeper.
The other big plus is, it doesn't use a lot of material to make, in other words its light and packs small.
The photo I posted is a first trial, to check the dimensions and load points, also to check that my sewing is up to the task the catenary cuts (curved) on the sides keep it very taut, so the material and your sewing needs to be up to the task. I lay in it off and on, on Sunday, very comfortable, the head bar is too short at 33" it should be 36" but it was all I had available, even then I didn't feel any squeeze on my shoulders (the only flaw on bridges) if you don't design it right.
The final version will have the ends filled in to create a bath shape, looking at the final shape, midge nets, (simple rectangle over the top), underblankets (simple rectangle) should be easy to make, and light, ie small pack size.
Plus to be frank its a lot of fun, I'm a mechanical designer/engineer to trade, nowadays I macromanage £0.5 M plus projects, its good to just enjoy designing and then building this stuff and at the end of the day I hope to be using a hammock/underblanket I designed (with a lot of help) rather than store bought.
Rich hopefully you will see it in person soon enough, I'm ordering the material for it this week.
PS Wait till you see what I have in store for the MD Reflection, think "balanced lug sail", and I don't even have that yet !
Stephen