Stuffed Animal Hammock Tutorial!

Picture by V

I did something today I swore I would never do...I used geometry.  Seriously.  

When I was little I had a stuffed animal obsession.  This might be why my kids have tons.  Please never look under Nate's bed. It is where his all get shoved.

Veronica, still being in her crib (it was converted to the toddler bed), has zero under bed storage.  The area eats socks, but that is all that can fit there.  V has inherited many stuffed animals from her brothers as well as collecting them on her own.

When I was little I had a stuffed animal hammock in the top corner of my room.  I LOVED to throw them into the hammock.  I figured V needed one to get her room a bit more organized.  

Since I am a regular sewer, I have tons of random material laying around I figured I would use what I had.  I knew I needed something with stretch in it.  If you go with plain cotton, it won't have any stretch and it will essentially be a "shelf" in the corner.  That would be fine if you don't have a lot to store, but we do.   I once had a grand plan to make Aidan some purple knit stripey pants when he was about 6 months old. I still have the material...8 years later.

So I grabbed that material, normal sewing supplies(scissors, pins,etc), 2 packs of bias tape, and cup hooks.  The original bias tape I grabbed, I changed my mind on.  So you will see green in the pic, but I changed to blue later.

  

Here is where the geometry comes in.  The area I wanted to put this, is near V's bed and next to a window.  One side could ONLY be 29" max.  I needed to cut the material into a 90degree right triangle.  Sounds easy, right?  Here is where the tricky comes in. 

You need the longest side (the part that is not touching a wall to be stretchy. If you grab a piece of knit, you will see that when you tug it, it only stretches one way.

ALSO, I only had half a yard. So while the two short sides could be up to 29" long, it wouldn't work on my material.

This is really where trial and error and geometry comes in.  I found the formula for figuring out the long side (Pythagoras Theorem) and started plugging away.

a2 + b2 = c2              A and B are the two short sides.  C= the long side.

So, I plugged in 29 into A and B and figured it out. If those two sides were 29" the length across would be 41 inches.  I measured that out, DID NOT CUT, and marked the center of the top.  I grabbed my yardstick, layed it from point to point. It was not 29", so I knew it wouldn't fit my corner correctly.  Remember, you want it to be square like your wall!

After lots of finagling, I got the correct number.  (26x26)+ (26x26)=1352  THEN you take the square root of 1352.  Your computer calculator should have it.  Looks like a little weird check mark. Mine is 36.76955, so I just rounded to 37inches.

Measure 37" across the bottom, draw a line to the other side, and cut straight up.  You can't tear knit, so make sure to have a line to cut on!  Then find the middle of the top and lay your straight edge from there to the bottom right corner. Draw a line and repeat with the other side.  Cut on your diagonal lines.

Get one pack of bias tape and start sandwiching the knit between it and pinning. Make sure to leave a few inches on each side to make your loops.  I left about an inch that would go onto an opposite side and allowed about 4 inches for a loop.  So- 5 inches hanging off NOT pinned.  One pack of bias tape will NOT go around all three edges. Due to this and my having random colors in my sewing kit, I decided to do the back two sides one color and the front edge another.

Once the first side is pinned on (with 5 inches hanging off BOTH sides), head to your machine. DO NOT STITCH starting at the very end.  Leave that first inch open.  Stitch down the rest of the bias tape, leaving the last inch un-stitched again.  As you might notice in my picture, it looks like I did stitch all the way.  I did.  Then I had to rip it out.  You can't sandwich the other side in it if it is sewed closed!  So, do as I say and not as I do and save yourself the headache.

Take the extra bias tape hanging off the edge and form a loop. Make sure the un-sewn part ends up on the next side.  Sandwich it inside and pin.

Grab the rest of that bias tape (or another color-your choice) and butt it up against the loop.  Pin in place.  Pin going down the side, leave the 5 inches hanging off the side, and cut. Take it to the sewing machine and sew it down!  Leave the last inch un-sewn again!

For the third side you don't leave extra hanging off. You want to butt it up against each loop and just sew straight across.  Now, this next strep is TOTALLY optional.   I was really scared of the knit coming out of the corner since I (1)-threw this together rather quickly one afternoon and didn't have the prettiest corners, and (2)-have tons of stuffed animals to throw on it.  I switched my stitches to a zig zag and went a bit crazy on the corners. It feels rather secure now!

Figure out where you want the hammock and insert a cup hook into the wall.  I realized I needed a drill at this point and predrilled a tiny hole for the hook to get started in.  Corners have boards in them. Drilling a hole makes it much easier. Just make sure your drill bit is SMALLER than the screw part on the hook!  Once the hook is in, put the back loop of the net on the wall and stretch it out to where you want the other side.  Put a dot there and insert the next hook (using the drill if necessary)

Loop the second loop on, stretch to over to the other side and do the same process.  Once all done, throw stuffed animals on and admire your handiwork.!
 

It really does hold a ton and stretches nicely!

I wrote this post the way my brain was working, so if you need help understanding something, let me know!!  Happy Organizing!