Swing and Relax

Hi,

I am Sophie, a products designer student. As a task for school I made this portable swing. The swing is made of textile filled with pillows. With the aid of a few tubes and a rope you can hang the textile as a little coach. You can fold the swing together like a handbag, which facilitates the transport. If you want to swing and relax, you're just a few steps away...

Materials

1 piece of textile with a firm facric (200 x 110 cm)

2 PVC-tubes 57 cm (3,2 cm diammeter & 0,3 cm profile)

2 PVC-tubes 66 cm (idem)

4 PVC-tube couplers

2 pillows (50 x 50 cm)

1 ribbon (3 x 250 cm)

2 bagpack clips

1 firm rope of 250 cm

1 firm rope of 1000

1 rope adjuster

1 carabiner

1 metal ring

Tools

scissors

PVC-glue

sewing machine

You can find the pattern you need to sewthe swing on the first 2 pics.

The first pattern you have to make twice. I will call them "the wings".

The second pattern you only need once, this will be "the seat".

Different lines have a different meaning.

_____________ : you have to cut here

---------------------: you have to fold here

...........................: you have to sew here (after the folding)

I did put the sizes next to the pattern, but of course you can make the swing as big/small as you want. Pay attention that ,when you cut the pattern, you leave some extra centimeters for the seams.

I inserted a video where you can see how you have to fold the patterns and how you put the wings and the seat together.

After this step you should have something that looks like the last picture. Be aware that you leave a seam open to insert the pillows.

Before you insert the pillows you have to attach the ribbons and the clips, because you can still sew easily.

The ribbons should be attached as indicated on the first picture. To insert the first part of the clip (firtst and second picture) you need to sew the first 30 cm of the ribbon, then shove the part on the ribbon and continue the sewing at 35 cm.

When both ribbons are attached, you will have 2 remaining long endings. The thing you do is shove the 2 second parts of the clips on each end. After that you sew the both ends together, by which you form the handgrip of the "handbag".

Now it's time to insert the pillows in both the back and the sitting of the seat. After that you can close the last seam.

At this moment the seat should look aproximately like on the picture.

Now you can insert the short tubes inside the loops of the seat. To give the swing extra strenght I glued the tubes and the couplers together with PVC-glue. The short tubes will stay in the swing when we fold it to a handbag, so glue is allowed.

When the short tubes are inserted, you can insert the long tubes in the loops of the wings.

Withouth the textile the tube-frame would look like the second picture. Be carefull, glue is not allowed here, because you need to detach the long tubes when you want to fold the swing to a handbag.

The short rope goes trough the upper part of the seat. Both endings have to be knotted up on the metal ring.

Before you insert the long rope trough the lower part of the seat, you need to indicate a distance of 350 cm. After inserting the rope you can make a knot at the indicated distance (first picture). I measured this distance for a perfect sitting comfort. If you use different distances you will either be laying donw in your swing or either sitting up straight.

The knot also has to be attached to the ring (second picture).

You're only one step away...

At the last you have to attach the rope adjuster and the carabiner. Therefore you take the other end of the long rope and attach the adjuster as indicated on the first two pictures. Next you create a loop for the carabiner bye pulling on the rope like on the tirth picture.

The only thing to do now is to find a tree, throw the carabiner over a huge branch and click the carabiner on the metal ring (last picture).

I hope you'll enjoy your swing!