How to Make an Inflatable Lightweight Swing

In this tutorial you'll learn how to make a lightweight comfortable swing but still keep it low budget.

This swing is designed for children, those who are fond of hiking, tracking in the woods, camping, etc... It weighs so little no other swing could compete. A Prusik knot in the rope makes the length adjustable. Just follow this tutorial and you'll be swinging on every branch, bridge or whatever floats your boat.

Here are things you'll need to make this swing:

Seating:

• Fabric: I used a fabric made out of 65% polyester and 35% cotton. Kitchen aprons are made out this fabric. It's a real bang for your buck. It's sturdy but still low budget.
  
  Dimensions: 1000 mm x 400 mm

• Inflatable pillow: I wanted to make swinging more comfortable by adding an inflatable pillow. You can use inflatable pillow, just make sure it's smaller than your fabric hence you have to put it inside

• 5 eyelets
  
  Dimensions: ø 10 mm

Hanging Mechanism:

• Propylene rope
  
  Dimensions:
  
  hanging rope: 20 000 mm x 8 mm
  rope in the seating: 6000 mm x ø 5 mm

• Rope for the adjustable knot: 100 mm x

  ø

  5 mm
  

• 2 small carabiners
  

Rope Bag:

• 1 cord lock
  
• 1 little short rope that fits the cord lock
• Piece of fabric
  
  Dimensions: 500 x 18 mm
  

1. First of all, you need to cut off 500 x 18 mm of your fabric. Now you cut it in half to get two sheets of 500 x 400 mm
   
2. Place the two sheets on each other, sew the two sides and the bottom to make it look like bag
3. Make sure that you keep the bag in this way because you'll need to continue to work on this side

1. Place an eyelet in the corner and mark it with a pencil inside the ring
   
2. Cut out that little circle
3. Place a half of an eyelet through the hole and cover it with the other side
4. Close the eyelet firmly with your eyelet tool
5. Repeat until the four corners have an eyelet.
6. Turn it around and place the inflatable pillow inside to know where the blowhole goes. Make a little hole as you've already done and finish it with an eyelet.
7. Remove the inflatable pillow

1. Cut of 100 mm of your ø 5mm rope and put it aside
2. Cut the rest your rope in half
3. Place the rope through the holes.
4. Make a knot by twisting the two ends around your finger and through the hoop
5. Do the same for the other side
6. Pull the ropes until the knot is in the center of the side (as seen on the picture above)
7. Hand sew the ropes close the side to make the next step a lot easier. Only sew the bottom and two sides again
8. Turn it inside out and if you've done as mentioned above the ropes should maintain position
9. Sew with your machine close the rope on the inside
10. Remove the previous strings you've had hand sewn on
11. Place the inflatable pillow with the blowhole to the correspondent eyelet.
12. Sew the on each side of the side that hasn't been sewn. You'll need to sew under and above the rope.
13. By now the rope should stay in place.
14. Sew the bag pack buckle on opposite sides

1. Take your that you've cut off in the first step. Adjust it to 500 mm x 18 mm
2. Fold it and sew the bottom and two side until it looks like a bag
3. Flip over a stroke of fabric and sew it until 10 mm from the side
4. Pull your rope through the hole and place the cord lock into place.
5. Make a little knot at the the end to prevent losing the cord lock
6. Turn it inside out and you have your bag

1. Make on each end a knot of the rope with ø 10 mm. Follow the instructions to how to knot a loop
2. Take your piece of rope (100 mm x ø 5 mm) and tie the ends together.
3. Follow the instructions to tie the Prusik knot on to the long rope. The Prusik knot is an adjustable knot and tightens up when it's being pulled.

1. Put half of the rope in the rope bag and roll up the other half
2. Place it on the side and start to roll.
3. When you're finished rolling, wrap the thinner rope around. Do this for both sides in the opposite direction towards the center.
4. Lock it with the carabiner.
5. Lock the bag pack buckle around your neck and your good to go
6. Swing
7. Swing
8. Swing
9. Take a break
   

I hope you enjoyed my instructable. Now go outside and swing!

For more info (in Dutch) please check my blog