We have a lycra swing at our clinic and we love it! We are lucky enough to have a structure that we can hang our swing on so we can change the configuration depending on the needs of the kiddo.
This is how we made our own:
What you need: Lycra, boating rope (or some other strong rope), 4 carabiners, secure hooks to hang the swing from
First we bought Lycra from a fabric store. I believe the dimensions were about 6 yards by 3 yards however you can make it as big or as small as you would like (you will be tying knots at the corners and it will take up some of the fabric). Make sure the fabric is large enough because you will be folding it in half. If you are going to be using it for larger kids you may want to triple it to provide more resistance to stretch.
Second tie a knot at each corner.
Now you will need to work with the rope.
Cut 4 pieces of rope approximately 10 inches long and fold in half and tie an overhand knot in the ends to make a loop.
Now you are ready to put it all together. One rope loop goes with each knot. You want to secure the rope to the lycra just under the lycra knot (so the corner is above the rope). You are going to wrap the loop around under the knot and feed one end through the other and then pull it tight (I know it sounds confusing but hopefully this picture helps)
Lastly you attach a carabiner to each rope and you are ready to hang the swing from a sturdy surface and have fun!
We will follow up with ideas for how and why to use a lycra swing in another post!