Bushwalk Australia

Has anyone here sewn their own down hood?

I've been thinking about making one and would like to learn from others if possible.
I've never worked with down. About how much fill would be needed for a good fluffy hood?

Theres a pattern on thruhiker iirc Orion (for adding to a jacket). Looked surprisingly complicated.

Nuts, do you have a link? I looked there first and didn't find anything.

I'm not surprised that it's complicated, which is why I'm asking for advice before I go off and reinvent the wheel.

this may help you
http://rob-thegreatoutdoors.blogspot.co ... clava.html

The thru-hiker one- it's not specifically for down Orion, needs scaling up I guess. Try here, 3/4 posts down: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin ... d_id=28863

Thanks for the links, you guys. I had actually already found those two (one links to the other) as they come up pretty quickly in a web search. I was hoping for some additional personal observations, problems to avoid, that sort of thing. Maybe it isn't that popular a project?

Orion, I've not made a down hood, but made other complicateddwn items, and that design looks pretty easy. I think the most important part of making a down item well is the final seam. Make sure it is pinned in place before sewing, as it is rare for everything to match up perfectly.

Andrew A

Thanks Andrew, it's nice to hear that it looks easy to you.

I'm worried about it fitting well, something that I suspect is less critical for a sleeping bag or even a jacket. What if you have big pumpkin head? Or if you're a pinhead? And I was expecting that the outer and inner layers would be different sizes, but maybe it doesn't matter that much. A one-size-fits-all pattern on the internet may not be quite right? I notice that commercial versions seem to only come in one size so I'm probably wrong. But I'll mock something up first to check it out.

Differential cut will depend on the temperature expected, above -20 it probably isn't really needed as down hoods are so warm anyway. In fact I have a down hood here I have only used once as it is simply too warm. an ounce or two (25 -> 40 grams) of down is plenty, this old AlpSports hood has 5ounces, differential cut and 4deep baffles and is 4 inches thick. The hood from my MD Everest has a only 30 grams of down, only two minimal baffles no differential cut and is warm enough .

Good information, thank you Moondog.

Just a note on patterns.
A 3 piece hood fits better than a 2 piece hood and the centre panel in a 3piece is where it is the easiest to make size adjustments. Down will be lighter but for a general purpose hood thinsulate may be easier to work with and about the same finished cost.
Hood patterns are easy to make and easy to size up or down, just add or subtract a few millimetres all around

Does anyone have a copy of that down hood pattern? The link appears to be broken now.

I need to add a hood to my belay parka.

Any one got tips on sizing etc. as I'll need this to fit over a helmet.

The thru-hiker pattern is still online: http://thru-hiker.com/projects/hood_pattern.php
Those other two posted links still work for me. Or do you mean something else?

This is actually a timely resurrection of this thread. I didn't make that hood two years ago but made a couple of quilts in the meantime. A few days ago I pulled out the box containing the fabric and down I bought for the hood in 2012. I hope to have something in another week or two.

I was referring to the zip file to download that contains the pattern.

I'll give the thru-hiker one a shot, I guess I can figure out where to put the drawcords and baffles. Can anyone recommend a good place to buy gore-tex or similar in North America? This hood needs to be fairly burly and water/wind proof.

Which zip file?

On the backpackinglight link one of the forum members links here http://gear.rezacovi.cz/whitney_hood.zip

Supposedly this file contains the pdf of the hood pattern but I can't get it to open.

Simple 3 piece hood pattern
WinRAR file and should open in W7 Automatically It does on my machine then warns me to pay for the program in 40 days

Beean, I sent the pdf file to you via PM.

Orion has come to the rescue.

Cheers mate, now my neck will no longer be caked with cold snow.

If you don't have time to make one I just found a LW hood from an old fashion parka that may help. Not really windproof or water resistant [ What do you expect it is from a Mossimo fashion garment] but could be improved with some Nikwax. Warm enough tho but I really do not need all this gear so available PIF

Appreciate the offer Moondog, but I'm in Canada so it might not be worth the shipping costs I think.

How urgent is it? I'll be there in 2016
for Deep Freeze, I can add it to my stash :OLOL:
;-{o>

How'd you go with your hood Orion?

I've been procrastinating and hoping winter will be over before I have to make mine...

Despite my best intentions I once again did not make the hood this year. At least I started this time, using two different patterns to produce mockups. But neither one inspired any confidence that it would fit properly. I lost faith, ran out of time, and really, I don't need a down hood anyway. Maybe I'll use the fabric and down for something useful, like down underpants.

Isn't it summer where you are?

Alas, mine has run the same course. I've also convinced myself that I don't need a hood, although I do.

Orion wrote:Isn't it summer where you are?

Nope, I've swapped 'bushwalking' for 'hiking' and am enjoying a warm Canadian Rockies winter.

Down undies sound luxurious, I'm wondering why the outdoor market hasn't capitalised on them yet. You could be on to the next hot new thing!

Sorry to hear that you also folded. I was hoping that seeing a photo of yours would inspire me to try again.

The Canadian Rockies in winter does sound a bit chilly. And dark.