DIY down quilt

[undercling-mike]

I just finished a DIY down quilt I've been making for a friend, my fifth now. Anyway, this one has a couple of interesting features so I figured I'd make a post about it.

First the basic specs:

Fabric: Argon 90 red outer shell and Impetus 1.0 black inner. Both very nice fabrics and it was decided to go with a bit heavier fabrics on this one for hard use.

Dimensions: 200cm x 142cm (shoulders) x 112cm (foot), approx. 79 x 56 x 44 inches

Fill: ~340g 800 fill power goose down

Finished weight: ~565g

As for a rating I'm hesitant to put a number on it but it's supposed to be a 3 season quilt for the NSW east coast and Blue Mountains. If you play all of the tricks you should be able to just get away with it around 0°C.

The quilt has a fully baffled differentially cut footbox with the bottom four baffles being continuous right around the quilt so there are no sewn through seams. At the head end the inner fabric on the top chamber extends about 6-7cm beyond the outer fabric and drawcord channel. This gives an oversized top chamber that acts as a draft tube when the drawcord is synched up.

There are also some flat buckles sewn into the edge of the quilt that couple with a pad strap system similar to the Enlightened Equipment quilts.

The more interesting features of this quilt are the partial side block baffles in the top half of the quilt and what I call leg girth reducers. The partial side block baffles are designed to prevent the down from shifting to the sides as you toss and turn though the night, they also allow concentrating the down over the top of you to maximise warmth. Based on a quick test I think they will be quite effective, it takes a bit of effort to deliberately shift the down past the side baffles.

The leg girth reducers are little loops sewn into the leg region of the quilt that can be tied together with elastic cord, reducing the circumference of the quilt around your legs. This reduces dead space in the quilt around your legs and allows the down to be concentrated in the reduced effective width of the quilt. These can be seen in the last photo, where the footbox of the quilt has been turned inside out. I think these should be a good addition to this quilt as the footbox and leg area is otherwise quite spacious?

Overall I think it turned out really well and I can't wait to get some feedback from it's use.

[beean]

Looks like a professional job. Nice touch with the gusset at the footbox.

[ofuros]

oooooh very nice !

[Strider]

That looks incredible!

[photohiker]

Nice job!

[Tortoise]

Reckon you're just about ready to go into business! Amazing job.

[simonm]

Very impressive.

[Moondog55]

Seriously nice work Suitably impressed
Do you take orders?

[undercling-mike]

Thanks guys, as this is my fifth quilt there has definitely been refinement of the design and my sewing ability along the way. Nonetheless even the first quilt I made is perfectly functional.

I forgot to mention that the inspiration for the side block baffles came from this quilt: http://seatosummitultralight.blogspot.c ... spots.html though I decided that partial side block baffles would do the job while being a lot less time consuming to implement.

As for going into business, the thing you realise as you make these things is that the commercial vendors have made many design choices to streamline production, for example the flat sewn footboxes of the Enlightened Equipment Enigma or zpacks quilts (Of course other cottage vendors do make round or oval footbox ends). I chose to go with an oval shaped sewn in footbox, but it certainly takes more time and I guess the flat sewn method is still effective, as evidenced by many happy customers from those companies. I've got another one to make for another friend now but after that I might actually consider taking a few commissions, I can't see myself going into production though..

[FootTrack]

Great effort mike this is very impressive. The sort of quality you'd expect to see in a store Can't wait to have a crack at something like this myself when I find the time. How long did it take you to make out of interest?

[Bluegum Mic]

Absolutely awesome. Looks amazing

[perfectlydark]

Thumbs up!

[undercling-mike]

FootTrack, I'd say go for it! The most intimidating part of the process is starting. I don't have an exact time to build as I tend to work on it for a few hours at a time over a number of sessions but it was probably around 15 hours or something like that. The first one would have taken a bit longer for sure despite simpler construction but I was taking my time and learning how to handle the fabrics.

[Orion]

Your quilt looks very nice. I'm curious about the partial side block baffles though. It isn't clear to me where they are or what you mean exactly by partial. Could you explain this with words and maybe a diagram or photo?

I usually give my quilt a good shake when I pull it out of the stuff sack as it isn't highly overstuffed. I've wondered if side baffles would have helped. It's a hard thing to test on your own.

[undercling-mike]

The partial side block baffles are sort of shown in the third photo, which isn't very good quality unfortunately but you can see where they are sewn into the shell. Basically they run perpendicular to the main baffles but don't run the full distance between adjacent baffles, the principle is similar to Karo baffles and my inspiration was from this quilt (which has full side block baffles): http://seatosummitultralight.blogspot.c ... spots.html. In my case I had a baffle spacing of about 12.5cm and the partial side block baffles are 5cm wide. Quick testing indicated that they should be

As a fairly active sleeper I also found that I needed a bit of extra overstuff of down in my quilts to prevent shifting during the night, particularly in humid, damp conditions and the partial side block baffles are designed to help that and quick testing indicates that they should be fairly effective. Regardless I think it's a good idea to give any down quilt or sleeping bag a good shake to distribute the down when you pull it out.

[Orion]

So they're up at the top of the quilt, on each side, roughly from shoulders to elbows?

[undercling-mike]

I did them on the top half of the quilt, the top 8 out of 16 chambers. Can't remember off the top of my head the exact measurements but they're about 25-30cm in from the edge. I chose the position based on where the quilt would wrap under you when reasonably tucked into it.

[FootTrack]

FootTrack, I'd say go for it! The most intimidating part of the process is starting. I don't have an exact time to build as I tend to work on it for a few hours at a time over a number of sessions but it was probably around 15 hours or something like that. The first one would have taken a bit longer for sure despite simpler construction but I was taking my time and learning how to handle the fabrics.

You've convinced me I think I've got four months off coming up so there'll be no excuses for not giving it a go! I'll put something up here once I've done. Interesting to hear some of the custom touches you've gone about giving it - things that I haven't given a lot of thought. I guess that's the advantage of making stuff yourself in that you can make it exactly how you want it. Thanks for sharing.

[undercling-mike]

Nice one, make sure you post your results here FootTrack, and feel free to ask any questions you have.

[Eljimberino]

Well done mate.

[undercling-mike]

Just finished up another couple of these quilts, similarly specified to the previous quilt in terms of features and loft/warmth but the dimensions have been altered to suit the users. One has Argon 90 olive brown for the shell and Argon 67 black for the liner and the other is Argon 90 Victoria blue for the shell with an Argon 67 brown liner. The blue one is for a friend and the olive brown one is for a forum member.

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The last photo shows a detail of the neck/head closure, which uses a sewn on plastic snap and a shock cord drawcord. The inner fabric of the last baffle also extends beyond the drawcord channel and the chamber is overstuffed to act as a draft collar.

I've managed to speed up some parts of the process with experience, such as sewing the baffles, but some parts of the process such as the footbox construction or anything involving pinning really, are still very time consuming and I wonder how they do these things in a commercial setting. Even measuring, cutting and marking the fabric is still slow. I don't have a template at this point but the dimensions of each quilt I have made have been slightly different.

[simonm]

Awesome work Mike. The new colours do look great, I need to get some of those. It would be nice to have a local quilt manufacturer .

[undercling-mike]

Yep, the new colours are nice, I got a little of the purple as well and i'm still a huge fan of the red. I'm still way too slow at making these to think about manufacturing them regularly, but don't worry, the thought has crossed my mind. Maybe I'll be able to make a few more next year if time allows.

I also noticed that you've got your bulk down on sale Simon, I'm all stocked up but just thought I'd note for anyone thinking about making down gear that you're unlikely to do better than that price for high quality down unless you need a lot of it. Cheaper than wilderness logics is selling it for in the USA after currency conversion.

[simonm]

Let me know if you want some orders next year, I am sure I can drum some up for you.

Keep in mind next year I am looking to bring in some HyperDry goose and duck down.

[andrewa]

Very nicely made.

Have you considered using a Roger Caffin style quilt...

http://bushwalkingnsw.org.au/clubsites/ ... htm#Quilts

which has a slightly longer bit in the middle on the top (like an upside down hood) which can then cover your head....and which is a lot warmer. This is how I've made my last few quilts, and I love the "over head" facility.

A

[undercling-mike]

We will have to see Simon, I'll need to recover from making this lot (read forget) before contemplating more. That's interesting about the HyperDry down. Do you have any experience with it? There seems to be varying reports: some swear by it, some remain unconvinced and of course the marketing hype is in overdrive. Anecdotal reports are always hard to go on but I was sleeping out under a vague rock overhang earlier in the year and the bottom half of my (non DWR down) quilt had been getting drizzled on for apparently several hours when I woke up but the water hadn't got through the DWR coating on the Argon fabric and all was fine. I just gave it a bit of a shake and let it dry for a bit before packing. It makes me wonder if the positive anecdotal reports about the DWR down were really testing the down or if the fabric did the work. I'd also note that Zpacks recently removed the option for DWR down for their sleeping bags, claiming that the benefit was marginal and it made the down more clumpy.

Not trying to poo poo DWR down here, just trying to cut through the hype and for what it's worth I've ordered some rather expensive DWR down for myself recently to test and try out more for my own curiosity than anything else.

Andrew, I looked at Roger's site during the design process, lots of good information there, and tried that design in mock ups but found it didn't work for me. I sleep probably 50:50 on back and side and I couldn't get it to work for me while sleeping on my back, it just covered my face and was uncomfortable. I have no doubt that it works well for some though. With the flat top design I can pull the quilt up to cover the back of my head, neck and ears with the front pushed down a little so my nose is clear at least and I'm wearing a beanie for the top of my head. For side sleeping it can cover my whole head given enough length and can be tucked out of the way of my face. I may make an insulated balaclava or hood at some point but haven't needed it so far.

[Moondog55]

Sounds like you and Mike need to form an alliance with the other forum manufacturer [ Evan - TerraRosa] and form a new business

[simonm]

Mike - until I get some I wont be able to give any advice on it's benefits or lack thereof. I will look into those concerns though, if you have any links can you send them through to me please. I will be interested to hear your thoughts when you get some. Regardless I will also be looking at bringing in varying fill powers including duck down to offer a few more pricing options for people.

MD - collaboration is always the key. Evan and I do a little of that already.

[Bluegum Mic]

As the proud (and very grateful) recipient of the lovely brown and black quilt pictured above all I can say is WOW and Thankyou. As someone who owns/ed quilts from enlightened equipment, hammock gear, leighlo and rab the quality of workmanship and design of Mikes quilt is phenomenal. It is flawless. Thankyou again for making this for me and for everyone else we can only hope one day Mike does venture into making quilts professionally. It is brilliant (and can't wait to hit the main range in the new year

[undercling-mike]

Cheers Mic, that's a wonderful compliment and I hope you have great pleasure in using it. I've actually never seen any other quilts in person (but have seen some good sleeping bags) so I studied designs online and evolved my own design and I'm very happy with the latest ones. Let me know how it goes when you push the temp limits on that thing.