Gear Review Hommade down quilt

[gloo]

I think some of you know I've made one, but I wanted to wait till I've experienced it, out on the trail before I posted my review and such. I purchased the kit off thru-hiker.com and loosely followed the instructions on there. Why did I decide to do this? Well, I wanted to upgrade my bag. my old marmot was almost 3lbs! I wanted a bag that was warmer than it but under 2lbs. I came extremely close to purchasing the marmot plasma 15, but I just couldn't pull the trigger. I came across nunatak online and thought, hey I bet I could make that. Ensue crazy googling and planning for months.

this is more of a review of how it works, than how to build it, though I'm more than happy to answer any questions so fire away, there's already a ton of stuff online with instructions though.

Now that this has been out on multiple trips, I can say I almost love this to death. I say almost because my worst enemies are: I made it too lofty for desert spring/summer and drafts (~2.5 in loft). I need to do more about keeping out drafts, I know exactly what modifications to make for this as I was planning on doing them in the first place but decided to see how it worked without them (pieces of fabric that go under my pad and velcro to the other side of the quilt, I've already got one, want to add 2 more now). so I would go through spats of being really hot, and then getting a quick cold draft. Obviously, drafts were a MUCH bigger problem when sleeping under the stars. I didn't even need to enclose my quilt when sleeping in a tent with this quilt.

PROS:
-it weighs ~20 oz, including stuff sack
-2.5 inches of loft means if i can eliminate drafts this should keep me warm to around 20.
-pride that I made something of my own (its far from perfect but so far everyone's pretty jealous of it)
-roomy. I can move around way more freely than my old bag.

CONS:
time. It took me like 30 hours to do this. My next one will be faster, but sewing, cutting, planning...its time consuming. I should have studied instead... well, actually no this was worth it!
-drafts
-it feels flimsy, but it survived a few days of dog claws fine so I may be wrong in that suspicion


Now that I've successful made my quilt, I plan on making two more in the (distant?) future: a winter and summer specific one. This was a really fun project and I now think I may start making more of my own gear. I took some pictures as I was making it, but I can't find them, when I do, I will post them.

 

[Nick]

Duuuude. So jealous. If you ever feel like making one for a tall person, I'll pay. Especially if I could have my embroidery guy throw a BCP logo on it before you throw the stuffing in. Very, very nice.

 

[DOSS]

much prettier than mine . I tried the Velcro to the pad thing and didn't like that it was then stuck to the pad like a sleeping bag. I have used Clear permatex adhesive sealant (found at your auto parts store) to put some grippy areas at the edges that I can tuck under my pad when needed and hold under better but I can still just pull it out when I want to. Oh yes and permatex is also what I use as a seam sealer, tear repair general flexible repair goo (like silnet or the like only cheaper)

 

[gloo]

much prettier than mine . I tried the Velcro to the pad thing and didn't like that it was then stuck to the pad like a sleeping bag. I have used Clear permatex adhesive sealant (found at your auto parts store) to put some grippy areas at the edges that I can tuck under my pad when needed and hold under better but I can still just pull it out when I want to. Oh yes and permatex is also what I use as a seam sealer, tear repair general flexible repair goo (like silnet or the like only cheaper)

Interesting. I don't mind the velcro around the feet as its still pretty roomy for me.

Oh and Nick, intriguing but I likely won't even be able to consider it till August or Sept haha.

 

[HomerJ]

I'd love to see more pics of it.

 

[Darwin]

That looks like a really fun project! Nice work :twothumbs:

 

[Tyler]

Seriously, very cool. I learned to sew when I was younger with a combination of a home economics project in high school and the fact that my dad did automotive upholstery for a side career for quite a while. Did you make this with just a regular sewing machine? Or did you use an industrial type? I really like the idea.

 

[Tyler]

Which kit did you buy?

 

[Darwin]

This project has got me wanting to buy a sewing machine! I spent all last night reading DIY forums on the subject A quit seems perfect, because I generally use my bag as a quilt anyway.

 

[gloo]

I got most of my stuff off thu-hiker.com and just used various other's experiences online to help me get mine set. its not perfect but I love it. I used just a regular ole sewing machine. At the time I used my mom's older, but high end home sewing machine.