UnderQuilt Build - Dutchware Raffle Project

[Mcdoc]

Well the good stuff has arrived!
Before even opening the package the shipping label made me smile:
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It's all here and now there's no excuse to not get to work:

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850 goose down with hyperdry (not stocked by Dutch: I wonder where it came from?)
Forest green and saddle brown argon67 (both appear darker folded up),
Black argon 67 taffeta, and black rip stop,
1.5" pre-cut no-see-um baffle material,
Shockcord , gutteman thread,
Linelocs, cordlocks, quilt hooks, and ridgeline clips.

That light argon is like tissue paper, but has an awesome feel to it. I wonder if it is going to be difficult to sew.

[Deathstar77]

Best of luck. I can't wait to see progress

[Mcdoc]

Since I’m using less than a whole yard of the brown Argon67, I decided to use some of the leftover scrap for a better test of the shirring technique. I took a 12” wide section of Argon67 and made large roll seams on either end. This was 54” long and will roughly represent a cross-section of the underquilt inner layer. I used the shirring technique to make stitch lines of varying number/width apart. 3”, 1.5”, and 0.75”. The piece was laid flat to measure the compressed length. Then, each end seam was slipped over a wooden dowel spaced 34” apart.
The amount of sag at rest was measured, as well as the amount of sag with a piece of cardboard weighing 2.72 oz. (this was used to represent the total weight of a 12” section of finished (16.8oz) quilt based on the result from catsplat’s calculator. [post #10 above])

Results:
Starting width: 54”

3” shirring width: 32”
3” shirring center sag: .5”
3” shirring sag with quilt weight: 10”
3inch flat.jpg 3inch sag.jpg 3inch weightsag.jpg

1.5” shirring width: 30”
1.5” shirring center sag: 0.75”
1.5” shirring sag with quilt weight: 7”
1.5inchflat.jpg 1.5inch sag.jpg 1.5inch weightsag.jpg

0.75” shirring width: 28.5”
0.75” shirring center sag: 0”
0.75” shirring sag with quilt weight: 4.5”
0.75inch flat.jpg 0.75inch sag.jpg 0.75inch weightsag.jpg

This is a video of how stretchy and forgiving it is at 1.5” shirring.



Almost all of the stretch is in the direction of the shirring stitch, and you loose almost no length, even with closely spaced shirring:
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For fun/practice I tried sewing some baffles to the shirred piece. (according to plan these would already be attached to the outer layer of the quilt) It wasn’t that bad, as long as I was sewing perpendicular to the direction of the shirr. They’re not very straight, but good enough for the inner layer of a DIY quilt where they won’t ever be seen. I think it will be more difficult trying to juggle all the layers of slippery fabric under the arm when attaching baffles to the full quilt.
baffles.jpg

All-in-all, I think this will work quite well: it is a very mild stretch, but should be just enough to snug the quilt up against the bottom of the hammock. Based on the result of this test, I think I’m going to go with a 1” spacing for the shirring on my quilt.
Argon67.jpg

[Dutch]

Absolutely excellent. The fact you are trying a new technique just thrills me to no end. Great job.

[KenDen]

I have a Montbell super stretch sleeping bag that I love. The baffles are stretchy, perpendicular to the direction that you show above. I think you are on to a really neat concept that should really improve how the under quilt works with the hammock.

[sadrian]

wow this is really cool! Subscribed!!

[Ghillieshot]

Great idea. I was thinking of incorporating this in an Uq/Tq after seeing it in a sleeping bag. I just didn't know what the technique was. Sick bro. God job.

[heycorb]

How well does the shirring run through your machine? It looks like really thin shock cord (1/32 or 1/64). I could see a few uses for this on a TQ. Very cool project.

[Mcdoc]

How well does the shirring run through your machine? It looks like really thin shock cord (1/32 or 1/64). I could see a few uses for this on a TQ. Very cool project.

It is much thicker than any regular polyester thread. What you do is wrap it on the bobbin only, in an unstretched state. I have been setting my stitch length slightly longer, and setting the tension slightly higher, and it seems to work well. I measured with the last test, and can get about 26 feet of stitching with a full bobbin.

Not terribly precise, but I measured about 0.55mm diameter. That's 1/46in, so you had a pretty good guess!
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[Mouseskowitz]

I'm interested to see how this project ends up working out. Is the stretchiness going to affect the loft and thus insulation of the down at all? If I'm understanding this correctly, it'll only be the inner layer that will have the shirring. I'm just trying to picture how this will affect the overall shape and function of the baffle.