I completed my first karo top quilt last weekend, my second DIY project. I've wanted to build one for the past year and finally decided to pull the trigger. Kduvey's quilt video was extremely helpful when halfway though building it I couldn't figure out how to sew in the "V" reinforcement underneath the quilt. And also thanks to all who offered advice for a question about measurements I had a couple weeks ago.
It really turned out to be worth the extra time it took to draw grid pattern for the karo's on the inner and outer shells. They both lined up perfectly when I was sewing them together and it looks clean. Baffles: I discovered that noseeum has a slight two-way stretch and is static in the other direction. The way I cut it, the stretch is aligned going up and down when sewed between the shells. I think it would have been stronger if I had cut it so it was static in the up and down direction. Whoops. I also learned to check to make sure there is no shell fabric underneath the section of the project being sewed. I goofed and had to tear out a baffle seam in a separate part of the quilt that got underneath it and patch it over.
So anyway, here goes.
Outer shell: 0.9 oz Green illume15.
Inner: 1.0 oz Black nylon taffeta.
0.9 oz noseeum from rsbtr. The white color makes it easier to see where you're sewing if the shell is dark.
About 15 oz of 800FP down from Downlinens. Used the 10% off code, only to later see an ad for 20% off on cyber monday. Oh well.
Spectra Yellow MARA70 thread and matching yellow shock cord I salvaged from a snowboarding jacket.
I love the optic green and black colors but if I had to do it over, I would use royal blue Hyper D outer and red taffeta inner. Uh-oh, DIY is slowly starting to look like a new addiction....
I used a laser level to help get lines exact. It was nice for drawing out the grid as well. Raw dimensions are 80x56", with a 6" half-taper to 44" at the footbox. All edges have a 1/2" hem except the head end, which has a 1" hem for the cinch channel. After hemming it was 77x54", and 42" and the feet. The raw baffle height was 2.5" and about 1.5 after sewing them in. I wanted a 5x7 karo pattern to help keep the down from shifting too easily. I put roughly 14.5 oz of down including 20% OS into the body for a guesstimated 2.5" of loft. I made the footbox circle 12" in diameter and put in a 3 inch baffle, filling it with a toasty half ounce of down. I get cold feet from just walking around my house in socks during winter so I didn't wanna take any chances there. Overall its a pretty big quilt. I'm 6'1" and wanted something I could cover myself in. It's definitely a late fall/winter/early spring bag and it will most likely be too hot for Washington summers.
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Sewing on loops for shock cord:
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Attaching baffles. This part wasn't that bad. Attaching them to the other shell was difficult, but I eventually got into the groove of it and it went by in less than two hours. After each row I laid out the project to make sure I hadn't stitched a baffle to the wrong location.
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Improvised patch. Watch where you are sewing!
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Finished! Weighs 26 oz. I used it overnight on my deck the other night and it hit 16 degrees at around 4am. Toasty all night. Was a blast to make. I haven't measured the actual loft yet, but it's pretty high.
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