Rectangular Underquilt

**finskie** · 08-25-2010, 11:50

yeah i know, the campmor sack is heavy duty. I'll do a round of sacks soon.

**Ryvr** · 08-25-2010, 13:41

Just finished making my own underquilt by modifying an old Thinsulate sleeping bag.

Nothing fancy just trimmed and sewed it rectangle then added a third layer of material, baffled it and stuffed with duck feathers (couldnt find down, so used a duck feather pillow from walmart for 8 dollars), one was more then enough.

Closed it all up, added shock cord draw strings to either end to closed the gaps and voila.

Did it all for under $20, and man o man is it warm. Gonna do down next time so it will pack smaller and I can avoid the periodic duck feather sticking me in the back.

**Lando** · 09-24-2010, 18:13

After searching around I thought I would revive this thread to ask...

What is a dart? I have been searching around and using the google. I still have no idea what a dart is.
Can someone explain? Thanks!

**Dblcorona** · 09-24-2010, 18:27

http://www.sewing.org/html/darts.html

**jbo_c** · 09-24-2010, 18:29

A dart is where you cut a skinny triangle out of the fabric and sew back together. It causes the fabric to cup and conform better to the hammock.

Take a piece of standard paper. Make a triangle with one point in the center of the paper and two long edges going to one of the short sides of the page maybe an inch apart at the edge(1/2" each side of center). Cut that triangle out. Now pull the two "center" edges back together and you'll have a good representation of what a dart does.

The exception is that my explanation makes it sound vastly more complicated.

Jbo

**bloomgorge** · 10-02-2010, 19:15

slightly confused on darting...is this as simple as tapering the ends? darting is just making the head and footbox something small than the wide of the UQ body yes? I'm just playing around with a design right now, this image is an early concept.

**jbo_c** · 10-02-2010, 20:14

No. It's very important that the fabric be taken from the "center" rather than the sides. If you take it from the sides, you will be very disappointed. I can't explain why in mathematical terms, but I assure you, there is a distinct difference.

Taking it from the middle will cause the quilt to cup and cradle you. If you just cut that material from the sides, you will still be in effect using a rectangular underquilt(even though it's diamond shaped.

Jbo

**bloomgorge** · 10-02-2010, 21:08

jbo c

is this what you mean? it's not to scale and i only did the foot end,...any idea how long the darts should be from the end inward to the center of the hammock?

**jbo_c** · 10-03-2010, 06:15

Yes. Though you can leave the fabric rectangular. The darts will form the more diamond shape you're after.

I'd say the numbe of darts in your pic is probably overkill for a synthetic quilt-maybe not for down.

My next quilt will have 8" of material(edge) removed for the darts. That part's up to you. Darts will be roughly 1/3 of the length of the fabric.

Jbo

**TinaLouise** · 10-03-2010, 06:57

Originally Posted by bloomgorge

jbo c

is this what you mean? it's not to scale and i only did the foot end,...any idea how long the darts should be from the end inward to the center of the hammock?

I'm guessing that you also realize that you can put darts on the long sides too? What I did was to take an old flat bed sheet and some clothespins and my hammock. I hung up my hammock and added some pillows inside it to look like I was in there. Then I took the sheet and draped it under the hammock. Using the clothespins, I pined the darts. At this point I also used some regular stick pins to pin the sheet. When I had it pined up and looking like it fit the bottom of my hammock, I removed the sheet and cut out the darts. This was then my "pattern" for my ripstop nylon. By using the old bed sheet, I was able to more or less figure out how deep and how wide I needed for the darts.