Rainy days off mean nothing better to do than catch up on some DIY projects.
Originally I was going to make a lightweight topquilt made of gray fleece and olive 1.1 ripstop, to match the underquilt I made previously. I was also going to do a little step by step post, so some of the photos reflect that - though I sorta forgot to keep taking pictures that fully showed the process. Regardless, when digging through my box'o'fabric and such, I found the remaining piece of Climashield from said underquilt, and realized it fit rather perfectly in the middle of the tapered shape I had cut out for my TQ, with a few inches border all around, sort of a draft stopper effect:
Spurred on by the thought of not having warm enough gear to be able to hang at the New Jersey Winter Hang I decided to go for it, and make a full out synthetic insulated TQ. I wanted it to be able to lay flat for use as a regular blanket and ease of storage, so I bartacked five 8" strips of 3/8" grosgrain to a 24" strip of hem tape, and made one of these for each side, to be sewn into the last 2 feet of the bottom of the quilt.
After sewing the insulation to the top of the fleece (to be the inside when the quilt was turned right side out), and pinning the tie out strips to the bottom of the fleece (right-side), I laid it all on the ripstop, cut out the outer shell layer, pinned, and sewed it all together.
It was then that I learned the wonder that is my wife's serger, and the fact that she had spools of poly thread on it, and not cotton like I thought. No need to roll the hems - the serger trims, mini tucks, and overstitches all faster than you can blink. It actually goes frighteningly fast, so you have to pay attention lest it decide to snag and cut something important. But it leaves a wonderfully professional looking edge:
After everything was serged and cleaned up, I went back and ran a zig-zag stitch around the quilt one more time, to make sure everything was strongly attached
then turned the quilt inside out, hemmed and serged the open foot end, and made a quick nylon drawstring channel and sewed that on to the foot end as well. This left me with a neat drawstring channel along the bottom, and tie outs running up the side
Some shockcord and cord locks finished off the foot box assembly,
allowing the foot end to be cinched up, and tied up the last 2', to form the closed footbox
Dimensions at the start were 55" wide at the top and for the first 24", then tapering to 43" at the foot end, and 80" long. With generous hem allowance, the finished dimensions are:
52" wide at the head end
40" wide at the foot end
78" long
I was originally going to sew through when it was just fleece and nylon, but now I think I'll use quilting loops to keep everything lined up, but not effect the loft.
The finished Quilt:
I also banged out a stuff sack for my underquilt, and a double chambered blackbishop sack with a side pocket to hold my hammock/bugnet and suspension stuff. Tomorrow it's off to my in-laws, to use power tools and make a 2x4 Portable Hammock Stand. I'm ashamed to say that most of what I've made so far has been without the benefit of actual hanging testing, since I have dozens of trees around my house, but none close enough to hang from. This is already starting off to be a great week!
Sorry if the pics take forever to load.
Credit to strung2tite and sclittlefield for many of the ideas used to make this quilt.)
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