DIY down quilt advice needed

**hangnout** · 02-24-2008, 09:20

not to hijack the thread, but I've wondered about a related question, to wit,

why noseeum? Particularly if there are issues now with it stretching as you sew.

or perhaps, "Do noseeum baffles make that much difference in compressing a quilt?"

most noseeum is just as heavy as 1.1 oz uncoated nylon, or more. Unless you go for the 0.7 oz noseeum from thru-hiker, it doesn't have to be a weight decision.

Air will move around between baffles if you use noseeum, I can see that could affect compressing the quilt, but the air gets out of the quilt the same places either way.

jest wondering

Grizz

On my first 1/2 UQ I used scrap 1.1 to make the baffles. There are no problems with compressing. I used the thruhiker noseeum on the second one. You can draw a line on your base material and on the noseeum and keep them easily lined up since you can see thru the netting. This is the main reason I would use the netting.

**headchange4u** · 02-24-2008, 11:42

Originally Posted by hammock engineer

That was my thoughts. The whole down mess thing is really over-rated.

When I stuffed my quilt, I did it in the bathroom. I used the subtraction method by filling a pitcher with down, putting it on the scale, and removing down from the pitcher. When I first started stuffing the down if was EVERYWHERE. I thought I would never get it all cleaned up, but after stuffing each baffle I would put a piece of Noseeum over the end of a vacuum cleaner and vacuum up the excess down. It was a lot easier to clean up than I thought.

**Schneiderlein** · 02-24-2008, 12:07

I took a picture of the almost finished quilt. I will post a report of how it did last night a little bit later, along with some questions on suspension systems.

**Schneiderlein** · 02-24-2008, 16:35

Last night I almost finished the quilt. I put the drawcord channels on the ends, but did not install the grosgrain loops or omnitape. The first thing I did after putting the drawcord in was to wear it like a poncho. All that my wife could say was: "Please, do not wear that outside. You look so dorky!". I thought to myself "Honey, you ain't seen nothing yet", put on my headlamp and set it to blinking mode, got my camo crocs and went outside to hang the hammock. I guess she didn't mind since it was already dark, so the chances of being seen by the neighbors were low, plus she was laughing pretty hard for some reason.

The temperature was 48 degrees outside. The quilt is really supposed to be a summer quilt with 1 3/4" loft, so I was wondering if it would be warm enough. I decided to use the quilt as an underquilt and use my 5 osy Climashield XP quilt on top. I cinched up the ends of the quilt and simply tied the shockcord from the end channels to the hammock suspension line. When I got in the hammock, I could feel that the down was compressed. So, I got out and loosened the shock cord. After making a couple of adjustments, the down was no longer compressed, and I got warm and fell asleep pretty quickly.

At 2:30am I woke up and had a cold spot on my back. I reached around and checked the quilt under the hammock. It had good loft, but the cold spot was right where the head hole was. I made sure the omnitape had not come open, but I did not really feel like investigating any further, and just put my sit pad under my back (4 sections of a Z-rest). I immediately went back to sleep and woke up warm to a somewhat foggy 42 degree morning.

At that point, I wanted to get an idea of how the down quilt compares to the Climashield. The Climashield has kept me warm in temperatures below 30 degrees, and aside from the bulk, I really like it. For the comparison, I put my Prolite-4 with homemade SPE in the hammock. First, I tried the Climashield quilt and lay there listening to the birds for about 15 minutes. Then I switched to the down quilt. After a few minutes, I got really warm under the down, and the down quilt appeared to be warmer than the Climashield. It was not a very scientific test, and I don't mean to start a down vs. synthetic war, but I was a bit surprised given the fairly low loft of 1.75" on the down quilt, which would put it around 35 degrees according to what I have read.

From my very limited experience, I would say that the quilt will probably not work below 40 degrees as an underquilt, and will likely be good to 30 degrees or below as a top quilt.

The best thing about the quilt, though, is how small it packs. I put it in a small stuff sack without much effort. The stuff sack was maybe 6" diameter by 8" tall. After the quilt was in the stuff sack. I squeezed the stuff sack and could easily compress it much further.

Even though I will most likely not use it much as an UQ (I still have 7.5oz of down for a 3/4 UQ I plan on making), I will install grosgrain loops at the ends, and possibly in the middle to use it doubled-over as a 1/2 UQ. Which finally brings me to my questions:

What is the best way to attach an under-quilt to an end-gathered hammock? And what way is best for a 1/2 or 3/4 UQ?

Finally, a word of advise: Don't ever go to sleep in your hammock with an Andes chocolate mint in your fleece shirt pocket!

**Coffee** · 02-24-2008, 20:11

Looks good. Is the foot end sewn shut or velcro, sorry I'm too lazy to reread? The best way I have found to attach it is over the ridgeline. That pulls it up and out at the same time.

**hangnout** · 02-24-2008, 20:22

What is the best way to attach an under-quilt to an end-gathered hammock? And what way is best for a 1/2 or 3/4 UQ?

The best way I have found to attach it is over the ridgeline. That pulls it up and out at the same time.

Yeah, what HE said. It also allows you to pull the UQ above the edge of the hammock on your head side if you are laying asym.

**headchange4u** · 02-25-2008, 08:46

Quilt looks great, Schneiderlein. I like the color.

**Schneiderlein** · 02-25-2008, 09:29

Originally Posted by hammock engineer

Looks good. Is the foot end sewn shut or velcro, sorry I'm too lazy to reread? The best way I have found to attach it is over the ridgeline. That pulls it up and out at the same time.

The end is not sewn shut. I just draped it for the picture to make it look less like a boring rectangle.

I plan to install about 18" of omni-tape for the foot box.

For the suspension, do you just tie the drawcord from the end channel to the ridgeline, or do you use separate shockcord? If so, how do you adjust for the tightness? Also, do you have an attachment point in the middle of the quilt, or just at the ends?

**Schneiderlein** · 02-25-2008, 09:35

Originally Posted by headchange4u

Quilt looks great, Schneiderlein. I like the color.

Thank you. On closer inspection, there is some color variation in the fabric. There are some bright green streaks in some places. I guess that's why the fabric was only $1/yd at Walmart. The fabric feels really good, has a good DWR and is breathable. Everytime I notice one of the bright green streaks, I smile and think to myself: Yep, that cost me a buck per yard. The reason why the quilt has a head-hole, btw, is that the fabric was only 48" wide, so I had to piece it together anyway and just put a head-hole in there while I was at it.

My Momentum 90/XP quilt feels nice, also. But I spent more money on the Momentum than the entire down quilt cost me.

**Coffee** · 02-25-2008, 09:40

Yeah Mom90 is pricey stuff. My next ones will probibly be 1.1 DWR for that reason.

I use seperate shockcord. You could use the drawcord, but it takes away 1 degree of adjustment.