SPECS:
~40" finished width at head
~29" finished width at foot
~72" finished length
~15 oz of 800FP WR down
Weight: to be determined
2.5" baffle walls with 1/4" seam allowance on each side, giving me a finished baffle wall height of 2"
2" differential between inner shell chamber width and outer shell chamber width (inner shell has 4" chamber width, outer shell has 6" width)
I used 1/4" seam allowances everywhere
Inner shell: charcoal gray Membrane10
Outer shell: Blue & White HyperD 1.0
So after much learning and conversation in this thread about shaping baffles to make an UQ "fit" the underside of the hammock, I determined it was more beneficial to actually shape the inner and outer shells instead. Then one does not have to worry about using or sewing curved baffle material. So, I went back and researched old threads, looked at lots of pictures, looked at clothes I have, read sewing blogs, etc. to learn more about pleats and darts and how to make a 2d piece of fabric into a 3-d type shape. Not sure if I actually succeeded in doing that.I did, however, make a pretty sweet UQ that fits my hammock like a glove.
I went through 3 different prototypes of the inner shell before I decided on my plans. For my prototypes, I sewed up inner liner designs I thought would work and added channels to the side, some shock cord and strung it up to the hammock. I would then test the fit with someone inside the hammock and make adjustments with pins or clips, take it off and sew it up again. I wanted a full length quilt that would not have so much "wasted quilt"- quilt that came up so far on the sides of me that it seemed to be a waste of material. My other DIY quilts were like this, so I measured and cut and sewed. The end result was this design:
Inner Shell:
B&WUQ Inner Shell.jpg
Outer Shell:
B&WUQ bottom shell.jpg
As you can see, the only real difference from other shaped quilts I came up with was to taper my darts well into the quilt, towards the end of where I wanted the dart to end. I had my darts taper over the course of two inches on the foot end and 4 inches on the head end. I thought this would give a more aggressive "lift" to that portion of the UQ, which I believe it does. If I were to do it again, I would just do 4 inche tapers on both ends, as I think the transition would look nicer. You can definitely see in the quilt where the taper is on the foot end, but the head end is a much smoother transition. I could not tell it would be like this when prototyping, as I only prototyped the inner shell, and it looked ok, but when finished you can tell where the taper is easily.
When sewing these darts, I had the fabric folded over on the midline of the dart. I used a light behind my fabric to line up the chalk lines to sew.
IMG_20150707_152202590.jpg
Now when I came to end of a dart, instead of just ending there, I continued the stitch line down the rest of the way down the shell, sewing very close to edge of the folded fabric, like 1/8" or less even. Why? I don't know, maybe cause I thought it would further shape the quilt, and also I think this is how Hammock gear does their quilts (you can clearly see a stitch line down the center of each of the baffle chambers on those quilts). And I think it looks cool and added an extra challenge.
Now, I wanted a blue UQ with white racing stripes, so I achieved this by dividing the outer shell into 5 panels, the first, third and fifth panels were cut with blue HyperD 1.0 and the second and fourth panels were cut out of white HyperD 1.0. Each panel would be joined on a baffle line, so I stitched all three layers at once: Baffle, blue hyperD, white Hyper D:
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Then I flipped the baffle over and ran a second row of stitching in the seam allowance for extra strength and to orient the baffle vertically. Necessary? Probably not. But what the hey.
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Then I attached both shells together in the usual fashion for an UQ, bound the edges with straight grain binding tape I made from white HyperD 1.0. Here is the finished shell before filling:
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I used linelocs on all 4 corners and added some 3/8" plastic triangles on grossgrain every 12" on the inside of the quilt. I strung shock cord along these and hook pack hooks on my hammock to them to open up the hammock when I pull the quilt open.
IMG_20150716_144716323.jpg
I filled it with ~15 oz of 800 FP water resistant down, including the two draft collars. This thing lofts about 4 inches and should keep me very warm!!!
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Prelim testing has shown it to be very effective at giving me quilt where I need quilt and fitting tight against me in my hammock. I am very happy with how it turned out. The HyperD looks amazing, and the Membrane10 is awesome fabric. I can't wait to finish my matching TQ, as the membrane10 has an awesome feel on the skin.
I gotta give a shout out to all the members here who have answered my questions, provided insights and ideas and shared their DIY in the past. I appreciate it, without HF, I would have never been able do this.
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