Has anyone tried stuffing down when damp?

[genixia]

This may be a crazy idea, but since down is washable, I wonder if anyone has tried washing their down supply, getting rid of the excess water and then stuffing it whilst damp?

If the down were consistently damp, portioning it out by weight should be fairly easy, and I think that would that also help avoid covering the room in down too.

Wet, stuff, stitch, dry.

Thoughts anyone?

[HomeMadeHiker]

Interesting idea. They do it with more hazardous stuff to keep it out of the air. Why not down. The " consistently wet" thing might be hard to manage though. But it might make clean up a lot easier.

[Mundele]

I my research I saw either pics or a video of someone doing this. They said it was difficult to wet-out the down. They had a known weight, wetted it out, made clumps of equal size (one per chamber) and dropped them in. I am gonna try the shop-vac noseeum trick I believe when I stuff my quilt.

[Fronkey]

I use this method to stuff my quilts and it's a pretty easy and non-messy way to do it.



Fronkey

[Jazilla]

Hard part is once wet how do you determine what an ounce of down has become. Depending on water amount you can't be certain.

I did Fronkey's method above and it worked great but that only works on WildernessLogic down pre packed. The quilt I am building for a guy now I got the down from DIYgear and it came in one big bag. Gonna try the shop vac and see how that works.

[Bradley]

I use this method to stuff my quilts and it's a pretty easy and non-messy way to do it.
Fronkey

Pretty slick Man . . .

. . . OK for all other types of down in delivered bags . . .

. . . lets say you wish to have 3 or 4 amounts, but
instead of cutting it like our brother did,
what if we sewed a double row of stitching,
which would separate the 3 or 4 sections,
then cut between each double stitched row.

That would separate the bag and then cut one end, or both, like he showed
insert, and push it through.

Would that work ???

[CatSplat]

Hard part is once wet how do you determine what an ounce of down has become. Depending on water amount you can't be certain.

I did Fronkey's method above and it worked great but that only works on WildernessLogic down pre packed. The quilt I am building for a guy now I got the down from DIYgear and it came in one big bag. Gonna try the shop vac and see how that works.

It's not as horrible to separate by hand as you might imagine. My down came as 2lbs in a giant (7ft-tall) bag, I hopped in the shower with a kitchen scale and a box of Ziploc bags and divvied it all up into 1oz increments. Stuff the Ziplocs while they're inside the big bag and you'll minimize any errant clusters.

[Ramblinrev]

I hopped in the shower with a kitchen scale and a box of Ziploc bags and divvied it all up into 1oz increments. Stuff the Ziplocs while they're inside the big bag and you'll minimize any errant clusters.

Some folks have re-purposed their tents for this function. I understand it works quite well.

[SteelToe]

I use this method to stuff my quilts and it's a pretty easy and non-messy way to do it.

Anyone else reminded of the opening scene in Disctrict B13?


That looks like a very slick and easy way to do this, Fronkey, I'm a bit less daunted by the challenge of a quilt, now . I had visions of respirators and paint-room bunny-suits in my head, previously. Probably a good idea to wear a dust mask, though, down particles are small enough to be inhalable, right?

TCB

[hppyfngy]

It's not that bad doing loose dry down either. In the tub is good as it does fly, but settles nicely if there's no airflow in the room.

Just go slow and take breaks. A mask is a good idea, but going real slow is the key to loose down.

Not sure how you work out the measuring and weighing with wet down...