Climashield UQ construction questions

[SouthernExposure]

I will be sewing up my first UQ using 5" Climashield Apex in a few weeks and I have several questions about the construction and materials.

1. Using the 5" thick insulation, I have seen where several people talk about simply sewing it around the outer perimeter to capture it in the quilt. How thin does the 5" Apex compress and how well does it feed under the presser foot of a sewing machine? It just seems like a lot of material to try to cram through the sewing machine. I may be wrong about this.

2. Would it be plausible to capture the insulation to prevent it from shifting around by hand-stitching through the insulation in a number of spots all across the quilt? I'm thinking about stitching through just the inner fabric several times to get a good hold, mark the thread at 4.75" from this stitching, pressing down on the inner fabric/ins./outer fabric sandwich, pass the needle through all 3, line up the other side fabric with the mark on the thread and stitch the same as the other side. This will prevent compressing the insulation and losing the heat retention quality. I have not been able to find out what this kind of stitching is called. Think about a tufted leather ottoman, but not as severe.

3. What fabrics would you recommend using? I have enough 1.1 silnylon to do the entire UQ, but I am wondering if the inner fabric should be a breathable, not-treated material instead to prevent condensation problems.

4. I have seen many down UQ designs that are designed with a smaller inner fabric to establish a pre-curve in the quilt. Is that design element needed, or preferred, when making a non-baffled Climashield UQ?

I know that's a lot of stuff, but I just like to work some of this out before I start a project like this. Thank you for your answers.

SE

[SwinginIt]

The 5 isn't the thickness, it's the weight, i.e. 5 oz sq yd. So I don't think you'll have much trouble feeding it.
Don't use sil. Use 1.1 ripstop, or there's others that are lighter/more expensive. Regardless you want breathable fabric for your shell.

[Dustb2000]

I recently made a Climashield 5oz/sq TQ so I have some experience with the material but I actually used Insultex for the UQ that I made.

While working with the Climashield I reccommend using lots of pins and sewing atleast 3/4" from the edge. This ensures that you'll catch all the climashield between your two layers of shell material. After sewing the perimeter of the UQ you can go back and trim the edges so they'll fit in whatever size grosgrain or edging material you are using.

As far as using a differential cut on the layers. I would use pleats or a similar method to keep from compressing your insulation. Check out this thread: http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=23881 . Even though it is using 3 layers of Insultex you should be able to pick up a few pointers that will help you with your UQ.

For fabric I would be hesitant to use Silnylon as that would create a complete vapor layer. Depending on the type of weather you're using the UQ in this could be a good thing or a bad thing. For me personally, I went with 1.1oz breathable ripstop nylon and so far have been happy with the results. But as always HYOH so it might be worth experimenting with the Sil. That's what you have a seam ripper for!

[the_lorax]

perhaps this series of videos by cwhammocks might help

[cvlngnir]

I just finished my first UQ the other night. I used 1.1 breathable ripstop and two layers of 2.5 oz/yd climashield. The inner layer I cut about 3" narrower than the outer much like the three layer IX in the link above. I match my inner layer of ripstop (liner) to the width of the inner layer of insulation. My outer layer of ripstop (shell) I cut about 1" wider than my outer layer of insulation so that it could wrap around the other layers, get back to the seam and not compress the insulation. My pinned setup looked something like this:

Shell ripstop
Channels for suspension
Liner ripstop
Inner insulation
Outer insulation

Sew it all together with Shell up and machine should have no problems. I stopped with about a foot left on the foot end to turn the quilt right side out and then finished the last seem.

[cvlngnir]

Pic of the final product. Keeps the bear nice and warm.

[SouthernExposure]

Thank you so much for the information here! Of course "5" means 5 ounces per square yard and not 5 inches thick, of course...(if we had a personal faceplant emoticon, I would apply it to myself here.)

The video from CWHammocks made this whole project crystal clear. I have no other questions.

Thanks for being tolerant in your answers while I over-thought this thing. I will post photos of the quilt once I get it all put together.

SE

[FLRider]

Thank you so much for the information here! Of course "5" means 5 ounces per square yard and not 5 inches thick, of course...(if we had a personal faceplant emoticon, I would apply it to myself here.)

The video from CWHammocks made this whole project crystal clear. I have no other questions.

Thanks for being tolerant in your answers while I over-thought this thing. I will post photos of the quilt once I get it all put together.

SE

Better to over-think it than the other way 'round (which is why I wind up cursing so much halfway through a lot of my DIY projects...).

To answer your second question above, they're called "quilting loops", and most folks use yarn for 'em, since the yarn won't cut through synthetic insulation. As you've discovered, Climashield's attractiveness is that it doesn't require any, making the whole project much simpler. But, if you ever wind up working with Primaloft (or Polarguard, though it seems that nobody sells that anymore), the easiest way I've seen to do that is to take a piece of cardboard and use that to compress the insulation next to where you're running the loop through. Reach the top of the cardboard with both ends of the loop and tie off; it gives you an easy benchmark to hit.

Looking forward to seeing your finished product!

[chickenwing]

I wouldn't use silnylon - will have condensation issues. Both inner and outer layers should be breathable IMHO. If you watched the video posted you know my preferred method of doing this.

Can't wait to see what you come up with.