DIY Down UQ - Do I need baffle tubes?

[SteveS]

I get the idea behind doing baffles, and the advantage over sewn-through.

I want to avoid having to take the 10oz down, and dividing it up into individual "fill tubes" on the UQ, possibly getting overfill in some, and underfill in others.

Is it possible to do a bunch of say, 2" depth x 2" long baffles, and place these in strategic places to hold the shape, but allow the fill to move around a bit?

Anyone have pics and plans for how to place these so that the baffles are short, but still manage to hold the shape of the UQ?

I'm thinking something like this:

          48"
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I am planning on 10oz of 800FP down with an M50 shell, and I am hoping to have about a 20-degree UQ.

[Boston]

When doing your own fill on a one-off quilt, the quality of the stuffing is entirely up to you, and how much care you take. You can make sure each baffle is filled to the amount it should be.

[nerd speak]

In contrast, in an industrial setting there is a process, whether mechanized or not, that has to do X quilts/bags/whatever in X minutes and they are working within a tolerance range and their process capability. This leads to more variation and "understuffed" baffles.

[/nerd speak]

I think the problem with what you are proposing is it's possible for the down to "bunch" in area's so you'll have a very un-uniform distribution of down. I feel like it'll be difficult to manage and ensure you're covered everywhere you want to be. Plus annoying if you have to do the distribution every time you set up.

[RockIsland]

When I made my DIY Under quilt from a pillow, I used the "hand weight method". You take you hand and stuff it in the down and get as much in one fist as possible and place in the baffle then repeat in each baffle until the down is gone. If you have 16oz of down and ten baffles then you get.... carry the one, divide by two and the answer is... 1.6 or there about. I was not too worried about getting the exact amount in each baffle and mine has turned out great! good luck in your project!

[Detail Man]

What you are describing is called a Karo Step quilt. Do a search for them on here. They work just fine. Several folks have made them, and I think there are some tutorials somewhere. I haven't yet tried one myself so I can't speak to the construction details.

[MAD777]

Here is a link to a Karo Step quilt that I made ...
http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=39994

I believe they work better for top quilts than they do for under quilts. Also, IMO they are not any easier than running straight baffles.

The way that I make sure the down is distributed evenly, is I put all the down in a cardboard box on a postal scale set to measure grams. As I remove down, the weight decreases. That's how I know when to move to the next baffle.

[Catavarie]

I made a regular baffled UQ and a Karo Step TQ. IMO, the Karo quilt was much easier to put together.

My recommendation though is to make your baffle strips at least 4 inches in length and leave 6 inches between the baffles. You could possibly get away with longitudinal (long ways) baffles only, but most plans call for lateral (side to side) baffles as well. If you miss a baffle when attaching to the final side it can be a pain to undo all the sewing you've done past the missed one, so double check before you go on to the next one.

Also remember that you can get upto an extra inch of loft over baffle size when your down fully lofts, so if you want a 2inch finished quilt make your baffle strips around 1 inch.

Good luck, I can't wait to see pictures of the finished product.

[SteveS]

Awesome!

Thanks for the tips! I checked out a few tutorials on Karo stepped quilts, even found one for an under quilt.

Looks like my plan above is slightly different. I think I'll modify it but I don't think I'll follow the box method either. I think strait tubes with staggered gaps will be the design, rather than the offset tubes I had above.

One of the main reasons I have for doing it this way is that I want the ability to open up a small hole and stuff in more down later if I find that I just don't have enough warmth from this quilt.

I also like the idea of being able to push 75% or so of the down to the foot end when the weather gets warm, and use this right up until it's to hot to want any underquilt. As far as uneven down distribution goes, I think the unwanted migration would occur when stuffing it in a pack. If I'm careful I should be able to avoid that.

I'm feeling a time crunch, I want this for next weekend but I've yet to start construction. Looks like I may have a few late nights ahead of me.

[Mike210]

I have made both a regular baffled and a Karo step baffled quilt and in my opinion the regular baffled quilt was both easier in construction and stuffing the down.

A Karo step seems easier but I actually created less mess and was able to get the down portion of the build done quicker with the regular baffled quilt.

[SteveS]

I got the build started this weekend. I settled on doing normal baffles, and leaving a couple of inches open at each end to allow me to re-stuff, and re-shift down within the quilt. It was easier to set up and build than a karo step, and still gets me what I wanted. Pics when the build is complete

           40"
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|  |   |      |   |  | 56"
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