Insulated Hat for Sleeping in the Cold

[SteelToe]

I am working on a well insulated cap to keep my bare cranium from freezing up at night. The last piece of the puzzle for my ultimate insulation project. My thought was to borrow the design of those Russian Ushanka hats (the flap-eared ones with fur on the front) only with a few changes;

-No soviet insignia on the front
-Short-nap fleece instead of fur
-Liner/exterior of Impetus 1.0
-A 1.5"-2" layer of down insulation instead of the typical wool
-Make the front flap able to flip down to function as an insulated blinder (possibly with a secondary cloth flap behind it to go over my nose and mouth)
-A bulky collar will be added that goes around behind my neck to act as a "draft tube"
-It will have some Velcro attachments that secure it to my top quilt

I have the inside layer sewed up and the fleece liner attached. Nicely snug, very comfy. No drag on the whiskers since the lower portion is fleece lined. Tomorrow I will attempt to attach the outer layer, but I have a few questions I hope you can chime in on:

-Would wrapping down insulation around my head present any problems? It doesn't seem like it should, but for all I know exhaled moisture would collect in it for some reason
-Would baffles likely be needed for something like this which is highly curved, but about 10"x10" if flattened out? (I'm guessing about 3oz of down will fill it)

I'll put up some photos tomorrow; it's coming out alright so far, especially considering it was built with little planning, no pattern (just reverse engineering my ushanka hat), and trim-to-fit construction. BTW, sewing a hemispherical form is pretty tough

TCB

[WV]

Sounds very nice, and almost as complicated as something I would attempt, but projects you put a lot of thought and effort into can be very rewarding. I look forward to your photos.

Depending on temperature, I use either a lightweight fleece Tunturi hat made from a free pattern at Shelby-Kaava or a Mad Bomber hat. The Tunturi is made from wind-blocking fleece so it doesn't stretch as much, and I had to adjust the pattern a bit to compensate. The Mad Bomber front flap is nice folded down as a nose warmer.

Hats take a beating if you sleep in them a lot. It might be a good idea to make yours washable.

There's a pattern for a DIY down beanie (Black Rock clone?) on the forum somewhere. It looks very nice - might answer questions about baffles.

I converted a down sleeping bag to a top quilt once, and the hood was off to one side when the bag was opened out, so I cut it off and attached it at the center of the top edge of the quilt, facing backwards. It was attached just at the sides with snaps, so I could put my head through the hole in the middle. This worked great.

[zooshooter]

I am working on a well insulated cap to keep my bare cranium from freezing up at night. The last piece of the puzzle for my ultimate insulation project. My thought was to borrow the design of those Russian Ushanka hats (the flap-eared ones with fur on the front) only with a few changes;

-No soviet insignia on the front
-Short-nap fleece instead of fur
-Liner/exterior of Impetus 1.0
-A 1.5"-2" layer of down insulation instead of the typical wool
-Make the front flap able to flip down to function as an insulated blinder (possibly with a secondary cloth flap behind it to go over my nose and mouth)
-A bulky collar will be added that goes around behind my neck to act as a "draft tube"
-It will have some Velcro attachments that secure it to my top quilt

I have the inside layer sewed up and the fleece liner attached. Nicely snug, very comfy. No drag on the whiskers since the lower portion is fleece lined. Tomorrow I will attempt to attach the outer layer, but I have a few questions I hope you can chime in on:

-Would wrapping down insulation around my head present any problems? It doesn't seem like it should, but for all I know exhaled moisture would collect in it for some reason
-Would baffles likely be needed for something like this which is highly curved, but about 10"x10" if flattened out? (I'm guessing about 3oz of down will fill it)

I'll put up some photos tomorrow; it's coming out alright so far, especially considering it was built with little planning, no pattern (just reverse engineering my ushanka hat), and trim-to-fit construction. BTW, sewing a hemispherical form is pretty tough

TCB

I bought this thing almost a decade ago, but Headsokz makes a balaclava type hat with Polartec fleeces. You can get one that is windproof that will keep you not only comfortable but also warm below zero. The one I have isn't windproof but only water resistant and it is too warm for me to wear unless the temps get at least to freezing. Most of the time I don't even wear it as the facemask/hood configuration, I just wear it as a hat and let the extra flop backwards and it's still plenty warm. You can see what it looks like & pricing here: http://www.bobmarriottsflyfishingsto...dbloc-headgear

[FLScouthanger]

I have an Outdoor Research down-filled beanie. It is a sewn-thru design. It packs into a small integrated pocket--ends up about the same form factor as a pack of cigarettes. Works perfect for the area I live in--it rarely gets below 25 degrees here.

[chimpac]

A cold weather sleeping bag is long enough to completely cover your head and comes with a draw string to narrow the opening to a small breath hole. A hat is not used with this type bag.
Moisture around the breath hole is a problem and I have thought of using a snorkel type arrangement but have not tried it yet.

[1-Hung-Low]

I took a lesson from "Shug" and am using a hood from one of down parkas.

[SteelToe]

A cold weather sleeping bag is long enough to completely cover your head and comes with a draw string to narrow the opening to a small breath hole.

True, but a sleeping bag won't work in my case, since my hammock has separated footwells (and some other design points that make a sleeping bag impractical to use)


That beanie does look warm as all get-out. It appears to be a sewn-through constructed item, but it's hard to tell. I suppose we're designed to shed so much heat through out heads, that it'd be a bad idea to insulate there as heavily as the rest of the body . I'll split the difference in my hat by attaching the exterior to the ~1/4" wide seam flaps of the liner --hopefully that small separation will keep wind out pretty well.

Attached is what I have whipped up so far .if I'd paid attention while sewing up the front corner panels, I'd have realized my poor seam allowance guestimation narrowed the crown a bit too much--hence the extra panel and seams at the front of the hat to fatten it back up. No biggie, it's on the inside, and it's not like I'm trying to sell it to someone . With the wrong side black Impetus shining and those ugly seams, it reminds me of one of the old leather football "helmets" . The only other thing I'd change for someone intending to use this as a standalone hat are to make the rear drop down a 1/2" further, and round the inside corner behind the ears more (my ears are covered, but about 1/2" from the edge. Not an issue in my case since the back of my head is pressed up against my underquilt).

As you can see, the trick to the hat is the sides/back are one large U-shaped piece. The remainder is figuring out how you want to approximate the curvature of your head. I believe the Russian style basically forms a cylinder with a flat top (but the strap from the sides pulls to down into a dome), but the hat I was copying had a wide strip of fabric down the middle and semi-circular side panels that form a flat-sided cylinder. They and I did the sides as 3 pieces to better approximate the curvature, when I do it again to make the exterior, I'll just use a big half-circle on either side (it'll be more than close enough). The more seams, the more chances for seam allowances to creep up on you if your aren't working from a template.

Since only the liner is on at the moment, I actually want the seams/wrong side showing on the outside (under the down layer). If this works out well, I'll summarize the step by step of this hat, since, unlike most of my other DIYs of late, this might actually be useful to someone besides me

TCB

[SteelToe]

Got the lower section below the crown sewn on and filled with down; works great so far, and is gonna has about 1" of dense loft (it took so little down to fill the lower section; 4 "pinches" and it's a bit overstuffed)

TCB

[E.A.Y.]

I think a sewn through baffle or two would be fine.
I have a Tunturi hat like WV mentions that I made out of retired stretch fleece leggings and a balaclava version I made out of windblock fleece. I love my balaclava. I can tuck it into the neck of the shirt I sleep in, or fold the face portion up over my head to let my face and neck cool off a bit.
I'm looking forward to seeing your finished product.

[HURTHEART]

Wow, I like it, I was a chicken and purchased two trapper caps, one is leather and wolverine, made in Canada. The other is a Russian bullet proof hat either Rat or Beaver, not really sure.

Your creation will be much better for sleeping in than what I own. I wanted to build something like you have, I wanted down and something my too long hair would fit in and stay put. I had to give up the project.

Thank you for sharing.