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  1. #1
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    My 2nd UQ, so far - Long post with pics

    My first UQ is for my Wife's hammock, this one is for my set-up. I forgot to take any pics from my first UQ attempt, so here is what I have done so far with my second attempt.

    (Everything is being done at my parents house, as my apartment is just too small for this project.)

    I learned quite a bit from the first attempt and thought I would share some of my (limited) wisdom on Quilt creation. (Sorry for the poor quality iPhone pics)


    First, Tape the material down! Green painter's tape works great on ripstop without leaving a residue.

    Tailor's Chalk works pretty good for line marking, and isn't permanent. It does leave a bit of dust on the injector's foot though.



    So I don't forget to show it, here is my Giant bag of Duck down. It is approx. 700 FP.
    (This is AFTER I have already stuffed my wife's UQ. The plan is to make some TQ's, and maybe a winter UQ if I have enough material left)



    When marking the baffle positions, I lucked out that for my inner layer, the distance between the baffles was exactly the same width as the laminate flooring (5") - With one edge lined up at the hem line, I used the Tailor's Chalk to follow the groove between floor pieces for all the baffles - done in 5 min!

    I marked the Hem line with an 'X' so I didn't accidentally sew a baffle to it.


    The outer layer took much longer due to the differential cut difference in baffle width.


    I found on the first quilt that I was having a lot of trouble with the baffle netting moving around & stretching while trying to sew it in place, especially while trying to maintain a consistent fold to double up the netting along the stitch line.

    I came up with a 2 prong approach to fixing these issues:

    First, I cut my netting to the proper width, then connected them all together end-to-end, using a overlapping folded seam. (I'm not sure if this has a proper name in sewing - it wasn't a french felled seam, but it wasn't just the two layers on top of each other either.)

    Second, I set my injector to the maximum stitch distance (6 mm, I think) and put a line of stitches along both sides to hold the edge fold in place. I used white thread so it would be easy to see while working.


    From here I stitched the baffle strip along my marked line until the end of the row, then cut off the strip - perfect length every time.

    I then spent way more time than I should have removing all the white thread from that side of the baffle strip. I have since become quite efficient at seam ripping.

    For attaching to the outer layer, I needed to remove the white thread as I went, or I would never get it out, or have to stop after each row and rip it out, then re-setup the injector for the following row.

    Here I discovered that the baffle netting stayed in it's folded position really well, even with the white thread removed. I still kept the working distance to about 12" though, as I didn't want to trust that the fold would stay in place for any length of time.



    I kept all the thread from the outer layer side. The scale fluctuated between 3g & 4g, so both sides would be about 7g worth of thread.


    After that, I connected the hem lines together along each side, closing off the outermost baffles.


    I haven't had the chance to go any further, but hope to find the time to sew up the bottom and start the down filling process.

    I figured a pretty easy way to transfer the down with virtually no mess. I'll try to get some pics when I get there.


    So, How am I doing?

    Cheers!

  2. #2
    Member rchang72's Avatar
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    Looks great. The baffle stitching reminds me of the seams on bags of rice.

    Where did you get the duck down?

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by rchang72 View Post
    Looks great. The baffle stitching reminds me of the seams on bags of rice.

    Where did you get the duck down?
    It's too bad I couldn't get the same stitch as used on the rice - they just zip open.


    I ordered the down direct from China ... Here is info I had from May, when I made the order.

    Goose down (90/10): USD 120 per kgs
    duck down (90/10): USD 95 per kgs
    (Min order quantity was 1 kg.)

    "filling power is about 700~800 for 90/10 duck down, goose down should be higher."

    After receiving the product, I think the 90/10 is actually a low number. I am hardly finding any feathers in the bag so far ... unless they all settled to the bottom.

    Shipping: "USD25 for first kg, and USD15 for next each kg. Means freight for 2kgs would be USD40" - Delivery was only about a week!

    I also had to pay via bank transfer - There was a $10 bank fee to do this. They do not have Paypal or take credit card.

    Company: Sichuan Longchang Duying Trade Co., Ltd
    email: .... [email protected]


    ----
    For comparison, I ordered 2 kg of the duck down.
    (I only wanted to make one order, but make lots of stuff)

    Down ... 2 x $95 (2 kg)
    S&H ......... $40
    bank fee: .. $10
    $240 (total) = $120/kg, shipped

    Converting to imperial: = $3.40/oz (Final price, at my door, in a nice, but dirty, silk(?) bag.)

    I couldn't seem to locate their website at the moment, but it did exist in May. ???

    Hope that helps someone.

    Cheers,
    Sunkmail

  4. #4
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    Almost finished!

    I haven't had a lot of time to work on this lately, but we are almost there...

    Getting ready to stuff, I closed off the bottom edge. I was careful to pin the top and bottom of each baffle to each other. If nothing else, it prevents too much slipping between the layers while sewing it up.


    I created the bottom Channel while I was here - there didn't seem to be a reason not too.

    Here is my Down stuffing Equipment:

    Some PVC pipe (Clean), a little of the baffle mesh, a couple of elastic bands and a scale.

    After attaching the mesh to the tube with the elastics, I weighed the apparatus and zero'ed my scale. (It's a good idea to record your start weight, in case your scale does an auto-shutoff on you.)


    The hard part ....

    Slowly, and carefully, open your down source. Generally, I only opened mine enough to fit the tube opening and my hand in. It is exaggerated for the pics.


    Hold the tube, open side down, in your hand and insert into the bag. Hold the loose fabric at the opening to the bag as tight to your wrist and tube as possible - to prevent escapees.
    I didn't have anyone else available to take the pic, so I hope this gets the idea across.


    After filling the tube by stuffing the down in with your hand, weight and adjust for your channel target weight. After the first couple, you get a pretty good idea of where to check.

    Carefully move the tube over to the empty channel and place the open end into the opening. Close the material up with your hand around the tube and blow a strong puff of air through the mesh.

    (If your tube is too short, requiring the down to be crammed tight to get to the right weight, you may need to use a dowel to push the majority of the down out, then replace the mesh.)

    Once the majority of the down is out, gently blow through the mesh to get the remaining down into the UQ. While still blowing, close off the tube with the UQ material. This prevent the down from back flowing through the tube and out. (The mesh acts as a back-up, so if you screw up, it won't get past the tube and you blow again.)

    It is important to close up each channel as you move across, to prevent the puff of air from later channels from forcing the down out of already filled channels.

    Hopefully that all made sense.

  5. #5
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    Now that the down is all installed, I hung the UQ from it's bottom to try to distribute the down and remove any clumping.

    As someone mentioned in another thread, I tried using the Badminton racquet method (from watching "How it's Made" a lot) used in bedding quilts to spread out the down. It didn't work! I think the channels were too narrow to get the full effect from a racquet. I just pushed it around with my hand instead.



    From here I finished the hem on the channel tops. On the Top end, I remembered to sew a patch of grosgrain at each end prior to making the roll. I had to do it after the fact on the bottom end - a lot more hassle!

    I then threaded through some 1/16" (I think) bungee, going through a hole burned through the grosgrain.


    Using some thin Grosgrain, I made a loop and attached it just past where the bungee came out. (In hindsight, I should have attached this first)


    I tied off the bungee to the loop and backfed the tail through the hole, to hide it, but keep access to the bungee in case I need to adjust it in the future.


    On the other side, I made a loop with a cord lock attached. I kept enough bungee to not have any stress on the side, then tied it off to the cord lock.


    I will have the suspension system figured out in the next couple of days. I have a plan, but need the time. I'm heading out to the woods on Sunday, so I am motivated to get this done!

    I may not get the rest up until after I return home.

    (I do have my larger pics available to view HERE, if you are interested. There may be some that aren't on here yet - they will be explained in my next post.)

  6. #6
    Senior Member SimonMc's Avatar
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    Awesome work.

    I want to tackle a project like this someday soon. It makes it easier with posts like this one.

  7. #7
    Senior Member XTrekker's Avatar
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    Looks great...
    I used a shopvac with mesh rubber banded on the backside, to capture and fill my baffles.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Zilla's Avatar
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    Man that looks like alot of work

  9. #9
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    Another Update!

    Saedy - It is work, but I really enjoy making stuff, so it's fun work.

    Well, my camping trip failed to happen. Logistics got in the way.

    I did, however, use the extra time to fine tune some more on my design:

    I added bungee the full length down each side. I decided I would make the length adjustable at the foot end, but also wanted to prevent the cord from pulling through in case the head end becomes unhooked. I went with sewing on a reflective grosgrain to the head end, making everything too big to slide back through the opening, while not adding too much bulk or weight.


    For the foot end, I used a cord-lock to make an adjustable loop, giving me lots of flexibility, at least during the initial working out the bugs stage. (Pic a bit further down)

    I used my homemade Triangle Thingies, which turned out to be too low, and roughed everything in:


    I discovered that the side bungee didn't really work all that will with the HH pull-outs. The UQ bungee was pulling the sides in too much:


    So I came up with an idea for UQ pull-outs.

    I figured out where I wanted the UQ positioned and marked the edge. I made a rough measurement of the HH side pulls and made these:

    (They are sewn to the edge in a way that doesn't restrict the bungee's movement.)

    Which hook onto the side pullout ring:


    They worked pretty well:


    My nephew came over to check out what I was doing and wanted to test it out too. He seems to approve:


    I didn't mention - I have the UQ inside my HH Undercover:


    This first test came up with a few bugs:
    - The UQ pullouts were a bit too long
    - There was quite a bit of loose fabric near my head
    - The triangle thingies were far too big too.


    After a bit of sewing, I had fixed up the first and third issues:


    You can see the adjustable cord lock configuration in the image above.

    I found loosening the Bungee on the UQ relieved most of the floppy fabric near my head, but not completely.


    Strange thing - The foot end doesn't have the same problem.


    Here is a place that I'm open to suggestions. Anyone??


    Secondary discovery.
    While doing all this, I noticed that the mitten clips supplied by HH for the undercover were deforming from the tension of the undercover:


    I moved the undercover cord to the mini S-Biner and they returned to normal. I think using the metal connection here is probably the better approach. I'll probably look into a better anchor method too, but I'll stick with what I have for now.


    I think that's about it - Other than the floppy material at my head, I don't think there is much else to show you. I still need to cut the side bungees to a final length, but that's it - Unless you folks have any suggestions.

    Now to make some stuff sacks for both UQ's!! Fun

  10. #10
    Senior Member aka.jobbe's Avatar
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    Dang. Thats looking good....

    If you finde the Down dealers HomePage adress. Please send it to me.

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