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  1. #1
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    Question Top Quilt Baffle height?

    How do you determine what height baffles you use for your top quilt?

    Say you want 1.5" loft for a 40 degree top quilt. How do you decide the height for your internal baffles?

  2. #2
    Senior Member doogie's Avatar
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    You will probably get more answers in the DIY forum, but all you need to do is cut your baffles to 1.5" plus a seam allowance for each side. Since you don't need to do a roll or anything other than run a line of stitching down it, I would go with either a half inch or 3/4" allowance. With 1/2" allowance your baffles would need to be cut to 2.5" so you will have 1.5" between the stitching. Or go up to 3" if you want to use a 3/4" allowance.
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  3. #3
    Senior Member Boston's Avatar
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    FWIW I made a quilt intended to be 40*F with 1.5" baffles and suspect it will go much lower. I've have it into the low 30's and been very comfortable, and it was more than needed for summer camping. I'm thinking it may get me into the 20's.

    I'm planning to make a sewn through for warm weather, and a larger one for really cold weather, now.

    I am a cold sleeper. If it did it again, I'd probably do a 1" baffle, but that's really just a guess so take it for what it's worth. The quilt will loft higher than the baffle, unless your stretching it out.


    Also, for stitch allowance, you really only need ~1/4" seam allowance each side in my opinion (at least that's what I use). How I construct my quilts is to mark the fabric with chalk where the baffle needs to be sewn, and mark the baffle material with a silver sharpie. Align the two lines and sew. This is using noseeum for baffle material, which is fairly strong. A weaker material may need more seam allowance, or a hem.

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    Senior Member BillyBob58's Avatar
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    Really several approaches that would just be personal pref. Seems like several of the 20F quilts use 2" baffles , some with maybe 20-25%% more down than required to fill that baffle and ending up with about 2.5" loft. So, you could always just go with the 1.5" baffles and add just enough down to fill them up. Or a little extra down if you wanted a bit of loft above the baffles. Or a little more if you only wanted 1.5" loft but wanted it over stuffed as some do. Then again, you could do smaller baffles, with enough down to peak in the middle at a bit over 1.5", but still averaging 1.5" loft. I'm sure any of that would work.

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    Thank you for the responses. A shorter baffle than the required loft is what I had read in a couple other places, but wanted to verify with folks who have more experience. I think I will go with a 1" baffle based on your recommendation.

    As a side question, for a top quilt, is a differential cut recommended/ needed? I understand the necessity for an under quilt. But, based on the curvature of the footbox, I feel like a differential cut should be taken in to consideration for a top quilt as well. All the plans I have seen for top quilts use identical internal and external fabric cuts. Curious if anyone has done this with a top quilt.

  6. #6
    Senior Member MAD777's Avatar
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    I've done all my top quilts without any differential baffling and I have not seen anyone else doing it. Keep in mind that you will lose 3"-4" in length once you sew all the baffles so cut it a bit large. The 1" tall baffles (1.5" raw cut for 1/4" seam allowances) should be about right.

    You may want to consider a Karo Step quilt. I go that route if the average thickness I'm going for is 1.5" or less. Those thin quilts require so many baffles.
    Mike
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    Senior Member Boston's Avatar
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    No differential, but I'd still use box construction (also some times called baking pan shape).

  8. #8
    Senior Member Boston's Avatar
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    https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...-Baffle-height

    Maybe we should keep this all under 1 thread...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Boston View Post
    ...Maybe we should keep this all under 1 thread...
    Threads merged.

  10. #10
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    Thanks for the advice on the differential cut. I tried searching for "box construction", but I'm not sure what that means.

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