I hang full time in my bedroom. Living in Florida, I've found that my 20* Phoenix and Burrow are just too hot as we get into the warmer time of year. But even with my AC set to 75, I still need something over and under me. I decided to make a silk "top quilt" and a fleece underquilt. These are the first DIY projects I've ever done.
For the top quilt, I ordered one of these silk sleeping bag liners:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/290467192322...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
They also have a less expensive version made of a silk blend, but I wanted the pure silk version for no apparent reason. I spent an evening careful seam ripping it and ended up with a long piece of cloth. I cut it to the size necessary to match the dimensions of my Burrow, including a round piece for the foot box. Hemming that circle ended up being too difficult, so I switched to a rectangle. Working with that silk was really difficult because it was so light weight and stretchy. But I'm really happy with the final product. It only weighs 2.7oz including the small stuff sack that came with it. I'll be bringing this along on my summer camping trips in the south for sure.
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For the underquilt, I picked up a piece of fleece from JoAnn and some olive yellow HyperD 1.0 (which I will also be using for my next project, a hammock) from Ripstop by the Roll. The HyperD is purely for aesthetic purposes for this underquilt. I was pretty worried about sewing these two materials together after some discussion in another thread. I started by basting them together on two sides, one long and one short. Then I did a rolled hem on the HyperD, which was rolled around the edge of the fleece. So I was sewing through two layers of HyperD, the fleece, and one more layer of HyperD. After I finished hemming the two sides I had basted, I laid it out, made sure everything was still aligned properly on the other two sides, and repeated the process. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I expected. The fleece didn't stretch more than the HyperD. I only did HyperD on one side of the fleece since it was only for aesthetic purposes.
After that I added the grosgrain channels. I broke two or three needles doing this. I had decided to fold the grosgrain over into two layers at the ends of the channels for reinforcement. Apparently my needles couldn't handle 4 layers of grosgrain, 3 of HyperD, and 1 of fleece. I unfolded the grosgrain and finished with no problem.
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I've got two quick questions to help me finish up the underquilt.
- What knot should I use to attach the 2 ends of the shock cord that makes up the suspension?
- What know should I use to tie the shock cord to the carabiners I'm using in the suspension to keep them from sliding around the shock cord?
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Originally Posted by cnick
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