DIY costco seam ripping question

[Pennsy Camp and Canoe]

So I'm ripping the lateral seams on my costco down throw like I've seen others post up, and wondered if I should leave a couple. I'm worried about the down settling. I'd have rectangles 1 square high by say 4 squares long.

How much does the down settle? Am I overthinking this? Is ripping all the seams in one direction more effective?

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[Firesong]

I'm always surprised to see people spending the time doing this. It's still a sewn quilt and it's not going to make it warmer. Might make it look more standard. But you will get shifting if that's what your asking.

[rais'n hammock]

There are a couple of reasons people rip the seams. One is to allow the down to move more freely. The quilts are sewn but they are sewn with the down already in the quilt. The down is sewn into the seams and is not allowed to loft as it should. Two, when making a quilt out of one of these the 60" X 70" size is too big for either a top or under quilt. Opening the seams allows the down in the entire quilt to be concentrated into just the right size for your project. The open channels also allow the down to loft in the channel and not be confined to a small square.
As Firesong points out, Yes, they are a sewn quilt but after modification I have used them to 40°F with no problems. We'll worth the total $50 investment and 4 hours of my time while watching TV for a full set of 40°F quilts.
If you are not resizing the quilt and use the full size then there will be little benefit to ripping the seams. Resizing the quilt and not ripping all the seams could leave areas with more down than others which may be worse that having down settle.
The loft in mine went from about 3/4" to just under 2" after ripping the seams and resizing the original.the amount of settling was minimal with the higher concentration of down in the resized quilt. The under quilt probably has the most settling but it is from the sides down to the bottom and is not an issue for me.
Good luck and post some pictures of your finished quilts.

[Flash Grundelore]

I agree that there is a reasonable gain in the loft by ripping the seams. I did mine for horizontal tubes, and I always grab it by the edges and give it a bit of a shake before shoving it in the rig. That gives me more down and loft over my body.
The whole point of the CDT is that it is a super cheap solution, and that it is a "warm weather" Q. I am never going to exactly die of the cold at the times of the year that I take it along.
If I wanted perfect comfort I would never be going out in the woods anyway.... What's a little cool spot here and there!

[Pennsy Camp and Canoe]

thanks for the replys! Yeah, this a warm weather TQ for sure. As I was ripping the seams I started to wonder why I was doing it, other than I've seen other DIY posts that did. I'm really not resizing it, I did cut a 10" x 70" length off and added it to the bottom (now a 50"x80" throw), I'll probably rip one more seam so it looks balanced and start sewing my footbox

[Rain Man]

I will "DITTO" what the others have said and add this: The seams are sewed through both sides of fabric. That is, no baffles are used to give loft across the entire throw. Thus each and every seam is a "cold spot." Ripping half the seams reduces your cold spots by half. That alone makes it worthwhile in my opinion.

[BigE94]

Yep, Ripped mine too after much thought. It did make a big difference in warmth, not to mention it just looks better.

[MattK]

Yeah, I ripped the vertical seams (the ones that are 70" long) on the throw for my TQ, to create horizontal baffles (of the sewn-thru variety). This allowed me to consolidate all the down into a 50" width the shoulders, and 40" width at the foot end. This yielded a huge increase in loft, and therefore warmth, over the original sewn thru boxes.

I also salvaged four squares (in a 2x2 pattern) of the "excess" throw, in order to create a 3D foot box.

For my UQ, I took a similar approach. I ripped the seams that were 50" long, shook all the down into a 40" width (from 70") and trimmed off the excess. Then, it was a simple process of adding grosgrain channels along the 50" length for the suspension, and putting channels on the 40" width for cinches.

Similar to rais'n hammock, I have taken this set of quilts to ~40*. At 37-38* one night, I wasn't freezing, but was cold enough that it woke me up, and I had trouble getting back to sleep. YMMV.

[Mpdm21]

Rais'n hammock nailed it when he stated that the squares are sewn with the down already in the quilt. When I made my TQ I ripped the long seams leaving just the center seam. I then shook all the down into the middle and sewed the two together. I then cut the over lap off and got a sizable amount of down that was trapped in the seamsWP_20160708_23_02_37_Pro.jpgWP_20160708_23_02_37_Pro.jpgWP_20160708_23_02_37_Pro.jpg.
As stated by the others is that it adds loft which increases warmth. Plus if you consolidate more down into a smaller area you increase the weight of down per size.WP_20160709_00_38_33_Pro.jpg.
I am working on another BQ and I am going to rip all the seams and push the down to one side and re-sew the channels to minimize any down trapped in them and then redistribute it back into the new channels. I will post how it turns out and see how much loft it adds.

[MetalBeeps]

[QUOTE=Mpdm21;1664879]Rais'n hammock nailed it when he stated that the squares are sewn with the down already in the quilt. When I made my TQ I ripped the long seams leaving just the center seam. I then shook all the down into the middle and sewed the two together. I then cut the over lap off and got a sizable amount of down that was trapped in the seamsWP_20160708_23_02_37_Pro.jpgWP_20160708_23_02_37_Pro.jpgWP_20160708_23_02_37_Pro.jpg.
As stated by the others is that it adds loft which increases warmth. Plus if you consolidate more down into a smaller area you increase the weight of down per size.WP_20160709_00_38_33_Pro.jpg.
I am working on another BQ and I am going to rip all the seams and push the down to one side and re-sew the channels to minimize any down trapped in them and then redistribute it back into the new channels. I will post how it turns out and see how much loft it adds.[/QUOT

Excellent Job ! I'm gonna try it soon.