Insulated hammock / structural underquilt.

[barefoot]

The project is well underway.
Questioning my own sanity, but will proceed and get it done.
So. Much. Sewing!
For no specific reason I decided on 100mm baffle spacing (4") on the top (hammock) layer. Measured up and marked out, that makes 11 baffles. Bottom layer I'm making wider for differential shape, worked out that 120mm spacing will fit. I cut my baffles about 3" wide so looking for about 2" wall height.
So that's 22 times 7' long seams. Chewing through the thread at an astonishing rate. Enjoying the challenge of feding a whole hammock, then two whole hammocks, under the arm of my Power Tool.
As of bedtime last night, I have two baffle seams to go, then my side hems, one end hem; down reclaim then stuffing, and the final end hem to go. Hoping to finish tonight. Taking plenty of process photos so will post a report.
I'm now seeing the wisdom of using a finished quilt as a raw material. Sure, it's an additional layer of cloth, but that might not be a bad idea. Somebody else can do all the time-consuming work and handling of fluff. This also would allow the benefit of leaving a "double layer" cavity for stuffing an extra pad or other boosters if required. And for venting, which I haven't needed yet but others seem to feel is important.
I think my next attempt (for my daughter or myself) will likely start with a Chinese sleeping bag. Cut to fit, seamed to the sides of the hammock, probably with Velcro to attach the ends for pad sleeve and venting duties. Should be much quicker to run up, too. Losing the hood and adding a hammock should be a wash, so I expect it would fit in the sleeping bag's stuff sack.
Stay tuned...

[PharmGeek]

Interested to see how you end up doing this

I was interested last year in possibly getting some Dobby 1.9 from Dutch and sew down baffles directly to it but after considering previous attempts I could find talking to Jeremy from bonefire and about just Jeff’s prev attempts - I got spooked

Be interested in what you turn out - good luck


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[FireInMyBones]

I look forward to seeing how your project goes, barefoot. Let me know if I can offer any specific advice if you hit any snags.

[barefoot]

Getting closer...
I did the down last night. Oh man, what a job.
My initial thought was to put a makeshift filter in the pipe of my shed vac (couple of layers of bug mesh), suck up pipe-fulls of down from the bed quilt then blow it into my hammock quilt. That didn't go well. doesn't pack much down into the pipe per go, not easy to swap the vac from suck to blow, and then the blow function on the vac wasn't strong enough to push the down out.
Plan B was to do it by hand. We all know that down goes clumpy and loses all loft when wet, so I took the quilt out on the lawn and hosed it down. Cut a chamber and clouds of light fluffy down blew out. Turns out you need much wetter down to control it than I was expecting.
Eventual strategy was to cut a small hole in a chamber of the bed quilt, insert the hose, wash all the down to the end of the chamber, stomp in underfoot to try and saturate it, shake it down, then rip down the chamber to reach in, grab small handfuls of wet down (which is still very light and fluffy and sticky and awful to work with), and shake it in to the hammock. Hand stays covered in sticky wet feathers but that stabilises after a few handfuls.
Of course, working with lots of water and stomping quilts on the lawn gets muddy. And it's still early spring here, so I was working wet in the dark at about 50°F. I thought it was fairly still until there was down exposed to the air, blowing all round the yard.
Two hours and it was done. Wet feathery bed quilt shell in the bin. Hammock chambers aren't evenly stuffed so I realise I will need vents between chambers to allow controlled down migration, so I'll trim the baffles before I close the hammock quilt up.
The bed quilt label said it held 1000g (2.x lb) of down. I didn't think I wanted my hammock to be that heavy. Turns out that's not going to be a problem. The yard looked like a chicken shed massacre. I got more efficient as I went, so I'm guessing I lost less than 20%... which is probably about right.
The hammock is now hanging on a rail, drying, tied around the middle to contain the down in the closed end. Once it's dry enough I'll close it, tidy the side seams up with grosgrain ribbon... and see if it worked.
There are no photos of the down reclaim process.
I am never working with loose down again.

[Otter1]

Now that's funny - way to stick with it!

[ofuros]

Sounds like your having a ball, barefoot, images running through my mind are making me chuckle...

[PharmGeek]

It’s a dah-gum pity we have no video


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[P-Dub]

It’s a dah-gum pity we have no video

THIS!!

[FireInMyBones]

I've never eat down for reclamation, but I too want video of that escapade.

[barefoot]

So, I sewed the down chambers closed and hung it up to dry. Kinda over it at this stage, just want it finished.
Still a little damp last night, and all the down still clumpy, but getting to the point where I could bash some of the clumps out and get in for a test.
Ewww, I lay in the wet spot!
Now, when I sewed the first end closed before stuffing it, I made sure to allow some good differential length - I tucked the under-hammock layer in a kind of billow before sealing it all closed.
When I did the second end... did I mention they I'm getting over it by this stage?... I didn't really bother with this. Just cut the baffles a bit shorter as mentioned above so as to allow down redistribution, and sealed it all up.
Hanging in my clumpily insulated damp hammock, it seems that was a mistake. The top hammock stretches a bit (as you'd expect), until the lower hammock is slightly tight and the down is starting to compress. Cold spots - certainly due to the down not being fluffed and distributed, certainly because the down is still damp, but also because the down is compressing.
I'm going to have to open the tight end and redo it with more slack. Yep, I'm going back in to the down chambers :-D
On the upside, now the down is drying and getting a bit less clumpy, the channels are starting to loft nicely (in the places with lots of down, anyway). I had been concerned that it would end up as a limp saggy bag half full of low quality feathers.
I might leave it a few days now to finish drying and get some enthusiasm back. Then finish it properly.