First DIY TQ

[kodiak]

Very nice, something I have always wanted to attempt to make.

[BrianWillan]

I did some searching this morning but finding the lightest "Down Retaining" fabric has not been easy, does anyone have suggestions or advice on this???

[o]TTeR

You could try http://www.backwoodsdaydreamer.com/ for your lightweight down retaining fabric. He has an Olive Green 1.1 oz ripstop nylon that is calendared. The owner, Scott, is a member here and is great to deal with. I am sure he can help you find the material that you are after. His prices are very reasonable and he only charges actual shipping to Canada.

Cheers

Brian

[rjcress]

I’ve been making DIY gear (all sorts) for the better part of two years but held off on messing with down due to the nightmarish thought of little feathers all over the house. On our last group hang, I was admiring Ryvr’s DIY UQ (truly a master piece) and could resist no longer. This Top Quilt is comprised of 12 baffles with 2” noseeum walls. Each baffle has 1.2oz of 750+ Duck Down. Fashioned after the brilliance of the Burrow, it uses channels and cinch cords Head and Foot but I used omni tape instead of snaps to close the footbox when desired. I have no idea what weight the shell fabric is but its calendared rip-stop and holds the feathers so I’m happy. With a “Cap-n-Hand” thanks to Ryvr & Odd Duck for guiding the way to “Down Feather Management”, I will be doing a UQ next!

Sweet!
Where did you get your down, and what fp is it? eager to see a field report.

[[o]TTeR]

[o]TTeR

You could try http://www.backwoodsdaydreamer.com/ for your lightweight down retaining fabric. He has an Olive Green 1.1 oz ripstop nylon that is calendared. The owner, Scott, is a member here and is great to deal with. I am sure he can help you find the material that you are after. His prices are very reasonable and he only charges actual shipping to Canada.

Cheers

Brian

Thanks Brian, for some reason I cant hit the site from work but I'll check it out tonight. We're getting close to the Algonquin trip, I'd like to have another UQ in the lighter material but its not looking like time is on my side!

Sweet!
Where did you get your down, and what fp is it? eager to see a field report.

Hey RJ, The 750+ FP Duck Down came from a Supplier in Toronto, They have a min 2lb order requirement but at $70 CDN per pound, I have no complaints. The quality of the feathers is outstanding. We had two of these quilts out for a back country trip last weekend, they did a great job at -4c and compressed down to the size of a large Nalgene bottle. Here's a couple of setup shots, not really showing the TQ but I cant resist showing off gear!

[BOB1520]

Thanks! Without a doubt, thread injecting the noseeum baffle walls to the ripstop was more challanging then working with the down. The noseeum wants to stretch as it gets pulled by the feed dog. If your not careful, the baffels will twist up on you. Down can be messy but the shell makes or breaks your project IMO.

I would have to agree on the noseeum... I incorporated a folded hem on the noseeum first them sewed the noseeum on the ripstop. I did have to pin every 2-3 inches to prevent stretching. otherwise I found sewing the noseeum fairly easy.

Thanks Mate! The material is awesome but I think its 1.7 or 1.9, my local Fabric Shop isn’t the best with labels! I'd like to try a lighter weight fabric for the next project. As mentioned earlier, the first attempt to use 1.1 (could be 1.0) calandared RipStop did not go well.

I did some searching this morning but finding the lightest "Down Retaining" fabric has not been easy, does anyone have suggestions or advice on this???

Scott from Backwoodsdaydreamer.com has some realy nice material.

You can also check out OWFinc.com they have 1.1 and 0.9 ripstop (down proof). Their material is quite nice too. Buying from OWF it's best to buy 20 yrds that way you get wholesale pricing on your whole order.