That's cool. Don't be afraid to fudge things. I am still amazed how I can change things on the fly and make it look like that is what I planned on doing the whole time.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
That's cool. Don't be afraid to fudge things. I am still amazed how I can change things on the fly and make it look like that is what I planned on doing the whole time.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Is that too much to ask? Girls with frikkin' lasers on their heads?
The hanger formly known as "hammock engineer".
Luckily, fabric is forgiving. You can fudge a lot and nobody will ever notice. Since I started sewing my own gear, I have been inspecting the seams on commercial items. They, too, fudge a lot, and sometimes more than I would. I have repaired a lot of commercial clothing where seams came apart. So far, I have never had to repair my home made gear because of poor construction. Poor design once, but that is a different story...Originally Posted by hammock engineer
Thanks for everybody's advice. I will report back once I finish the quilt.
It's interesting to see the process or even just the end results of these discussions. So, please post pictures when you finish!
"Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities." - Mark Twain
“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” - John Burroughs
Not quite finished yet, but here is a picture of how I attached the baffles. The presser foot is a rolled hem foot that automatically turns the fabric over into a neat rolled hem.
Both sides of the quilt are made from the same color $1 Walmart ripstop. The ripstop on the left of the baffle is the top of the quilt, and the ripstop on the right of the baffle is the bottom.
The process of attaching the baffles was extremely simple. I practiced a bit more before starting, and managed to almost completely get rid of the stretch. On my first trials, I had put some tension on the noseeum while sewing, which I guess caused most of the stretch.
Using the rolled hem foot, you can put the baffles on as fast as you can manage to feed the fabric evenly. No pins needed. I cannot think of an easier way to do this.
I'm ready to start stuffing the down in the chambers. It looks like the batteries in my scale are just about dead, though. At least I hope that's what causes the scale to cut off randomly. I will report back on my progress.
After getting new batteries for the scale, I started tackling the down. From what I had read on the internet, it was going to be a major mess. If you are thinking about making a down quilt, and are afraid of the mess, don't be. There was absolutely no mess to speak of.
Here is how I did it. I opened a bag of down and put the bag in the bottom of a tall trash can. I weighed an empty Ziploc bag and it was 14g. I wanted to have 19g of down per baffle. I put a couple handfuls of down in the Ziploc bag while keeping the bag in the bottom of the trash can. I closed the bag and weighed it, and it came out to 33g! I put the finished bag in a trash bag. I did the same thing for the remaining 11 bags, but never hit the target weight again on the first try and kept adding or subtracting down until the weight was right. After I was done, I put the down that had collected at the bottom of the trash can back in the bag the down had come in. During this entire process, hardly any down escaped. I thought I would have to vacuum, but after I was done it didn't seem worth the trouble.
I then took the trash bag with the Ziploc bags outside, took the Ziploc bags out and let the wind blow away the few down clusters that were stuck to the outside of the bags. I went back inside, sat down on the floor and started transferring the down from the Ziploc bags to the chambers in the quilt. To do this, I perforated the Ziploc bags with a needle and pushed the air out while making sure the seal at the top of the bag wouldn't pop. I then put one arm inside the quilt chamber with the compressed down and turned the bag inside out. The bags came out very clean, with maybe two or three down clusters stuck to them. After each chamber, I pinned the fabric for a 1" rolled hem. After I got up, I looked around and could not see any down on the floor.
I am really hoping some people that are researching a DIY down quilt come across this post. When reading about handling down, I thought I was going to have to lock myself up in a tent or bathroom, and that I would get the whole house and myself really messy. I was a bit scared of what would happen. There is absolutely no reason to be scared of handling down. With a little caution, it is easy, fun and mess-free.
That was my thoughts. The whole down mess thing is really over-rated.
Is that too much to ask? Girls with frikkin' lasers on their heads?
The hanger formly known as "hammock engineer".
Schneiderlein, that's some wonderful news! I want to make some down products later on, and everything that I have read was so "threatening" it's refreshing to see some good news, as well as the step by step of how to work with it. Thanks!
Thanks for the play-by-play Schneiderlein.
There's a down UQ project in my future and your posts on this have been extremely helpful.
Grizz
And you said there wasn't a quilt in your future.
Is that too much to ask? Girls with frikkin' lasers on their heads?
The hanger formly known as "hammock engineer".
well more precisely, there's a 1/2 UQ in my future.
I've liked how doubling back a JRB nest has worked out this winter, but that's twice the loft needed for the warmer season. Besides which, 48" is unnecessarily wide for staying warm in a bridge hammock.
so I'm on this weight shedding kick. Redesign the hammock and quilt to shed ounces. Redesign diet and exercise regime to shed lbs off of me!
Grizz the light-headed
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