DIY UQ

[CigarSquid]

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I've been wanting a cold-weather UQ, but don't have the $$$ to shell out, so I looked at a few of the patterns and figured, I can do this.

Starting material -- ripstop nylon rain fly from a 1970's North Face Tuolumne tent (the tent and poles disappeared years ago). Once I ripped the center seam, I had two pieces 49" wide which I cut to 84" long. They were not perfectly rectangular. I was also given a small dome tent with a camoflage rainfly. The tent had multiple holes and broken poles, so I trashed the tent and poles. I ripped the seams of the rainfly, leaving me with six triangular-ish pieces. I alternated the triangles and sewed them together on my 1927 thread injector to make one sheet of material. I then cut six 72" long 2" strips to make the baffles.

After sewing the baffles to the bottom sheet, I then sewed the top sheet in place. I used grosgrain ribbon ($2.46) to make a sleeve at the foot for the shock cord, but did not have to use grosgrain for the sides -- there were already sleeves in place from the original rainfly.

I picked up an Army/Marine surplus mummy bag for $39.95 and a jacket for $9.95 at St. Vinnies and harvested and stuffed the down into the UQ. Once stuffed, I sewed another sleeve to the head. The shock cord I harvested from camo rain fly. I purchased four small barrel locks for $.80. I ran paracord I've had for quite some time through the side sleeves for suspension.

Total outlay is $53.16.

I have no idea what temp rating it will have, but will be testing it this weekend at 3000' with temps in the low 30s expected.

[SLCpod]

MacGyver!!

This looks great. Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to hear how it works out.

[Bladerunner]

good lookin quilt and great repurposing of on hand and surplus materials. I just got done making a climashield UQ today and im hoping to be good down to about 20ish degrees. what was the final weight on that?

[Mouseskowitz]

How much loft do you have? That is the main starting point for temp ratings. The only potential problem is see is down leakage since your materials may not be all that down proof. For the price, if it works, who can really complain. Also, that's a nice looking Singer 66 treadle you have there!

[Nickhob]

wow, great stuff, I'm always amazed to see how ingenious people are

[The_hanging_dog]

so I looked at a few of the patterns and figured, I can do this.
.

that was probably harder to do, start to finish, than making one with purpose bought fabric and down.
People are amazing!
nice job man

[CigarSquid]

Since I don't have an accurate scale at home, I don't know. Might drop by the P.O. and ask them to weigh it for me.

[CigarSquid]

Approximately 3" of loft, just going by my calibrated eyeball. I was able to roll it up rather tight (about the size of a sleeping bag), and did not see any leakage.

[Mouseskowitz]

Approximately 3" of loft, just going by my calibrated eyeball. I was able to roll it up rather tight (about the size of a sleeping bag), and did not see any leakage.

You should be able to get between 10 and 30 depending on how warm a sleeper you are and what you're wearing.

[FJRpilot]

Well done, great project!