KMart down pillows for DIY uq

[TNhunter]

How are people reaping the down out of the Kmart pillows for DIY projects? I have several of them and my first DIY project with them is going to be two UQs.

[clemsonstew]

I made my friend a TQ and UQ with them. Great price for down, and was happy with the results (other than being just a little on the "heavy" side). VERY warm, after testing them!

[FLScouthanger]

TNHunter,

If you are asking how the down is transferred from the pillow to the UQ, I can only tell you how I did it. First I had the UQ all ready to accept the down--basically everything sewn except the the one end where the down would be stuffed. Next I got the pillow and removed about 3" from the seam on the corner of one side. This allowed just enough space for the ShopVac tube to fit into. Between the ShopVac flexible hose and the rigid extension tube I placed a scrap piece of noseeum to prevent the down from being sucked into the vacuum. From experience I found that placing the tube into the pillow PRIOR to turning the vacuum on seemed to work best for me. Otherwise the suction from the vacuum would coax the down out of the hole before the tube was inserted. Once the tube was in I'd seal the hole around the tube the best I could by simply holding it. Turn the vacuum on, moved the tube around a little, wait about 10 seconds (or until you know no more down is being sucked into the tube), then turn it off. Carefully removed the tube, put it about 3/4 into the baffle, carefully disconnect it from the vacuum (because the majority of down will now be at this end of the tube). At this point I found a spare piece of 3/4" diameter x 2' PVC sprinkler pipe was a suitable tool to ram the down from the tube into the baffle. Once the baffle was filled, I folded both the inne and outer layers of the UQ's open end of material over and used binder clips to hold it closed

I'm sure there are other ways to do it--this is just the method I used. It does take time & patience. If you're not careful you could easily have a down blizzard on your hands. Finally, if you use this method, choose your location wisely. Best bet would be in a confined space with as little air movement as possible. Otherwise, again, a down blizzard could hit at any moment.

For your planning purposes and for comparison, I recently made a UQ (66" x 44" x 4"). It had eight baffles with the baffle "walls" being 2" in height. The differential cut is what allows it to loft to 4". I took 1 1/3 pillows worth of down to get it to that point. It's a monster. Calculating that I should be able to get to near 0 with it. I took about 1.5 - 2 hours to stuff the down. Bottom line, it took some work. But for the price of the down, it was hard to pass up.

For my next DIY quilt, I think I'll just bite the bullet and get some pre-packaged down from Wilderness Logic or one of the other cottage vendors and use the Fronkey method of stuffing it. It appears to be much simpler, quicker, and almost eliminates the blizzard risk.

Good luck. Let us know how your's turns out.

[FLScouthanger]

One last thing...

You might notice I did not weigh the amount of down as I stuffed it. I simply assumed the vacuum would draw in approximately the same amount of down from the pillow each time. Therefore I stuffed the same number of tubes of down into each baffle. Granted, it's not as exact as some other methods, but it worked for me. Looking (and handling) the quilt, you could not tell the down was not measured prior to stuffing.

[JohnSawyer]

I don't recall from the other threads... is there an indication of the fill power of this down?

[Mountnman]

Which pillows are you all using?

[FLScouthanger]

I don't recall from the other threads... is there an indication of the fill power of this down?

John,

Conservative estimates have put it at 550 FP.

[FLScouthanger]

Which pillows are you all using?

The pillows are Great Find brand sold by KMart. I got them for $10 each at the local store. Tag says they have 16 ozs of down. I went back about 6 weeks later and they were nowhere to be found. Sounds like people may still be finding them in certain locales though. Excellent find for the price.