Underquilts.com - Foyle Project
I finally had the time to work on my new UQ this past weekend. I figured I would share the pics (of the times when I remembered to take them) and thoughts on this project.
First, the quality is great, and the customer service was top notch. All my questions were answered, and when the weather finally allowed for shipping, it was on its way in no time flat. I definitely recommend UNDERQUILTS.COM
As I shared in a previous post, here is the donor bag (An old ~1950's Eddie Bauer bag with 4 lbs of down in it).
I decided to remove the outer layer of protective material before I washed it, because it would just make the washing less effective and the drying would take much longer with the extra layer. This was the point of no return for the bag, and I was still a pretty torn about essentially mauling a great piece of gear for it's precious insides.
We loaded up and headed to a laundry mat to wash 50+ years of who knows what out of the bag. Here my youngest son is being hypnotized by the washer.
I think the last time I had gone to a laundry mat I was a freshmen in college, so when I saw the 4 load washers, I immediately threw the bag in put the down soap in the top and got that bad boy going. Had I kept walking, I would have seen the behemoth 6 load washers.I have never seen such a thing. They look like some sort of mini test cell for NASA.
After the washing and machine drying (with tennis balls) was complete, we headed home. I knew the bag wasn't completely dry, but living in NM I figured the 70 degree weather and super low humidity could finish the job. I threw it the trampoline and we jumped for a while. Then, it went on the clothes line for the rest of the day.
The next day the bag was 99% dry, so while I researched and came up with a harvesting plan someone decided to get all wrapped in the project too.
I researched the various methods discussed here on the HF, but couldn't really find anything that fit my tool and setup situation. I decided to go with the outside in the open air method.
This is where the excitement kicked in and the photos stopped, so I'll try to briefly explain what went down on the back porch.
Materials:
heavy-duty cardboard tube
3/4" pvc for clearing out the tube
bag-less/canister vacuum
scale
scissors
webbing (used to clothes pin the UQ to for vertical stuffing)
clothes pins
Before I began, I hit the vacuum filter and canister with compressed air so the down wouldn't mix with the dust and stuff hangin' out in the canister.
I made a slit at the end of one baffle(old bag), began to tear the baffle length wise with the vacuum going.
(Tearing with left hand and holding the vacuum with the right)
Once I would reach a point where the down was highly concentrated, I would kill the vacuum and go to directly stuffing the cardboard tube. Once the vacuum canister was full, I would use that to fill the tube.
As far as down going everywhere, it wasn't too bad. For the most part static would keep it in the canister, and the intermittent breeze kept the area cleaned up.
I weighed the down filled tube and took notes on how much down was going into each baffle. I held the tube into the UQ baffle and ram-rodded it in with the pvc. Then, I gave it a sharp burst of air to make sure all of it had left the tube. I did not know the fill power of the down, so I assumed it was on the lower end ~600. I'd rather have it over-stuffed and have a lower temp rating than to under-stuff it and have voids.
here's my notes:
After adding about 1.3oz per baffle (11.7oz total), I decided to add a bit more, so I brought each baffle up to a total of 1.6oz. (14.4oz total) I know that that is 2.4 oz over the 30% over-stuffing for 600 down, but it sure is toasty.
Once the baffle stuffing was complete, I followed the Underquilts.com instructions step by step, and with a little patience and ~1,635 pins, the Foyle was ready for sewing.
Here it is all sewn up and fluffed.
I just got word from my in-laws that there's a Barnaby TQ Shellon it's way to me for my B-day, so I'll try to document the stuffing process a little better with it.
Then, it's time to get out there and use it!!!
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