Just before becoming a hanger, I bought a North Face Beeline sleeping bag. This is a nice, light, three season down sleeping bag. However the zipper was only about two feet long, and the bag very tight. Needless to say, it was not the most comfortable bag to use in a hammock. so what to do?

Time for the zipper-ectomy!

I took a few picts as I went - but with the down explosion and all, my mind was more on the job than on taking pictures. I hope that doesn't disqualify me as a HF member!

After much measuring and scratching of head, I got out the vacuum cleaner, inserted some bug screening and went to work. My plan was to

1.remove the zipper
2. lengthen the opening down to the foot box, and
3. transfer as much extra down to from the cut off portions into the remaining quilt as possible.

I accomplished all three goals. I also managed to hide all the escaped down among the dust bunnies already occupying floor space, hoping the wife would not notice. (Note to self: Don't try to hide things from wife!)

Before making a cut, I did my best to shake all the down away from the part of the sleeping bag that I was about to cut off. This seemed to work well -until I made that first cut. Here is where I have cut away the zipper.



I next used the vacuum to transfer the extra down to an empty container. As I continued to cut I had to continually stop and vacuum up more down. Later most of this down was stuck back into the baffles before sewing them shut.

In this next picture the orange piece in the center is the part I cut away. My next step was to remove the down (the vacuum again), then place the extra down into the baffles and pin the edge shut as I went.



This completes the destructive phase of the project. I will show how things went together in the next post. (After I calm down - how will I get it to go back together?)