Insulated Pants- an abomination to the LNT gods?

[David Wills]

"Be considerate of other visitors"- LNT principle #7. I think the pants I made today may be LNT contraband. I salvaged an old ray way quilt that I accidentally trimmed to narrow a while back and turned one of the insulation layers and all the nylon into a pair of P3D pants. I had to use some spare 5mm silk I had laying around to line them; poor me, I have silk lined insulated pants that come in at 7.75 oz :). Sorry to all of those who see these kelly green beauties on the trail, especially when combined with my cobalt blue thermawrap. I took a picture of them, but decided to spare the complete eyesore to y'all by wearing a vest over the thermawrap.

My best Cpt. Morgan

Pants laid out

Here's the silk lining. It feels great! no need for long johns with these :)

I also used the liberty ridge pattern from thru-hiker and modified it to full zip, and shortened the collar an inch for a nice town coat of nice $1 walmart stuff. At 20 oz, its to heavy for trail and almost too snazzy for me to even consider… almost

[Joseph Williams]

David, that's a smart save, will you share with us a little more of the process by which quilt becomes trousers? I have a similarly tiny quilt looking for a second use!

[Tim Marshall]

Did the quilt use his yarn loops? If so how do those holes affect the nylon you used for those sexy pants?

[Joshua Mitchell]

wow… at least you not (or at least not admitting to) wearing them around town…

[Steven Evans]

Very nice work.

Add that first pic to "The men of lightweight hiking calendar" ;)

[David Wills]

It did have quilt loops which got a bit stretched over the years and as a result there are a few small holes hear and there. i doubt it will affect the strength of the fabric at all because it is a weave as apposed to a laminate. I didn't notice any fiber tears in the area of the holes. Water resistance is not a concern.

For the construction, I opened a small hole to turn the quilt inside out, then cut the insulation off of the shell very close to the edge seam for maximum . I used the liberty ridge pattern from thru-hiker and cut out the pattern for the shell and insulation out of those materials. I used clothes pins to keep the insulation-shell-shell-insulation layers together and made the pants like I normally would, minus the french seam and trimmed the edges to reduce weight and bulk. I then made the liner pants and stitched it to the waist leaving the raw edge visible. I made a draw cord tunnel out of some 200D oxford and used it to cover the raw edge at the waist. After that, I did a roll hem at the foot holes so the green nylon covered the bottom raw edges and go on the inside of the leg. When you are done with that, you can begin your modeling career or patiently await Halloween next year to be a ninja turtle.

[David Stenberg]

Those pants turned out awesome! I am looking into making something similar through supplies at thru-hiker.

[Greg Vaillancourt]

and you have next years halloween costume.

CAPTAIN EYESORE!

Strong work.

[Jeremy Cleaveland]

If someone starts making fun of your kelly green pants, just ask if their legs are warm. If that doesn't shut them up, ask how much their warm pants cost. In the event that that doesn't work, ask how much their warm pants weight. If that doesn't work, just say "At least my pants are Green!" (like, green being environmentally friendly, since they were recycled from a previous use……..)

Great work! I recently finished a pair insulated full side zip pants from the Liberty Ridge windpants pattern; but mine are just black – you definitely get some man points for wearing them!
I also have a kelly green Ray Jardine quilt that I sewed a little too narrow…. maybe I'll have to turn it into something else too – thanks for the inspiration.

[Sam Haraldson]

> ou definitely get some man points for wearing them!

Haha! That's a great response, Jeremy. And, David, they look like a great creation. Function over form in the backcountry, that's what I say.

– Sam

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