cost of a MYOG sleeping bag

[mister jarvey]

About ready to make my own sleeping bag, but I just wanted to confirm with others the general cost of materials and final project.

For someone about 5'8", a bag 70" long, rated for 0 degrees-

3 yards of 60" 20D @ ~$10/ yd = $30
3 yards of 60" taffeta @ ~$10/ yd = $30
20 oz of 850 down @ ~$6/ oz = $120

That's a total of about $180 for a sleeping bag. Do these numbers jive for everyone? It doesn't seem like a MYOG sleeping bag can be had for sub $100.

[Tyler Johnson]

If you're open to a quilt, it can be a bit cheaper.

Seems the standard for 0 degree bags is three inches of loft, so assuming your quilt would be 50 inches wide, you'd need (70 in)*(50 in)*(3 in)/(850 in^3/oz) < 13 oz of 850FP down; if you want to overstuff by say 20% you'd need about 2 oz more, so 15 oz total. $30 of savings.

Additionally, taffeta and 20D are nice, but I'm a cheapo and am just fine with plain old 30d ripstop seconds, which can be had for a mere $3.20/yd, saving you about $40.

So there's a $110 zero degree myog *quilt*; obviously there's some decreased functionality from your proposed design and materials.

EDIT: For a true bag, you could probably get away with the equivalent of a 53-54" rectangular quilt (assuming you're going hoodless), which would require 16 oz of 850FP down with 3 in of loft and 20% overstuff. Also, don't forget to account for the material for your baffle walls! Noseeum would be cheaper than the 20d or tafetta.

[mister jarvey]

Can you break down the calculations you used to determine how many ounces of down to use? I'm having trouble figuring that out.

[Michael Pappas]

i used nobul1 to line my quilt and i'm pretty happy with it. It has a really nice soft finish to it which is great for lining. It's only $7.50/yard.
MIchael

[Michael Pappas]

the down fill rating tells you how many cubic inches an ounce of down can fill. 850 fill means 1 ounce fills 850 cubic inches of quilt. so if your volume for the quilt is 70*50*3=10,500. then you divide that by 850 (fill power) and get 12.35 oz. and multiply by 1.2 to get the overstuffed number. 14.82 oz.
Michael

[mister jarvey]

If i were to use synthetic insulation, such as Climashield Apex from Thru Hiker to save money, would the baffle height still need to be the same as required for down baffle height? Down baffle height for 0 degree is suggested to be 3". Climashield Apex fill height would also need to be 3"? That's a whole lotta Apex.

[Franco Darioli]

NM

[Ozzy McKinney]

I used the 1.1oz ripstop nylon 2nds from diygearsupply.com for the shell material for my syth quilt, super cheap at 3.20/sqyd and good DWR.

http://www.backwoodsdaydreamer.com/products-page/breathable-fabrics/

As for an APEX quilt rated for 0 degrees… 2 layers of 5oz would be my guess (?). That would be ridiculously warm, and have a huge packed size.

[Jerry Adams]

I use 4 ounce Apex bag and 4 ounce Apex vest down to maybe 20 F. I you had 5 ounce bag and 5 ounce jacket/pants you might be okay down to zero

If you have a bag with more than 5 ounce, then it get's so bulky – maybe that's when down is better?

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