How do you make a footbox for a quilt?

[Scott Jones]

I am talking about a footbox that is like those found on a regular sleeping bag. How difficult is it to sew those components together? How is it done?

[Roger Caffin]

I have just made a 350 g shell for a fully baffled winter sleeping bag out of Pertex microlight. I made the footbox inner layer about 270 mm diameter and sewed that to the inner bag. I made the footbox outer layer 320 mm diameter and sewed that to the outer bag. You can't sew it all from the 'inside', so there has to be a small section which gets sewn from the outside, but that is where the down will go into the footbox anyhow.

One Planet in Melbourne, Australia are filling it with 650 g of 800 loft down for me. I posted the shell off today, so I can't show pics yet.

Anyhow, adding a footbox is pretty easy compared to sewing all the baffles in place!

Cheers
Roger

[Tim Marshall]

"You can't sew it all from the 'inside', so there has to be a small section which gets sewn from the outside"

You still keep the open area (that can't be sewn inside) on the inside (liner) of the quilt right? SO it isn't visible on the outside(shell.

-Tim

P.S.
I will be doing a foot box soon and want to get it clear

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Tim

> You still keep the open area (that can't be sewn inside) on the inside (liner) of the quilt right? SO it isn't visible on the outside(shell.
I had to read this several times to make sure I understood it! :-)
But of course you are right. In the end, I left the filling gap on the inside wall as well.

Cheers
Roger

[Scott Jones]

If you could take photos of the process and post them I would be very thankful. It is hard to figure out how to do a task like that. Most MYOG quilts I see on the forum here pretty much copy the Fanatic Fringe sew up the bottom like the bow of a canoe option. I noticed on the review of the Bozeman Mountain Works Pro 90 Quilt and the photos posted on it, they have the round footbox which is nice to see. On the Nunatak quilts, they have the nicely made footbox as well.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Scott

but it's all sewn up! And away being filled too.

But before answering, I need to know what sort of quilt are you talking about: sewn-through or with walls/baffles? Down or synthetic? They are all different.

Cheers

[Scott Jones]

My first attempt will be with synthetic insulation, Roger. Will that make the project easier for the footbox?

[Tim Marshall]

I will jump in as far as the complexity of a synthetic foot box.

Yes it will be easier with synthetic. There are no baffles to worry about and nobody has to stuff animal parts in there through a tiny hole.

All you need to do for a synthetic quilt with foot box is sew the liner and shell foot area separately. Make your square (or circle or trapezoid or rectangle) of fabric and insulation and sew it to the liner and insulation and sew up around 18" to form the footbox ( i remembered after i posted this that you need to sew up the 18" first so you have a tube to sew the square plug into). Then sew the same thing out of just the fabric. Now you should have a fabric and insulation pice and just a fabric piece, both with a footbox.

Place the 2 pieces together right sides facing eachother. I would slide the just fabric footbox into the fabric/insulation one and then you just sew all around the edges that are left, leaving 6-10" space somewhere to turn it inside out. Turn it inside out, make sure all is well and close the hole, DONE! You may want to include understraps or a top drawcord. Just add these before you sew all the edges up and it will look very professional.

I find that i like the shell/insulation side against my skin as the "just fabric" side falls loose and sticks to me all over. This does make it better at trapping heat and creating less area to warm, however i don't find it as comfortable.

IF that is confusing i'm sorry. i think in a very fragmented way.

-Tim

[Roger Caffin]

Tim has answered this well. Easy with a synthetic fill. Good point about sewing the bottom end into a tube first though!

[Scott Jones]

Thanks Tim and Roger for your time and information. I want the foot of my quilt to look like the one's Bozeman Mountain Works have. This is a link to another place here on the forum. There is a picture of the foot section of the quilt. It looks like a sleeping bags.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/reviews/display_reviews?forum_thread_id=10232&cat=Sleeping%20Bags%20%2D%20Quilts%20%26%20Top%20Bags&cid=38

I do hope someone actually photographs the process step by step and posts it on the forum.

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