Designing a “floating hood” mummy bag

[Art Sandt]

I'm seriously considering sewing a Climashield mummy bag for winter use. The problem is I don't want to have a static hood, the type like every other mummy bag has. I am a side sleeper who frequently tosses and turns during the night and when I turn over in a mummy bag, as most people here are probably familiar with doing, I either have to perform some actrobatics to get the hood oriented right, or I end up breathing into the fabric inside the hood. Neither is really all that fun to do when I'm tired.

The solution, I think, is something like a quilt, in the way you can use a hooded jacket with a hoodless quilt and have an effectively sealed system. Except, for a -5 to 0*F bag, I think it will need to zip up all the way, so I'm not going to make a quilt, strictly speaking.

What I'm not sure about is the bag-to-hood connection for a bag of this rating. Most of the time I will probably be using this with a hooded down jacket, but the rest of the time it will be used with a detachable hood I plan on sewing along with the bag. How can I best design a hoodless bag to "seal up" when using it with a floating hood? Would velcro need to be entered into the equation?

Even regular mummy bags have big puffy draft collars just to keep drafts out of the face hole. Will I need a draft collar? I'm thinking some sort of stiffened collar sticking up beyond the drawcord might be a good idea to act as a sort of external draft flap, but am not sure how this would work in practice. Such a thing might just end up pointing outwards and not being useful at all. Maybe an extra puffy draft collar would do the trick, but where should it be in relation to the top drawcord?

[Scott Nelson]

I made a down quilt with a floating hood for the same reasons you stated. My hood was based on the excellent hood design on the Thruhiker website. I modified it to be smaller in the baffle under your chin in front. This closes the hood up. I extended the length in front and back so that it comes down below your collar line on your chest and back. Good sizing and a drawstring face opening keep the hood in place. As for sealing the top of the bag, I faced an added problem because my quilt is velcroed to my Torso pad. This tends to pull the opening away toward the corners of the pad. Anyway, the top of the quilt closes with a drawstring and clips closed with a plastic watch clip. I added a "C" shaped neck collar inside the bag that is stitched to the middle top of the quilt a few inches down from the opening. This draft collar flops down around my neck and over the top of my shoulders. If it is warm, I can leave it flat on my chest and not use it. I think Moonstone used to make draft collars like this. It works for me. Scott

[Paul Tree]

Western Mountaineering has their side-of-the-bag draft tube just wrap around and over the neck. When the bag is closed, some velcro is attached which lets you snug the elastic drawcord on this draft tube around your neck.

WM site

The Pro90 hood is 50% off at BPL now (11/4/08)
$35 is so cheap, may have to get one!

There is the Fin of Finbar hood to take a look at.

[Author]

Posts