convert jacket to quilt?

Not to burst your bubble but I think you would have much better luck starting from scratch. The insulation is in panels so you would have to work with the existing shapes cut for the jacket. If the jacket had lots of high quality down instead of synthetic insulation it would be another story. Thru-hiker.com has a nice selection of synthetic insulation. I am especially impressed with the Climashiled XP 5 ounce. I carefully measured the actual weight and loft because I'm all about numbers. Weight was dead on at 5 oz/yd2 and thickness averaged 1.5". The XP 2.5 averaged .5" and 2.5 oz/yd2. Since the insulation comes in sheets, making a quilt is very straightforward.

hi bender — thanks for your input. no bubble burst. sounds like a great combo that i hope to one day have a go at.

while i'd love to start from scratch, i'm on a very limited budget. this is practice. also this would be my first myog quilt and just wanted to see how i could accomplish this by re-using/up-cycling rather than buying more stuff.

part of my UL ethic includes trying to realistically & resourcefully use what i already have as much as possible.

that said, i don't mind the existing shape since it's somewhat close to my body shape .