Super cheap and pretty light summer bag?

[Kier Selinsky]

Hi all –
So I was shopping for a summer bag when I came across this fleece liner/sleeping bag, and that got me wondering. What's the comfort rating of just a regular piece of fleece? Could I actually hit the craft store and get $10 in fleece sew together a 50 degree bag that's roughly 1 pound? Maybe wrap it in some ripstop for comfort (fleece ain't good on sweat)…

Anyone ever try this? Anyone know what the comfort rating of such a bag would be?

[John S.]

Walmart sells ~200 wt fleece bags for 10 bucks. Get a weight first though. Maybe good to 60 degrees for me.

[Troy Ammons]

Probably about 55-60dF depending on the weight and how you sleep.

That said if you are going to wrap it up with nylon anyway, get some 5/8 bonded polyester batting from joanns for $10.

A lot more compressible than fleece.

Better yet splurge on some 2.5 oz climashield at $10 a yard.

If you wrap climasheild with some 1oz nylon from the walmart bargain bin you can do a quilt for about $30-40 that weighs like 12-14oz.

[Kier Selinsky]

for the quick feedback… may be worth just doing the quick and dirty climashield as suggested for more error margin

[Dale Wambaugh]

I was kicking this around, looking at using light liners in conjunction with an AMK Thermolite bivy for a quick and dirty summer bag. I remember being surprised that a simple fleece bag could be so heavy, but they are. If you think about it, a basic 200W fleece pullover is usually in the 16 ounce and higher range and a sleeping bag is going to eat up some yardage. No free lunch!

Sea to Summit makes a Reactor Extreme Thermolite sleeping bag liner that is supposed to add 25F to your sleeping bag and weighs 14oz and runs $60-$65. Trouble is, my 40F Mont Bell down bag is only 16oz, but that isn't cheap or MYOG– I did get it used :)

I've wondered about tearing down a car camping style sleeping bag for the batts. Construction-wise, a quilt seems to be the way to go.

[john Tier]

Jacks R Better LLC make a quilt liner in micro fleece that easily adds 10 degreees to a quilt or bag, or serves as a summer blanket alone, reg $29.95…Currentlty on Trail Days Special for $24.95.

Pan

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