MYOG M50 900FP Karo quilt

Now to stuff the down and enjoy the big payoff in ease & simplicity, right? Hah! Again, having some experience in rebuilding cars, light cabinetry, etc, I knew the name of the game behind every project was **prep**. Our house has a small utility bathroom, so I cleared it out and wiped it completely clean. (With Karo, you can stuff the entire bag and not have to sew shut each baffle as you finish, so you don't need to stuff by a sewing machine.) We have a pretty good Hoover vacuum with nozzle attachment, so I cleaned it out as well and then taped the requisite nanoseeum over the intake to capture the down.

Well, after attempting the standard push/blow tube a few times, I realized this wasn't gonna work with the Karo system. You see, you can't really get your hand down too far, otherwise all the down will simply collect around your arm. But, the plus side was, I could simply fill the upper chamber, then shake the down down to the bottom – rinse, lather, repeat. So once I settled on that technique, I started grabbing handfuls of down, shoving them into the opening I had left @ the foot of the quilt, clinching it shut, and shook the down down towards the head.

Ha, ha, you can imagine the mess! At this point, I was trying to figure out how to explain to my wife that my project blew up and why I needed a new quilt from Tim. LOL But, but, every now and then you get lucky. In my case, I recalled reading that it's very easy to vacuum down – since I had my vacuum in the small room with me, and it still had the nanoseeum mesh, I got down to business. What a charm! I swear I got every last nodule. In fact, I shook the quilt loose of some down that had stuck on the outside, and then for the coup de grace, I turned the T-H packing bag inside out and shook out every last nodule in there as well! Then, I vacuumed up every little Who morsel, placed the nozzle in the bag, and blew the very last bits into the quilt. Success!

(Another reason I know I got every last bit of down is because the sewn empty quilt weighed 5.3 ounces, and the finished, stuffed quilt weighed 17.35 ounces = 12.05 ounces of down. Not bad for a 2.5+" loft, 25-30 degree quilt.)

OK, so now for the last step: I had only left a 12" opening in which to stuff the down, so I carefully clipped it shut, walked out of the utility room and down the hall to where I had my sewing machine all set up and rearing to go, and sewed the remaining seam shut. I then rolled the entire last hem and was finished. Wow! Talk about hitting the winning shot @ the buzzer.

I walked out to our living room, shook out the quilt to get the down positioned to where I wanted it, and realized another reason why the Karo system absolutely rocks: with not too much effort, I could get the down to where I wanted it, and with the 12/6 boxes, it would stay there. For those who have used/built quilts, you know the key is to either add straps, side edges, or just make the quilt overly large so you can wrap yourself in a nice tight burrito. With the Karo system, I could shift the down away from the edges (that I will be lying on anyway), and get it nice & puffy over my body. In fact, the loft is near 3+" in the squares above my torso area.

So, to summarize the cons and pros, at least from my perspective:

Cons
1. You will wish you hadn’t signed up for such a detailed project involving marking out 40+ sew points for the Karo baffles; 80 if you count both sides.
2. You will wish you hadn’t signed up for such an in involved project necessitating sewing all those individual Karo baffles.
3. You will wish you hadn’t signed up for such a messy project requiring stuffing down through some fairly narrow openings and having it go all over the place. (If the spacing between Karo baffles is too large, the down will migrate on its own within the quilt – very bad.)

Pros
1. You will absolutely rejoice when you discover that not only can you achieve 0% down loss, but you won’t have any clean up afterward either. (Of course, this assumes stuffing in a small, confined area with just you, your quilt, down and a vacuum cleaner.)
2. You will be stoked on how easy it is to shift/position the down to where you need it, maximizing warmth and minimizing weight. (Again, this assumes small enough gaps so you have to work the down to each Karo section, rather than allow the down to fall/migrate on its own.)

Pictures
Here are some pics of the finished quilt. I still need to sew on a few grosgrain loops/buttons for the foot box area. I don’t use cinch ties, which is why I make my quilts overly long/wide so that I can curl both the foot & head area around & underneath me.

That turned out great! You should be proud you did all the hard stuff without the easy cheats we use. Did I read that some of your M50 is ripstop? Did I miss something when I ordered mine, it was all taffeta.

-Tim

My mistake – I was thinking of the M90 MR & T material. I don't why the black liner shows two micro pin holes at either baffle end from the back tack, while the blue shell is 'clean'. Maybe they are there and I just can't see them when I hold it up to light.

Either way, I'm pretty stoked that since the back tacks are 1/8-1/16" from the edge of each baffle, the nanoseeum is catching the nodules and not allowing the down to leak. Hooray for small victories!

Major props to you and other builders who have figured out a way to optimize this process. I think I will stick to packs, tarps, and maybe syn quilts in the future. Hopefully, this baby will last a long time.

Down doesn't leak, feathers do. Down this good could be shelled in cheese cloth.

-Tim

Yeah, at $10/oz, I made dang sure I was getting every last down nodule into the quilt. As you know, the overall material quality level of both fabric and down is very high. It's truly a Ferrari class UL quilt – if anyone is interested in cutting a bunch of weight while increasing performance, this is the ticket.

My son was so impressed he asked if he could take it to his annual beach camp out during his summer guards program. Like if – every year, I try and find a cheap used syn bag that can be thrown away after it's been completely thrashed. LOL

This baby is my pass to even further/higher alpine lakes to hunt those elusive goldens.

I used the quilt last night for a few hours to test the down control. Inside – of course it was too hot to really try it out, so it was just sort of laying on top of me with all my legs/arms out.

Still, I purposely jammed some of the side layers under me to give it a mild workout. The down stayed where I had moved it (to the center squares) without migrating & falling away to the sides.

I think the 12/6 system with a 30% overfill hits the sweet spot for those considering this kind of down baffle system.