Your view on draft proofing a quilt

This Thread might be insightful.

IMHO – the real secret is making the quilt wide enough. Even if this means adding strips of single-layer fabric at the sides.

Cheers

Greg, nice mod.

Sort of along the lines of what Roger wrote. I have an EE RevX 40 degree quilt in short and slim size. In hindsight, i really should have went with the wide version or at the very least the regular width.

Anyways, i decided to mod my quilt for other reasons besides drafts, but it so happens to work for drafts too if i'm not using the extra Apex material. I sewed a piece of M50 fabric to the top of the quilt, and was surprised to find that it only added very slightly under 2 oz. and that's including 6 smallish sized strips of velcro (which for your purpose, you wouldn't need).

Also what's nice about it, is if i don't need the extra draft protection because it's warm out, or what not, i don't get in the sleeve, but have the M50 material on top, i have extra splash protection when i'm under a tarp. M50 is pretty water resistant for a still somewhat breathable fabric. The water would also have to go through the next layer of 30D DWR nylon. This sort of makes it like a bivy in a way.

(the main reason why i added the M50 fabric, was so i can add or take away a layer of 2.5 oz per sq/yd Apex depending on need)

Another factor is the width of you sleep pad.

If the quilt has nothing to fall onto (it's off the edge) drafts are inevitable.

Greg,
Nice job on the shock cord! 1/16" seems pretty low bulk, too.

My quilt does have fabric hanging off the edges to reduce drafts, & my 20" wide pad inflates to 2.5" thick. Usually I tuck the quilt under the pad a bit, which mostly works. Your adjustable solution seems far less fussy for even mildly active sleepers.

We are very happy with simple fabric strips along the outer edges which we tuck under us or our pads to keep the drafts down. Jardine calls these "draft stoppers" and I put them on all my quilts now. Even on a 2-person quilt it adds less than an ounce.

I guess you can add them after the fact, normally they are sewn into the edge of the quilt when you join the top and bottom. Mine are maybe 5"-6" wide finished.

Elliot, just curious, but what fabric did you use for the side flaps?

My quilts are all 1.1 oz ripstop surrounding various types of insulation. I use 1.1 oz ripstop for the draft stoppers as well.

Thanks for the reply Elliot.

If I read you right, Justin, you sewed a piece of fabric to the edges of your quilt, but not to the top or bottom of the quilt. The fabric forms the top part of a sleeve while your quilt forms the bottom part for slipping in another layer of insulation(?) If you pull the material over the top of the quilt, it ends up under the quilt, forming a draft protected tunnel into which you can slip(?)

Thanks, Elliot, my quilt does have draft stoppers (DS), which would work great if they would also stop me from rolling from side to side. That rolling over action often results in me lifting myself off the DS and exposing my hind side. They work a little better when tucked under my sleeping pad. I need to connect the draft stoppers with either a lace up system or some ripstop.

I'll probably end up with something like a sleeping bag that has insulation on the top sides and bottom, and no restrictive hood. I just need to start sewing.

I have silnylon on the bottom – sort of hybrid quilt/bivy. Sew it to sides and bottom of quilt totally enclosed. Then I use no ground cloth. 1 inch air mattress goes inside and I sleep directly on it.

Zipper halfway down the front on the top. Unzip to get in. Typically, part way zipped up at beginning of night, then zip it up as I get cold. You need some insulated flaps at the top, over my shoulders to keep drafts from blowing in.

I always wrap my quilt around me, not the pad. I use a few short lengths of bungee cord with mitten hooks on the ends to keep the bottom connected and in place. It's worked very well into the low teens, and I'm an active, acrobatic sleeper.

Hi Jeffrey,

Yeah its just one piece of M50 fabric sewn to the edges of the quilt. If I'm using the extra Apex insulation, I wouldn't be able to use the sleeve for draft/wind protection. I doubt most would like the sleeve idea in and of itself the way I made it because you would have to shimmey in. Not sure what I will do for extra draft protection while using the extra insulation. I like Greg's idea, but I may also just put some extra M50 on the sides since I have some left over.

Jerry,

"I have silnylon on the bottom – sort of hybrid quilt/bivy. Sew it to sides and bottom of quilt totally enclosed."

I've done the same thing in my quilt experiments. I used uncoated nylon, however. Works well in my experience.

To get cooler I can sort of roll the bag/quilt to one side so the uncoated bottom is on the side or even the top. To warm up I roll the other way and move the uncoated fabric to the bottom. To get even warmer I gather up the loose uncoated fabric with my hands or legs and pull things in tighter.

Even a couple of yards of .7 ounce or so nylon is under 1 1/2 ounces. Most strap, bunji cord, buckle arrangement weigh that much or more.

Sewing a 6' x 6' piece of uncoated .7 ounce uncoated nylon to the bottom of my fully unzipped and flattened out Feathered Friends bag gives my wife and I a quilt for two for about 4 ounces of additional weight over the weight of the bag alone (i.e. about 2 lbs plus about 4 ounces = 2 1/4 lbs for two).

Draft proof a quilt?

Put a zipper on it and make it into a sleeping bag. :)

Bill D

I attach the quilt to the top of the pad and snuggle the edge of the quilt under my body, not under the pad. My single and double quilts are wide enough to do this effectively. I like the quilt attached to the pad because it stays in place when I roll around. Various ways to do this are shown in this thread:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=69689&skip_to_post=640525#640525

Someone asked for pictures of my draft-stoppers, here they are. Finished width is about 6 1/2", I guess the raw width was about 1 1/2" or 2" more to account for the hemmed outside edge and some amount inside the quilt. I made one very long draft stopper out of a few narrow pieces sewn together at their ends. To get the length I started sewing the multi-part long piece in, then just cut it off (and hemmed the end) when I got to the other side of the quilt: