no-sew CF skirt – possible?

Yar- I messed with a four panel design (two curves at the hips and a flat panel at front and back), end result- put enough segments in and you have a cone anyway. The fabric figures it out. You want it loose for airflow anyway, keep the form fitting one for trail town bar visits.

For a skirt- measure your waist at the top of your hip belt, not your true waist. I haven't yet solved the "women's" problem in that regard, and my wife has complained a hair about the bunch up of fabric using a drawcord because of the hip to waist differential in women. The complaint is an aesthetic one though, nothing else. If they have one, a fellas ass sticks out but hips are generally straight so it doesn't show up as much as it does in the ladies versions.

Lost the link, but there was a thru-hiker gal who made hiking skirts with a "yoga" pant style top to solve the issue. The top 4-6" were made of a stretch lycra. In a rain skirt though- poor choice.

FWIW- I gave up on the rain skirt for the most part. I've found just an uncoated nylon to be the best all around. Dries in 15 minutes, and I tend to sweat enough in the rain skirt to pretty well defeat the purpose. Around 55 degrees I occasionally wear a coated (rain) version for a little more warmth. When it's below 35 or so, I'm more likely to slip pants on anyway. So the rain skirt never really found a spot in my kit personally.

If you've never worked with cuben before, you could try making some stuff sacks as practice. You'll see how the taping works, get a feel for if it will meet your needs, and end up with some stuff sacks too.

Yama Mountain Gear gives some instructions on no-sew cuben stuff sacks here:

http://www.yamamountaingear.com/diy-cuben-fiber-stuff-sacks/

to be pragmatic: I want to leave my loathed 12 oz Marmot rain pants at home. For my trip in two weeks, that'll probably mean either a trash compactor bag or a pair of driducks pants converted to a skirt. I'm not a big sweater (kind of like how i'm not a sewer) and I do still spend enough time in camp that I want to keep dry.

The cuben skirt is more a fun/inspired project. I love the idea of whipping stuff up with tape.

Rather than a rain skirt, I wanted rain pants for cool weather, so I got the kit from Thru-Hiker for Liberty Ridge Pants. I sewed a thin Momentum fabric, and the finished article weighs about 2.4 ounces.

–B.G.–

Hi Katherine

> I want to leave my loathed 12 oz Marmot rain pants at home.
Well, I can sympathise there!

All I carry are some old GoLite Whims: very light UNcoated fabric with a good DWR. 109 g or 3.8 oz. My legs may get damp, but being uncoated the Whims do breathe and dry out fast.

But do you really need rain pants? Most times, unless it is really cold alpine stuff, I simply don't bother. Yes, my Taslan trousers can get soaked, but they dry very fast, and my legs stay warm because my torso is warm. Yes, I do keep my torso warm – but not sweaty hot.

Cheers

"How heavy a weight CF can I go and still stay no-sew?"….. Theoretically, any weight cuben. I've got some 3oz cuben that I've taped into a couple drybags. Very tough stuff. There is no perceptible difference in thickness between 1.0oz and 1.4oz cuben, nor .51oz and .74oz cuben. .33oz is a whole other animal though.

"I realized yesterday that fabric is sewn on the bias. That would be irrelevant to CF, right? Or does it maker which way the grain goes?"…..Will not matter.

"I'd like to sketch this out to share — posting is helping me think this through. What app would be easiest to sketch out and share design ideas?"…..SketchUp is da bomb.

Ryan

@ John Harper: good suggestion.