I’ve done a few MYOG projects while teaching myself to sew over the last few months. This is my first top quilt, would love some feedback. I took a bunch of pictures through the process of making it, so I thought I’d put them up here because I always enjoy it when people do the same.
I used Argon 67 from dutch for both the outer and inner shell, 12oz 950fp hydrophobic down from quest, and various other bits from various venders. I have not weighed it yet, but I believe it to be ~17-18 ounces all said and done, not bad!
The quilt is for my mom who will be thru hiking the JMT this summer to celebrate her retirement in March. She’s 5’7ish, normal build, and tends to get cold most easiest in her feet. She also likes to move a bit in her sleep so the quilt is built to be roomy. It's 54’’ at the top and tapers down to 40’’ for her size 9 feet (roughy a 11.5 inch diameter sewn footbox). Its 72’’ long which should be more than long enough. The quilt has 12oz of 950fp down in it which lofts it up to about 4.5 inches, should be good to get her down to at least 20-10 degrees F depending on layers. It has a 1/16 shock cord in a sewn in channel and a light plastic snap so she can close it around her neck if it gets cold.
I used a karo-step baffle design and customized it quite a bit. I call it ‘differential karo-step’ because the size and shape of the boxes and baffle to no baffle ratio changes based on location. Because her feet tend to get cold I wanted the down to be less mobile in the foot box, so the baffle openings are smaller there. The knee area has boxes that are longer than they are wide so she should be able to move down to and from the footbox as needed easier, and the upper potion of the quilt has larger openings so she can more easily move down around to suit whatever sleeping position suits her at the time.
As for construction, She will be using it for thru-hikes so its important it be durable. all seams are double or triple stitched and reinforcements/bartacs are placed in key locations.
On to the Pictures! (23 of them!)
First, I carefully marked out the dimensions with 1 inch seam allowances
Brown for outer shell, black for inner:
Cut out:
After much number crunching, laying out the baffling:
Hemming the edges. I think this looks much cleaner than rolled edges…
Finished hem:
Adding an ultra light sew on plastic snap:
Ripstop tenacious tape for reinforcement behind snap:
3/16s nylon flat cord for loops to tie under sleeping mat, if desired:
Starting to attach baffles to outer shell:
Damn cat (Mr. Fidel Catsto) is passed out and snoring. Ah well, better that than rolling around in the fabric…
Baffles are attached to outer shell:
Attaching baffles to the inner shell was a bit tricky, but slow and steady does it:
Inner and outer shells are now attached by all the karo-stepped no-see-um mesh baffles:
Sewing up the shells. Added this triangle shaped piece of fabric at the end of the sewn up footbox:
All sewn up, almost ready for stuffing:
Here’s the circular cap for the footbox. I overstuffed it and included down in the seam so her feet would be warm:
Stuffed it and added the finishing touches. The final product, ready for the JMT:
I’d love you hear your thoughts! Ill get more photos in the sun light later this week and toss em up here, the fabric is a REALLY cool brown/copper/metallic color in the sun.
Cheers
Kevin
