Home made 0 degree quilt?

Hey Kathleen,
You were correct about the combined 2 layers of the 15* bag was not as thick as the single layer on mine.

I just purchased my material and down at Thru-hiker.

I have the dimensions at my house and can get them.
The quilt is made with various thicknesses and girths throughout. The main center area of the quilt is I believe 42" wide and tapers down to about 38" at the feet. It is 4.75" in thickness and the area goes up to the bottom of the head opening.
I also made the dimensions to fit someone my size or smaller so there would be different dimensions and a lot different weight, (or thickness) if it were any bigger.
I am not sure what the widest width is but I think it is 58" and the foot box is about 42.

I just wanted to see what I could do with a 2 lb quilt.
Chris may also be getting one with a Momentium/ Cuben mix that would weigh in about 5 ounces less for an equally lofted quilt of that dimension.

Thanks, Aaron! It is a very appealing setup, and I will give it a try. I'll probably include a fabric bottom like Bill Fornshell does, because I'm a thrasher, and I need some sort of containment.

How do you pack the quilt into your pack? Do you use a compression stuff sack? BTW Warmlite does not use down on the bottom of their coldest rated bags. They just have a pocket for a sleeping pad. The are basically a quilt with a bottom. They also have an excellent hood that surrounds the neck with down filled baffles.
Also, what pattern (if any) did you use to make the hood? I, too, would like to attach a hood to a down quilt. I did use the hood pattern at thru-hiker to attach one to a sleeping bag. It was not easy, but the bag has been down to 10 and then 0 in a bivy! I want to build a 20 degree down quilt with a hood. I still would like to know how you compress the synthetic to fit in your packs.

For those of you who would like a quilt with hood, there is an easy way to accomplish this. Simply cut your quilt shell and i insulation as follows (for a man 5'11" tall, 165 lbs, side sleeper). 87" long, consisting of a 40" taper from 55" to 53", then 47" taper from 53" to 37". The finished dimensions will be 2" shorter in both length and width if you use .5" seams and the insulation is 1" or more thick. Now, fold the quilt in two and sew up the foot packet. Then sew up 16" alongn the head end, leaving 10.5" unsewed (55" less 2" seam/insulation allowance divided by 2 equals 26.5"). The 10.5" unsewed is the breathing hole, which works for both side and back sleepers. Stomach sleepers do not need a breathing hole, since they can simple pull the head pocket over their head and breathe under the side of the quilt. Aaron's design has such a breathing hole, but he made the construction it more complicated than is necessary. I have used this simplified breathing hole concept for years now. It works like a charm and greatly increases the effective warmth of a quilt.

People who sleep ONLY on their back can reduce the dimensions stated above, which are designed for side sleeping, which always requires a larger quilt than back sleeping.

Finally, add a draft skirt of shell fabric 7" wide around the entire quilt other than the foot pocket area but including the hood. The easiet way to do this is to sew some strips of fabric 60" long by 7" wide to the quilt before sewing up the foot and head pocket. This causes the two strips to meet at the head area and they can be sewed up there along the 7" edge.

Another thing. I'm a believer in using down insulated clothing (pants and booties especially) UNDER a synthetic quilt. For example, the Montbell down pants are just about 220 grams and about .75" of single-layer loft. What's more, because they are so close to the body, these pants allow no movement of air and thus are much more effective than .75" of down loft in the sleeping bag/quilt. I normally carry a synthetic top, but if if that isn't sufficient, then Montbell also has a 150 gram down vest. Adding these down clothes to a 32 degree quilt seems a better way to get a 0 degree sleep system than making the synthetic quilt itself very thick. I don't like wearing down while hiking and I no longer trust it in sleeping quilts/bag (other than in very dry climates) but it works fine when used with clothing with very small down compartments, such as in the Montbell ultralight down inner garments I mentioned.

Hey Frank,
Nice simple ideas there.

My hole for the head is more for the ability to put your head through it when not needed. This gives you a more flexible system and it works great under the head as a pillow.
The hole for the head came from a few half length bags I made that could also be worn as a vest.

I also agree that getting down to 0* with down gear under a synthetic bag would be easier but for most of the type of outings I do I would much rather have every piece of clothing be wearable on the trail and have a warmer bag that takes up less space.

The quilt I am going to make for Chris Pelesko will be a Cuben mix and will be 5 ounce lighter for the 0* quilt.

I don't care how you look at it, 1 lb 11 ounces is dang good for a true 0* quilt.

Aaron,

I have looked at your quilt a few times since the pictures were posted. It looks like you did a really great job on it.

I was looking for the weight of just the material and just found it over on page 1 of the thread.

Did you use baffels for the Down? I can't really tell by looking.

Bill

A similar discussion at thru-hiker concluded using Climashield XP, clo 2 = 40F.
clo 4 = 20F and clo 6 = zero degrees F
http://thru-hiker.com/messageboard.html

Frank R , thanks for the dimension. Should work for me. I'm 5'10, 165lbs!

Is this the correct interpretation of your taper: The top width is 55". 40" down from the top, the width is 53", the bottom edge is 37" across , ie. 47" down the side from the 40" mark.
Are the draft stoppers insulated (they looked full in the photo) and does the 55" width include them?
To get the hood effect, you fold the top down over your head with the breathing hole in the middle.
Ray's quilt adds a hood that covers, but does not fully enclose the head, by adding a curved adidtion to the quilt at the head end.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561713820vwSrLL