Good/bad effects of turning 4"wide into 8"wide down tubes on a sewn thru quilt?

[Paul French]

I am still playing with my cheap china 800 fill previously ‘envelope’ sleeping bag NOW a Frankenstein Quilt with a 1/2 length zipper that has full head to toe 4″ wide down 1.5-2″ tall (loft height) tubes.

All suggestions/comments/relevant lessons learned gratefully appreciated.

Assuming that my eyes were good enough to remove every other sewn through seam, 4 seams in total, wouldn’t I end up with approx. 32″ (8 tubes times 4″) wide consisting of four 8″ wide by between 3-4″height down tubes that I could center over my chest area from top of quilt down to mid thigh or so?

My old chart says 3″ loft is about zero degree (either comfort or extreme limit-don’t remember)

Somewhere in my vast pile of fun projects that I have thoroughly enjoyed but frequently not finished, I have a few yards of both 3.6 oz apex w/.9″ loft & 2.5 oz apex w/.6″ loft AND a yard clipping bag full of about 650 down that I harvested from a very old but obviously very expensive quilt that I got cheap.

Thanks,
Paul

[Sam Farrington]

I don’t think that other things being equal, that a sewn-thru quilt will produce anywhere near the same insulative value as a bag or quilt with baffles that are not sewn-thru. Should you think the weight of a 3/4 length zipper, less than a half oz total for four feet in #3, is prohibitive, I would still opt for a bag with baffles that are not sewn-thru.  (YKK #3 coil zip weighs 0.1 oz per running foot)

Ideally, an Apex bat would be large enough to only need to be sewn thru around the perimeter of the quilt. If not, I would put baffles that are not sewn-thru between batts that are cut as large as possible. An interesting baffle material to try might be that used in stretch panty-hose, as its high stretch would not interfere with the quilt or bag draping around the body, and would be less likely to tear..

Some may be leery of sewing baffles between two shells. But in my experience it is far easier than sewing a tent, for example. Preparation and marking seam lines seem to be the key. And I’ve always sewn in a small flap at the seam lines because it makes it easier to sew on the baffles, and eliminates exposed thread on the outside of the shells. Here’s an example of a single pattern piece for one of two shells, both flat, and after sewing to shape:

Note that an additional flat piece must still be sewn over the head area, with a flap created for a draw cord to tighten the head cover..  The design is for a center zip, and probably needs more width at the feet.

[Author]

Posts