Incessantly annoying quilt drawstring in face problem….possible solution
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I own several EE quilts….and …one thing that has really been annoying me lately is that once you cinch up the drawstring at the top of the quilt, the string is right in the middle and b/c of gravity…is always somewhere in my face. I’m sure most any quilt user has faced this issue…and its the same sleeping on my side, back, etc. Usually made worse that I have half my face tucked into the quilt most of the night…
The drawstring is very simply made…and nothing was designed into the quilt to handle the long drawstring cord once its cinched up. I know some other quilts place the drawstring on the side of the opening…..but I would have the same problem if I was on my side facing that area…
So, all that has to happen is that the drawcord needs to be directed towards the feet on top of the quilt. I was thinking the easiest solution would be to sew a loop of grosgrain onto the quilt that I could just put the cinched up drawcord string through….
Does this sound like the easiest solution?
OK, just to clarify a few things…
So yes…if I was using the quilt in a perfect scenario and had the quilt cinched up around my neck…then I could just tuck the drawstring into the quilt under the collar and yeah….no problem.
However…most of the time the quilt collar is not around my neck….I have my head/face half way into the quilt so the collar is going across my face. I know a ton of people do this….and every time I’m with my family I know that they do it too…whether in a quilt, sleeping bag, etc…eventually during the night when the temps drop, people start tucking their heads into their bags so their faces don’t get cold.
That is what starts the problem….now I have a drawstring on my face most of the night. Its also why I wouldn’t want the grosgrain loop on the inside of the quilt…because that would keep the drawstring cord on the inside of the quilt where my face essentially is. So, I want the drawstring outside of the quilt, pointing towards my feet.
Now…Lee’s idea with a stick on mitten hook is another option. Though I think I would just do the stick on loop ->
http://www.zpacks.com/accessories/tape.shtml
Though….why are you using a mitten hook? Are you putting the mini cord lock on one side of the mitten hook or ? Could you take a pic?
I did have another idea….where I could take the drawstring and stuff it into the drawstring channel itself.
It…kind of works. I mean, I like it because it requires no modifications to the quilt itself. But…the solution is about as much hassle as the problem itself. The first couple of inches is fine, but gets increasingly harder to stuff the cord into the channel, and that cord gets really long when it gets cinched…which the cinching itself also causes the quilt material to bunch up which makes stuffing impossible.
Ok, so I added a loop to a synthetic quilt I have….so far its promising ->
Initial results seem promising. I think I would need to move the loop back a bit or maybe even add a second loop a couple of inches lower in case the cord is really long, otherwise there is a chance it lays back towards me.
Now Lee said ->
I have the cord pulled enough I clip it to the hook the cord locks through the hook nothing’s in the way and when it gets cold and I’m actually got it pretty tight I got about a foot-and-a-half of string it seems like so it’s sort of hanging down near the pad where I can stick my fingers out and find it and get it later if I need to pull it tighter without actually using the cord lock
I would still love to see a picture of this. If I put the cord lock through my loop (similar to putting it through the mitten hook), and tighten, then the drawstring opening and the loop just get pulled closer together and defeats the whole purpose ->
Ok….I also had another idea for this problem. What if there was a button sewn onto the top of the quilt? I’m thinking like those paper binders with a string closure, like this ->
Basically you could have the button, then loop around a few times your extra drawstring cord.
If you don’t have much drawstring, just do a simple loop like this ->
And if you have more, loop it like the paper binder thing ->
I think I actually like this idea better than the grosgrain loop, though ever so slightly heavier. However…it would have to be done during the quilt making I believe. So, I like it b/c the button is still smooth, so I wouldn’t worry about that extra “hardware” during washing (a mitten hook I would be slightly worried about).
I don’t like it ….b/c I can sew a grosgrain loop without much issue to an existing quilt….but not really a button…b/c the needle would have to go all the way through the top and bottom of the quilt. Actually…wait…I think I take that back. I could just pinch a half inch of fabric near a baffle seam flat then use a standard hand needle to attach it to the quilt. I would have to worry about getting the right tension (not too close, and not too far), though it could be doable…
Ok, more OCD updates.
I realized…that it isn’t enough to just have the string go towards the feet. The problem…is that the shoulders create a slope right back to your face.
OK…so, I came up with a new idea.
First, I thought that all I really need Is a small loop of shock cord sewn on the quilt…and then I could attach whatever I want. Well….my sewing machine did NOT like sewing over even my thinnest shock cord. I’m not sure how manufacturers do that..
So instead, I sewed on a thin loop of flat grosgrain. With that…you could attach anything….a small loop of cordage, or tie on a button, or …like the below, a small loop of shock cord with a mini cord lock.
Now, I can roll up the extra drawstring in a loop in my fingers, put it through the shock cord loop, and bind it down ->
I tried tying a button (for the method I thought up above for like a notebook, but I didn’t like it after all…
Anyway,…unless I think of something better…I have 5 more loops to sew onto my other EE quilts!
Old posts but a current problem for me. I think I fixed this today. With the bag fully open, the drawstring has just enough extra length to reach the label. I added a stitch to keep the drawstring from pulling out of the label, thus keeping the string channeled away when the bag is cinched up. We’ll see, in practice. An even longer label would work even better.
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