Incessantly annoying quilt drawstring in face problem….possible solution

That’s a great idea. I have complained about that as well on a YouTube review. It’s extremely annoying.

That’s what I did  after the first trip with my ee quilt, I don’t even think about now unless its super cold and now I have to sneak my hand out to pull it tighter never had that problem with my JRB quilt

@Lee

So…are you saying that you did exactly what I showed in my picture and sewed a piece of grosgrain to make a loop?

And, if you didn’t have that problem with the JRB…..what did they do differently with their drawstring?

You’re not alone.  Can’t tell you how many times I woke up with the drawstring of my sleeping bag resting on my face, and then panicked…thinking it was a spider or some evil death bug.

I’ll be watching this thread close to find the best solution!

Perhaps a neater solution might be to move the adjustment to one end of the tube? That way the loop would be under you. The extra length of tube would not make much difference to how easy it is to tighten.

Cheers

My JRB is at the end. and on the ee added the z packs stick on mitten hook more to the top and right side were I seem to sleep the most

also as a side note I rub a little sram grip on the area where I stuck the clip just to make sure it stayed

I have always just tucked in the drawstring under the collar.

I started using EE quilts 3 years ago, and still use (3 of) them. All have this feature, and I don’t mind it. I tuck the extra string under the collar just as Steve K shared he does.

EE’s owner Tim Marshall has intimated on this forum that EE have tried placing the adjustment to “one end of the tube” as Roger C proposed here, and also anyplace in between, and user experiences made them conclude that this only makes things worse, and decided that the mid-point is the least-intrusive solution. Hence, they stuck with it.

It seems that sewing a loop of grosgrain onto the quilt to hold the cinched-up extra length of drawstring would help those uncomfortable with this feature, but I’d rather advise the grosgrain is placed on the inside of the quilt – as that’s where the “cinching hands” are already when this solution would be deployed.

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.

because i had the Mitten hook already but it works great , any time I snap the snaps around my neck which means it’s pretty chilly (10 degree bag) 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

You guys aren’t tired enough when turning in!

I had to dig out my quilt to see where the cord exits. About 16″ from one end. Don’t think it ever bothered me.

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!

That’s why my clip is fairly far to the right side it eliminated all that and yes the little spring thing goes past the hook but generally I never tighten that much it seems to stay fairly snug around my neck throughout the night so I have it just tight enough to get my hand out comfortably or elbow above my head to move my pillow around and the cord  Falls away from my face

I never tuck my face in the quilt. Breathing out means moisture, moisture gets in the down. I use a balaclava or a neck gaiter, or the buff, to cover my face instead, and avoid the face tuck. So that center drawcord just gets tucked in all the time.

In case anybody was wondering…I was able to modify 4 EE quilts to have the loop and elastic/minicord attachment. Really easy to do. And…last night I used a 30° quilt and am happy to say that my mod completely solved my problem!

That’s great d mine’s a little less involved but we both have the same goals I just got a zero Revelation for my wife for JMT Mt trip I plan on making the same modification I did on mine to hers but I may use a couple of your ideas also thanks for all the pictures

I tuck it into my baselayer top.

Usually made worse that I have half my face tucked into the quilt most of the night…

If you are sticking your face into the quilt you are not using it properly, and will add additional moisture (along with evaporation from your body) inside that can make the down fill become damp.

That being said (and I have been using quilts for 8 years), the cord doesn’t bother me because, well, I am sleeping.

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.

Oh man….they moved the logo tag from the side to right where I added my mod? That is sweet! Now everyone can enjoy my mod without…having to mod their quilt at all.  I like your idea with adding the stitch so it can’t come out too. Great job!