My MYOG down quilt – I did it!
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A few months ago, I ordered enough down from Loose Goose Down Supply to make a top quilt and a 3/4 length hammock underquilt. Needing the UQ immediately, that’s what I made first.
For my UQ, I used Argon 67 on the inside and Argon 90 for the outer shell. In practice, I found the Argon 90 to be more durable than I really needed, especially for a top quilt, so I decided to go with Argon 67 for the entire TQ. I knew that I wanted a TQ that could be used on the ground, as well as in my hammock, so I wanted to allow enough width for ground sleeping. I have a JRB quilt that’s 48” wide, and although I’m a 5”5, 125lb female, I’m also a side sleeper on the ground, and I’ve had a few chilly nights trying to keep that quilt wrapped around me.
This quilt is the result of my 2nd attempt. My first shell was made from black and titanium gray Argon 67, but I botched the job, and some of the baffles ended up being very crooked. I also didn’t end up liking the way the full length vertical baffles looked, and I decided I prefer the HG Burrow style baffles if I wanted vertical baffles for a TQ. I’ll probably turn the botched shell into a summer UQ later on. I couldn’t really afford another 5 yards of Argon, but I found enough Argon remnants on their site to have another go at it. By buying remnants, I couldn’t afford to be picky about the color, and the charcoal gray fabric was darker than I’d expected, quite a bit more so than the titanium gray. I don’t find this to be a big deal, I just had to be extra careful to keep from mixing up the black and charcoal shells as I went along.
Being fairly new at MYOG, I didn’t quite trust my skills to try two different styles of baffles in one quilt, so I went with all horizontal baffles. I’d wanted a fully integrated, sewn foot box, and I’d read the way a couple of other people on hammock forums had gone about this, but my brain wouldn’t cooperate long enough for me to fully comprehend the process. By the time it finally clicked for me, I’d already decided to just sew in a separate pillow for the foot box, and it wasn’t worth the time or effort for me to go back and construct an integrated foot box. Besides, I think it’ll still be warmer than a drawcord end.
The finished result is around 66” in length, long enough that I could just barely pull it over my head if I ever wanted to. It’s 50” wide at the top, with a half taper, and the foot box has a 42” circumference. I was going for more width than 50”, but I didn’t account for the loss due to loft. Regardless, I’ve still got 2 extra inches in width than I had with the JRB quilt. I used 11oz of 900FP down, then added another ounce or two of down from an old comforter. When I made my UQ, I used a differential cut and took the time to measure out the down for each chamber, but for this quilt, I didn’t bother with the differential cut, and I just eyeballed it, adding/subtracting down until it reached the loft I was trying for (between 2 and 2 1/2 inches).
I was inspired by another member’s MYOG quilt to put the drawcord for the neck end a few inches from the top edge, as I liked the idea of a pseudo draft collar. I put the drawcord channel on the inside, however, thinking that it wouldn’t compress the down as much as it would from the top, but in hindsight, I think it would probably work better on the top. After sewing in the foot box piece, I sewed the quilt up 20” in the back and added a triangle reinforcement with leftover Argon. I also sewed on 2 patches of Omnitape, 1 above the drawcord channel and 1 below, to seal the quilt around my neck.
Overall, I’m extremely happy with the result. My stitching needs practice, but it’s without a doubt my best looking MYOG project yet. The Argon fabric feels silky smooth, and the whole thing weighs in at 16.7oz. It feels incredibly warm, and I can’t wait to try it out in the backyard to see how low it’ll go. Thanks for looking!
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