MYOG Heavy Down Winter Jacket

Oh my WOW!

What a great jacket.  Even if I managed to make one that looked as good as yours, I’d never build it to fit correctly!

That looks like a great coat, Ryan, and pretty robust for those brutal northern winters. I am impressed with the apparent workmanship, as well as the excellent look. Way to go!

On my end, there’s no way I could tackle such a project. So I just buy what I need, or have someone make a coat to my specs. For example, after spending a summer season at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, I just had to buy one of those splendid red parkas that we were issued. I found a U.S. store that sold Canada Goose products, and I scored one before the prices started to soar. They are now around US $800, but mine was just $250. It’s the warmest coat/parka that I’ve ever owned.

Then I had a lady in Sisters, Oregon do a custom coat for me. I had her pattern it as a duplicate of a TNF Denali fleece jacket, but I wanted it to be the equivalent of 400 wt. fleece with a bombproof GoreTex outer shell. It also needed to be oversized in order to wear thick clothing under it, and also have stretchy cuffs to seal out the cold. She did a great job for $250, but man is it ever a heavy coat at 3 pounds (well, the Canada Goose parka is 4.5 pounds, but it’s far warmer).

All in all, I think that your coat is every bit as good as either of mine – warmer than my GoreTex ‘Denali clone’, and more bombproof than my Canada Goose parka. Great work on your part, Ryan.

Seems like a pretty sweet jacket.  Hopefully by next Fall I will feel confident enough in my sewing to try something like this.

Fabulous job on the jacket!

Sounds like do have similar field work, at times.  As an environmental engineer in Alaska, I hope to schedule tasks like logging soil borings and sampling wells during the spring, summer and fall, but sometimes am out at -10C to -30C.  (-40C I’ve been prepared for on personal trips, but is a stop-work event on the job). I hesitate to suggest this because it seems so sacrilegious, but have batteries gotten good enough to consider electric thermal underwear under such a jacket and whatever insulated pants you use?  I’ve got a lithium battery the size of a *small* paperback book that can jump-start my car.  As much as I like to claim I travel all over Alaska for work (I do), I’m usually stepping out of motor vehicle to do the work (i.e. I could charge a battery before each work day and sometimes at lunch).  Motorcyclists have plug-in suits that run off 12 volts DC.

That side view of the orange jacket (is that before the shell went on?): I really like how the lower hood comes around the chin.  So many commercial jackets make that part of the hood too tight.  Consider adding a 3-4″ tunnel hood with ruff (and, sorry PETA, but wolverine and beaver make better ruffs than any synthetic) for use in wind and when it’s below -20C.  I’ve seen a few such attachments that “buttoned” on, but instead of button holes, small loops of small-diameter bungie cord gave a place for a largish button (2 cm diameter) to attach.  That leaves the hood still very clean looking when you’re not using the tunnel hood and without Velcro snagging itself, your hair, etc.

Sounds crazy, but stitching a length of 12-gauge solid copper wire inside the leading edge of a tunnel hood lets you form it to exactly the configuration you want and keeps it stable in high wind.

I really like the feature of large mesh inside pockets for gloves, etc.  I assume you know the dog-mushing (and toddler) trick of running a cord across your shoulders, down each sleeve and then to each glove/mitten?  It prevents you from losing the gloves while letting you shake them for brief fine work and then slip them right back on.

I had a jacket custom made with a large compartment across my lower back on the outside.  It goes from side seam to side seam, 15 inches deep from the bottom of the jacket to about the small of my back.  It is accessed through two zippered slits each about 9 inches long, one on the upper left, one on the upper right.  I use it for a dog leash, hat, scarf, face mask, and an inner layer that I may shed or put on again through the day. It functions as a day pack when I sue it, but I can access it without removing the jacket.

excellent work on the jacket.

Hi Ryan,

I am thinking about making a down jacket. I would like to make my own pattern using a fleece jacket that fits me well. Do you know how to adjust this pattern to account for the extra loft that the down will give? I was thinking about having a loft of about 1 inch. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Sarah

I didn’t see this originally, nice job!

If you want a loft of 1 inch, the outside circumference has to be 2 * pi * 1 inch = 6.25 inches bigger

“I have learned that making your own gear is an iterative process, each version you get closer to what you want your final product to be.”

That’s my experience too

“It helped a lot with my recovery though, it was almost a sort of physiotherapy that I could do at home at my own pace.”

Yeah, if you don’t enjoy the creative process of designing, constructing, using, iterating it probably doesn’t make sense to do MYOG

Thanks for the Reply Jerry. You are the reason I got a membership to BPL in the first place, I wanted to read your post about your down vest you made. Its pretty cool to see you comment on my post.

Hi Sarah,

As Jerry mentioned, you can figure out the width of your jacket by adding 6.25 in to the circumference. The pattern for down jackets seems large but once the jacket is filled with down it becomes quite a bit smaller fitting. Here are some notes I have regarding making your pattern:

• You will have to adjust the circumference of the fleece pattern and the length
• Sew a few test baffles and determine how much to stuff each one with using the excel sheets floating around. Doing this allows you to figure out how much each baffle will contract, and therefore how much length you need to add to each baffle to accommodate the contraction. Sewn thru baffles will contract much more than box wall fyi
• As I mentioned, you will have to adjust the pattern to account for the contraction. Remember this includes the arm hole cutout – I forgot about that and had to make mine larger after
• Adjust the length and width of the arm pieces and hood also. The arms on my jacket were sewn thru and contracted ~ 1/2″ – 3/4″ when filled
• I started my pattern by getting the width sorted first and ignoring the length. Once I was happy with the width measurements and how it looked on paper, I traced the pattern using used parchment paper from the grocery store. I cut the parchment paper along each baffle line, then added some space to account for each baffle contraction. If, for example, I estimated each baffle would contract by 1/2 inch, I added 1/2″ between the cut baffle sections and taped them with the 1/2″ space. Once all the baffles were cut and the appropriate space is added, you now have the length prior to stuffing with down. I placed the new baffle line halfway between the cut sections. Its not perfect but its a good starting point.
• Since you are adding width to your jacket (larger circumference), it will move the shoulder point also
• When you draft the hood, allow for some more room where the hood attaches to the zipper. On my first attempt the zipper was pulled too close to my chin when it was filled, I ended up adding a small gusset to move the zipper farther away and make it more comfortable
• I made my body all one piece and it was very hard to sew and manipulate. I would suggest having the back be one piece, and each half of the front be one piece. You will have a seam along the side. If needed you can adjust this seam to take up some of the material if you find it to big

Since this post I have made a few more jackets and have the pattern just right. Don’t expect to get it perfect the first time. Its hard to get it all right the first time.

it’s pretty cool when someone reads something I wrote and when they progress from there : )

I’ve made a couple quilts and vests using this technique:

Top view of a test piece, a 12 inch square:

Side view:

This gives all the advantages of sewn through with all the advantages of box baffles.

The outside face fabric baffle width is 2 inches.  The inside face is 2 * pi / 2 ~ 3 1/4 inches.  The inside face fabric is also 2 * pi / 4 ~ 1 1/2 inch wider in the other direction on each side.  Asymetric sewn through baffles.

You can see that there’s a gap where there’s no down, but if you put a jacket outside of that, it will produce a confined air space with insulation almost as good as if it had down.

Half as many seams to sew.  You don’t have to cut strips for baffles.

With regular sewn through baffles, the weight of the vest pulls down both sides which tends to pull the baffles closed, reducing the loft.  With regular box baffles the effect is less.  Asymetric sewn through are actually better.  All the weight is carried by the face fabric of the shorter baffles side.  The baffles with down hang off the side and are able to loft better.

Very nicely done Ryan. It looks good and I’ll bet it’s warm. Nice detail work on the shell. Your patience and ingenuity is enviable but I know you really need this parka for your job. I’ve been in Toronto in winter B/C I lived in Erie, PA and made trips up there with my wife to see her cousin. It can be brutally cold there. I’ve XC skied further north off the 400 near Georgian Bay and one day it was about 5 F. and you either kept moving or you froze.

Me? I’m not as motivated as you so this winter I bought an Eddie Bauer PEAK XV baffled down expedition parks for $299. on sale from $420. It has a helmet compatible hood that I need to cover my helmet for alpine skiing on bitter cold days.

However I was not satisfied with the flat interior zipper baffle so I ordered 800 fill DWR treated down from Ripstop by the Roll. Then after seam ripping the 1″ wide top of the baffle I used a kitchen funnel and a 3 foot rod to stuff down into the baffle. It worked so well I’m having another baffle tube sewn the left side of the zipper and will fill it with down. Then I’ll have two baffles, like those on the Patagonia Grade VII and Fitz Roy parkas.

BTW, I too and “… toying with the idea of sewing a baffle tube around the neck.” at least the back 2/3 circumference.

Finally, I bought a nice coyote fur ruff and I’ll sew Velcro on it and on the parka hood so I can remove it when I ski. Yeah, I’ll have to hand stitch the hood Velcro strip but I’m good at hand sewing stuff. It just takes patience.