Last weekend I did a trip where I was too hot at 2500′ and way too cold at 6000′. So I created an extra blanket that I can layer inside my quilt or wear stuffed into my wind shirt or rain jacket. I can forever leave the puffy jacket home.
It is comprised of a Costco quilt cut down to 8×8 squares. I removed all the threads going in one direction (which was surprisingly easy to do) and then using pins and basting stitches closed off areas I wanted to keep the down in while guiding all the rest of the down so that I could then shake all of it into the 8×8 square area. I cut off the extra empty area, rolled over the edges and also cut a hole in the middle for my head. There are ties to tie the hole shut when I use it as a blanket. It has about 2″ of loft, pretty tightly packed. It is maybe is a little overstuffed.
Here it is worn as a vest. There are ties on the side to tie it shut. I can wear it diagonal like a poncho, too.
Here it is stuffed in my windshirt. It looks a little ridiculous but not as ridiculous as trying to stuff my Jacks R Better wearable quilt into a windshirt.
I normally like to bring some fleece sleeves with me that I can use either as arm warmers or leg warmers or even pulled down over my feet as sort of sleeping socks. I can use them with this “vest” to keep my arms warm.
With this little extra blanket I can extend the range of either my 45 degree or my supposed 20 degree quilt. My 20 degree quilt is the one that was too cold the other night at 6000′. It was nowhere near 20 degrees that night, it was closer to 40.
It weighs just a hair over 10 ounces. By comparison my Golite ultra 20 is 19.5 oz and my JRB wearable 45 degree quilt is 15.9 oz. A patagonia down sweater weighs 12.45oz.
Since I normally will bring both my down quilts when I go on trips because I hate to be cold, I’m saving between 6 and 9 oz by bringing this instead of one of my down quilts and enjoying the dual use of it as a wearable puffy layer. Even though it only saves 2.5 ounces over a light down jacket, it’s way puffier and I never bring the down jacket anyway because never hike in a down jacket and I usually wear my JRB quilt if I’m going to sit around camp.
