2 - 3 season down quilt for girlfriend

[Alpinum]

Finally... after a break of about 2 months I continued working on the quilt for my girlfriend. Really happy with how it turned out, despite one mistake that causes more an optical issue than anything else - it turned out lovely. 440 g of pure nerdery - I developed and realised some ideas to squeeze utmost performance out of it. The goal was a quilt for warmth down to 0 °C.

All fabrics from Extrem Textil.
Lightest mosquito net for chamber deviders.
7 den ripstop nylon for main panels.
20 den taffeta nylon for outside edges.
80 Alterfil thread and suitable microtex needle. Some thin elastic cord, one cord stopper, 6 self made clamps and a little bit of thin webbing.
Most importantly, hydrophobic down directly from a European manufacturer, some 240 g of 850 cuin. And a little bit of medium Climashield Apex, also from ExTex.

Cut board, rotary cutter, long piece of raceway conduit, chalk and felt tip pen, quilt ruler.














Feeling very pleased
Working with thin fabrics isn't always easy, but this time I think I got the hang of it.
Looking forward to seeing it in use.
She's heading to the mountains beginning of next week for a solo hike - nervous in a positive way about the feedback.

[benp1]

Good job Gian, looks pretty mint

[sean_iow]

I like that Can I ask why the net for the chamber dividers? I had assumed they are made from the same fabric as the outer in a commercial quilt/bag but I've never seen inside one.

[Alpinum]

Thanks folks.

Hmmm... not so sure, but I guess pretty much all use net for dividers...
I've not opened many bags, modded a 1st gen Alpkit PD400, my old Rab Quantum 600 and a winter down bag (very cheap bought in Thamel) and they all had net as dividers.

Reasons:
Air circulation.
Lofting and packing.
Also thinking about comfort the light elasticity of a thin net comes to mind. Might add to feeling less restricted.

A very well built bag/quilt is a bitch to pack and also will loft slowly thanks to the tight sewing. Even the thinnest ripstop nylon lets air flow only slowly. If every chamber was separated by ripstop from the next chamber I think packing would really suck. I experience this from my expedition sleeping bag which has a complex design of multiple chambers layered upon each other. It takes time to 'deflate' it. Thus airing and drying is poor show too.
7 den nylon is a fraction lighter then extex's lightest net, but given the area of the fabric for the dividers, the weight saving would be only 3.6 g...

[sean_iow]

Cheers. Now you've explained it I can see the logic behind it, I've never really thought about it before.

[Alpinum]

Cheers. Now you've explained it I can see the logic behind it, I've never really thought about it before.

Same for me. I never really questioned netting vs. ripstop, only which net. Despite brooding on the design for ages.
I quite like such discussions and like to learn from different view points.

[Bearbonesnorm]

In my experience netting for forming internal baffle walls is pretty common.

Good work Gian. Plenty of opportunity to get that wrong

[Alpinum]

Wobbly photo, but it shows the well functioning drawcord tube, sewed on a folded champer with a very tight allowance to not interfere with the chamber height.





mint!

Unfortunately the happy owner was ill last week and stayed in the last couple of days, instead of going hiking in the Alps like she had planned. So no proper feedback 'till now.

[Alpinum]

In my experience netting for forming internal baffle walls is pretty common.

Good work Gian. Plenty of opportunity to get that wrong

Thanks

[Thisisnotaspoon]

Do you have a sketch/photo of the overall quilt?

I was thinking of a project to make a quilt/bag with a 'pocket' in the base for a mat. Then a mesh side panel with webbing loops and a drawchord to either allow ventilation or tuck the quilt down onto the mat. Might pick up a cheep and nasty 2nd hand bag to prototype with.

[Alpinum]

Do you have a sketch/photo of the overall quilt?

I can post the sketch I drawed in Sketch Up when back home.

Still in Iceland - last day though. My girlfriend used the quilt for this trip and on almost all nights in the highlands we had frost, but she was comfy

[Alpinum]

Do you have a sketch/photo of the overall quilt?

Will this help?

[Alpinum]

Just had a closer look at it myself and thought it definately seems confusing

The sketch on the left is basically what the outwards facing fabrics look like. Numbers are without seam allowance.
The inside is of one fabric only - the black 7d Ripstop Nylon, but has the same measurements as the outside.

The other sketch is what I used to get the chambers right. Those on the side are of little less height and got less fill, due to the sleeper lying on them. Inwards then slighlty higher chambers and a overfill of 5 %.

Happy to help with any questions.

[BobCatMax]

Can i ask a cheeky one?

how much, in materials, was it to produce this? It's a fine peice of work!

[Alpinum]

Hi Bob

That's not at all cheeky.

All in all I reckon about 130.- CHF, so 102.- GBP.
The 7 d fabric and down make 80 % of the price. expensive.

With a bit of luck you can get some of the needed fabrics from extremtextil's left overs:
https://www.extremtextil.de/stoffe/restekiste.html
Well worth having a look. Also likely the cheapest place to get hands on DCF.

I paid a similar price for the down as what you'd pay at extremtextil - yet the down I used was hydrophobic.

Fabrics, isolation and stuff gives me some left overs, which I use for other equipment. So in truth, it's a bit less than 130.-.

Still, economically speaking it's quite stupid.

[BobCatMax]

440g and rated to approx 0degrees, i would say that was good value for money! but yes, it is still expensive..

I'm still fascinated by the process and I would imagine that it is still cheaper than procuring something oif the same quality/function (obviously, depending on your own abillity)

thank you for that