WoodBow
WKR
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2015
- Messages
- 1,744
After I discovered Apex insulation on here, I decided I suddenly needed a quilt. I have been running a very cheap mummy bag because I did not want to drop the cash for a nice sleep system. But if I could have a high quality quilt for $50, I was in. I stop by hancock fabrics about once a month to check out there "spot the bolt" sale. It is just a bunch of random bolts of fabric stacked up with various colored stickers that indicate the percent it is on sale up to 90%. Guess what 90% off of $10 a yard fabric is? Dang near free. I even caught this fabric at 80 and 90% off and then 50% off of that due to another sale. I just bought the entire bolts of the fabrics I liked. I had no idea what I was going to do with them yet but when you find good quality nylon for 50 cents a yard, you better stock up. So my shell is a lightweight water resistant nylon taffeta.
I had planned on using 5 oz apex, as it is rated to 20 or 30 degrees I believe. Upper 20s is as cold as we typically see. However, I let someone on here talk me into going with 7.5 oz. I ordered 3 yards from rip stop by the roll.
Some of yall who have seen my other projects on here know that I am not new to sewing. I have gotten spoiled to working with heavier material like cordura and I did not enjoy working with this thin stuff. Holding all that insulation in place on slippery fabric was not much fun. I sewed the shell together first to make it easier to manage when sewing the insulation on. A tip to make this part easier is that I layed a line of masking tape around the borders of the insulation and sewed through it. I couldn't keep the insulation from snagging on the presser foot other wise. The tape also allowed me to put tension on the insulation. It worked well but was a bit of a pain to remove after it was sewed on. I did not follow instructions of any kind. I looked at a friends EE quilt and got an idea of what needed to happen. I just winged it from there. It is about 85x56". I am 6 foot and wish I had made it just a few inches longer but it will work just fine. I went with a non tapered design because I wanted more square footage to use as a woobie. I am not an ounce counter either. The only perk to a tapered design for my purposes is that there is less fabric to cinch down for the foot box closure.
I went super simple with the system to hold it to pad. I just sewed on buttons and gutted paracord loops. My "straps" are just 1/4" flat elastic with loops tied in the ends that hook on the buttons. This works very well so far. It is non adjustable but I don't see why I would ever need to adjust the lower ones if used on the same pad. There is a button at the very bottom and 20 inches up to form the foot box. I used 7/8" grosgrain to form my cord channels at top and bottom.
I was not very happy with how large the foot box hole is when fully cinched. I'm assuming this is partially due to the grosgrain not wanting to bunch as well.
So I added another loop in the middle of the bottom to hook on the same button to help compress the hole.
That helped but was still obviously unacceptable. I figured I could just stuff a spare shirt down there to block the hole but I wanted something more legit than that. So I decided to make a plug of sorts. Kind of like a tiny quilt. I planned to just stuff it in the bottom of the bag but had no idea how I would keep it in place.
When I went to try it in the quilt, the solution was immediately apparent. I just laced it from inside the bag, around the cord loop used to close the hole up, and back into the bag. It works awesome and actually looks like I planned it.
Her is a shot of the cord channel and a button on the corner.
I had planned on using 5 oz apex, as it is rated to 20 or 30 degrees I believe. Upper 20s is as cold as we typically see. However, I let someone on here talk me into going with 7.5 oz. I ordered 3 yards from rip stop by the roll.
Some of yall who have seen my other projects on here know that I am not new to sewing. I have gotten spoiled to working with heavier material like cordura and I did not enjoy working with this thin stuff. Holding all that insulation in place on slippery fabric was not much fun. I sewed the shell together first to make it easier to manage when sewing the insulation on. A tip to make this part easier is that I layed a line of masking tape around the borders of the insulation and sewed through it. I couldn't keep the insulation from snagging on the presser foot other wise. The tape also allowed me to put tension on the insulation. It worked well but was a bit of a pain to remove after it was sewed on. I did not follow instructions of any kind. I looked at a friends EE quilt and got an idea of what needed to happen. I just winged it from there. It is about 85x56". I am 6 foot and wish I had made it just a few inches longer but it will work just fine. I went with a non tapered design because I wanted more square footage to use as a woobie. I am not an ounce counter either. The only perk to a tapered design for my purposes is that there is less fabric to cinch down for the foot box closure.
I went super simple with the system to hold it to pad. I just sewed on buttons and gutted paracord loops. My "straps" are just 1/4" flat elastic with loops tied in the ends that hook on the buttons. This works very well so far. It is non adjustable but I don't see why I would ever need to adjust the lower ones if used on the same pad. There is a button at the very bottom and 20 inches up to form the foot box. I used 7/8" grosgrain to form my cord channels at top and bottom.
I was not very happy with how large the foot box hole is when fully cinched. I'm assuming this is partially due to the grosgrain not wanting to bunch as well.
So I added another loop in the middle of the bottom to hook on the same button to help compress the hole.
That helped but was still obviously unacceptable. I figured I could just stuff a spare shirt down there to block the hole but I wanted something more legit than that. So I decided to make a plug of sorts. Kind of like a tiny quilt. I planned to just stuff it in the bottom of the bag but had no idea how I would keep it in place.
When I went to try it in the quilt, the solution was immediately apparent. I just laced it from inside the bag, around the cord loop used to close the hole up, and back into the bag. It works awesome and actually looks like I planned it.
Her is a shot of the cord channel and a button on the corner.