Insultex TQ "shingle" construction

I just completed my first top quilt. Attachment 8805 My design goal was to make a triple layer Insultex top quilt. I have been encouraged by my results with a previous Insultex underquilt/JerryChair, and wanted to get an idea how well Insultex would work for me as both under and over insulation. Previous collective experience has show that the design and construction must avoid compression in order to insulate well.


This design attempts to overcome the lack of draping that is characteristic of Insultex insulation. I wanted to have trapped air space between me and the individual Insultex layers, more than I experienced with a simple sandwich of Insultex material. By breaking down the material into strips, it creates multiple rings of insulated air space.

A secondary goal was for the quilt to be lighter than 21 ounces. I was hoping for a weight advantage over a down top quilt, since it would probably not be capable of achieving the same temperature range as the down quilt. I was thinking this would be my warm weather quilt, and a quilt for wet, semi-tropical environments, maybe more than that depending on how much I like it.

My quilt shell is 49" at the head tapering to 38" at the foot, and 76" long. It has a 14" free magic to form the footbox and drawsting closures at the head and foot. It weighs 19.6 ounces.Attachment 8803

The construction is similar to baffles, except it is just baffles and no additional fill. 18 strips of Insultex have been layered with a width of 12" and an offset placement of 4". All of the sequential overlap visually reminds me of "shingles" or an armadillo shell. This results in three layers of coverage for the entire area of the quilt. Their width gradually reduces, and each of the short ends have been reinforced with a piece of 1" gg ribbon. I have quilted each strip in 5 or 6 locations along their length to the layer directly beneath them (not through all three layers). These gg ribbon edges are first attached to one another. Then the assemblage was sewn to the seam of the quilt perimeter. The stair-stepped widths, when applied to a gradual taper, cause the Insultex to bulge open at the lower edge.


This approach to layering the Insultex was an attempt to gain loft, and allow moisture to pass through. It has succeeded very well in creating loft, about 4" when doubled over.Attachment 8804 I am not sure if I will have condensation problems, or possibly too much ventilation between the layers of Insultex. Slept warm last night , but that was inside with thermostat turned way low (about 55 degrees). More testing is needed to verify effectiveness, but I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Dbl, Quilt looks great. Can't wait to find out the results you come up with further testing. What size do you think it will pack down to? Living in a humid place, I am encouraged about hearing to see if insultex has some advantages over climashield and a good compromise to down.

Good work dbl. I always look forward to your creations! How small does it pack?? someone had to ask.

Thanks richtorfla and gargoyle!

I fold it in thirds length wise and roll it, in order to be more gentle on the shingle construction. It fits easily into an old Insul-Mat stuffscak. 6" diameter and 13" long. Once inside the stuffsack, it would easily compress another 25%. So it is noticably less bulky than a down quilt.

I've used this quilt for many nights now. The quilt has a comfort range from around 50 -65 degrees, which is sadly narrow.:confused:

Many months ago, I opened the quilt up and sewed down all of the baffles free shingle edge to the layer below it. I was able to sew through just two of the three layers of IX.

Previous to that, I was losing too much warmth wafting out between the shingle layers. This was noticed especially when moving around changing positions. That was what prompted me to redo the interior construction.

Initially, I was pretty happy and slept comfortably down to the low fifties with just cotton socks and underwear. But the quilt became uncomfortable for me in temps above the low sixties. I had lost the ventilation that the shingle design had provided, this resulted in more sweating.

Managing moisture will be a big challenge for any IX TQ, my attempt didn't succeed in this regard.

Thanks for the informative research, there's got to be a good combination of loft/bulk/warmth design for insultex somehow. I'm thinking maybe something incorporating Primaloft, keeping it completely synthetic, with more compressibility than poly-batting ? The quest continues.

What if you were to sandwich a "wave" pattern in between to flat layers and sew it together at the "crest " and trough" respectively? The outside layers would trap the air and the middle layer would create the loft. What I mean is sew the top layer at the end then push the middle layer up and sew a, lets say 6" seam @4" to create a "wave " I have no experience with IX so just thinking out loud