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I've been wanting a cold-weather UQ, but don't have the $$$ to shell out, so I looked at a few of the patterns and figured, I can do this.
Starting material -- ripstop nylon rain fly from a 1970's North Face Tuolumne tent (the tent and poles disappeared years ago). Once I ripped the center seam, I had two pieces 49" wide which I cut to 84" long. They were not perfectly rectangular. I was also given a small dome tent with a camoflage rainfly. The tent had multiple holes and broken poles, so I trashed the tent and poles. I ripped the seams of the rainfly, leaving me with six triangular-ish pieces. I alternated the triangles and sewed them together on my 1927 thread injector to make one sheet of material. I then cut six 72" long 2" strips to make the baffles.
After sewing the baffles to the bottom sheet, I then sewed the top sheet in place. I used grosgrain ribbon ($2.46) to make a sleeve at the foot for the shock cord, but did not have to use grosgrain for the sides -- there were already sleeves in place from the original rainfly.
I picked up an Army/Marine surplus mummy bag for $39.95 and a jacket for $9.95 at St. Vinnies and harvested and stuffed the down into the UQ. Once stuffed, I sewed another sleeve to the head. The shock cord I harvested from camo rain fly. I purchased four small barrel locks for $.80. I ran paracord I've had for quite some time through the side sleeves for suspension.
Total outlay is $53.16.
I have no idea what temp rating it will have, but will be testing it this weekend at 3000' with temps in the low 30s expected.
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