The Cowboy Cheapskate $20 DIY Summer Underquilt
I made some hammocks to give as gifts to friends for upcoming birthdays this fall; I made them all identical double-layer 1.3 oz ripstop nylon with pad pocket openings at the foot end, figuring none of them has ever done any overnight camping in a hammock and wanting them to be able to use readily available and inexpensive closed-cell foam (CCF) or inflatable camping pads for bottom insulation along with sleeping bags they already own on top.
Today, while shopping at my local Wal-Mart store, I happened upon a product in the camping section that had never caught my notice: the Ozark Trail Warm Weather Sleeping Bag, item #WM-30216B, a dirt-cheap, more-or-less full-size rectangular 50-degree synthetic sleeping bag, priced at an astounding $8.95. The bag is pretty much what you'd expect: two robust polyester shells joined with sewn-through construction around some heavy, bulky polyester batting. It had a fairly heavy-duty #5 zipper closure on two sides, two elastic retention straps, and a stuff sack of the same material as the outer shell, with claimed dimensions of 75" x 33" (zipped shut) and an unfortunate weight of just over 4 pounds(!). Still, it was nine bucks...
I got out of Wally World with this ugly duckling of a sleeping bag and change from a ten-dollar bill after tax. I picked up a few extra sewing notions to augment the hammock gear supplies I had on hand already, and I drove back home set to determine whether #WM-30216B could be repurposed into a cost-effective and functional summer underquilt for the hammocks I had just built.
The answer (with caveats listed below) is...YES.A few hours later, the Cowboy Cheapskate Summer Underquilt was born...
Gram weenies can stop reading here.Cheapskates and optimists, please continue...
For this experiment, I wanted to have adequate insulation for moderately low temperatures with the comfort and ease underquilts provide compared to pads, at a fraction of the cost of what commercial or cottage vendor synthetic options go for. Even the current issue GI "woobies" used for DIY poncho liner underquilts (PLUQs) are fetching nearly fifty bucks online, so I figured anything below that was a decent price, and if I could get the cost of my quilt close to or under that of a sleeping pad option of comparable performance, the endeavor could be considered a success. Therefore, I had certain criteria in mind when I conceptualized this UQ build:
1) The underquilt had to provide reasonable coverage for an average adult and be longer than an AHE KAQ Jarbidge River UQ (i.e., what I consider the de facto standard for an affordable synthetic underquilt), approximating the coverage one would have when opting to use a sleeping pad inside the hammock.
2) The underquilt had to weigh no more than an inexpensive off-brand self-inflating sleeping pad of comparable area.
3) The underquilt had to cost no more than an inexpensive off-brand self-inflating sleeping pad of comparable area.*
4) The underquilt had to pack smaller than an inexpensive off-brand self-inflating sleeping pad of comparable area.
5) The underquilt had to have suspension with the ease of installation and adjustment typical of good-quality hammock underquilts.
* Obviously, the cost of materials for this experiment also had to be well below the price of available underquilt kits using high-quality materials
When I got home, I sat on the couch with the sleeping bag and my trusty seam ripper, and I proceeded to remove the zipper, which was held on by a single row of stitches. I also excised the elastic straps used to hold the bag in a roll. This left me with a bare insulated rectangle, which I was pleased to see measured out to a generous 66" wide by 76" long, an inch longer than expected. The sewn-through stitching was ugly but solid, so I didn't have to do anything to reinforce or modify the bag before beginning its metamorphosis.
I folded the bag in half, bringing the top edge down to the bottom edge, pressed it very flat with my hands, and, with a sharp pair of scissors, promptly chopped it exactly in half, so that I had two rectangles, each 66" x 38", with three sewn edges and one raw edge exposing the insulation. I reserved one of these rectangles -- enough to make a second underquilt(!) -- and proceeded to work on the other.
I went to my sewing machine and ran a quick row of stitches along the raw edge to close up the quilt shell, making sure to catch some fibers of the poly batting as I went (anchoring it at the edge). Because the batting was already well sewn in place between the shells, there was virtually no shifting or shearing of the layers in the stack, and because I was sewing the stack right side out (the converse of typical DIY UQ projects using Climashield), the presser foot zipped along smoothly on top of the poly shells with zero hangups. Then I cut and heat-sealed a length of 1/2" grosgrain ribbon, folded it, and stitched it in place on each of the two long edges. Next, I cut and heat-sealed appropriate lengths 2.25" grosgrain ribbon, folded them over lengths of 1/8" shock cord, and stitched them in place on the two short edges as end channels to cinch up the UQ. I installed four cord locks at the ends of the shock cords in the end channels. (The photo below shows the edged quilt body compared to an AHE KAQ Jarbridge River UQ.)
To complete the underquilt suspension, I gathered four 6" lengths of 1/2" grosgrain ribbon, four LineLoc 3s, two more push-button cord locks, and some additional 1/8" shock cord. With LineLocs in place, I double-folded and bar-tacked grosgrain loops for the suspension on a diagonal at each corner of the quilt and assembled a shock cord primary suspension from the remaining components (see photo).
Voila! A finished, (relatively) functional underquilt for the price of a cheap sleeping pad. So, how well were the goals of the project met?
1) Coverage -- The Cheapskate UQ really does pretty well on coverage. Half of the sleeping bag will give you a quilt that's a respectable 66" x 38" -- a little longer and a little narrower than a Jarbidge with about 95% of the insulated area for aproximately 1/5 the price. You also have enough material left over to make a second identical UQ. You could also either double up the layers for colder weather -- if you were willing to deal with the portly weight and bulk -- or cut yourself a more-or-less standard-width full-length underquilt out of the generous raw material the sleeping bag provides, converted to a hammock UQ using the same methods.
2) Weight -- With the fully rigged suspension and a pair of micro-caribiners (not included in the cost estimates below), the porky underquilt weighs in at 38 oz, which is heavier than most full-length deep-winter cottage vendor synthetic underquilts made with high-quality materials like Climashield Apex and Argon, but it is in the ball park for weight of most inexpensive (i.e., $30 or less) self-inflating sleeping pads. Brand-name pads costing $40 and up typically come in below this weight, but they can be bulky. Frankly, I had high hopes for the Cheapskate UQ when I weighed the half bag with the zipper removed prior to stitching and got 30 ounces, but the grosgrain added some weight. Blind stitching the raw edge and eliminating the long-edge trim could shave a bit of heft. So overall on this goal, we did OK, but only OK...
3) Cost -- The Cheapskate consisted of a sleeping bag ($9), shock cord ($5), 2.25" grosgrain ($4) 1.5" grosgrain ($4), 1/2" grosgrain ($1), and miscellaneous hardware ($2), totaling about $25. However, with an unused 66" x 38" half bag left over, if you bought an additional set of components to finish it out, you could actually make two complete Cheapskate underquilts for just $20 each. Twenty bucks! So very good on price, definitely in line with all but the very cheapest camping pads. (The cost of an entire finished Cheapskate UQ (if you make two) averages out to the same price as a Cosco Double Black Diamond Down Throw before tax or any conversion work!)
4) Pack space -- The Cheapskate is a good bit bulkier than an AHE KAQ Jarbidge River fractional UQ, because the crappy poly batting doesn't compress like Climashield, but, hey, what do you expect for twenty bucks? It's smaller in volume than a lot of self-inflating sleeping pads, but there are inexpensive options for hammock bottom insulation that will pack smaller, like 1/8" CCF, which are light and warm if not necessarily as comfortable or as convenient because they go inside the hammock. Bulk and weight for the amount of expected performance you get are likely to be this UQ's weakest attributes.
5) Installation and Adjustment -- This is another area where the elegantly simple shock cord suspension of the Cheapskate UQ came out better than expected. In test hangs on three different hammocks of varying shapes and dimensions, the Cheapskate went on easily, covered the occupant nicely, cinched up to prevent gaps, and adjusted to the diagonal lay to stay pretty much in place during normal movement entering and exiting the hammock. I'm 6'2" and 175 lbs with fairly broad shoulders, and the Cheapskate gave me adequate width and very nice coverage from chin to ankles lengthwise. I was concerned about the width, but compared to sleeping on -- and falling off of -- a narrow pad inside the hammock, the Cheapskate was pure bliss, long on comfort by comparison. Mission accomplished...
Total build time was less than two hours for this quilt, so you could buy a couple of these bags and sew up underquilts for a family of four on your day off for under $100! If you have a lot of folks to equip on a limited budget, and you'd like to offer them the comfort and convenience of a true hammock underquilt, a DIY "sleeping bag makeover" build like this might be a very viable option. A slightly nicer but still inexpensive sleeping bag could be the starting point for an even more functional quilt.
I'm going to get another Ozark Trail Warm Weather Sleeping Bag and try making some mroe of these DIY UQs to see if I can add any enhancements without adding weight, bulk, or cost. I'll be sleeping with one under me for the next night or two, so I will update this thread with some performance observations as well. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, your posts here are most welcome.
Thanks for reading!
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Update: Snug as a Bug in My Wal-Mart Rug
Originally Posted by AdventureMyk
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