Insullated hammock vs underquilt

[Phychotron]

As a test I took some cheap fabric and made a 24x17" UQ frame to get the feel of things. No filling so I can't finish it but I think I got the gist of the sewing and folds down. I originally bought the sewing machine to make a hammock about a year ago and spent a considerable amount of time making dual layer stuff sacks and padded pouches.

I have a piece of flat poly batting that I'm going to cut and lay on the top layer of rip stop to add some smoothness to one side and stuff it with some sort of insullation. I was thinking poly batting but that's a bit tough to evenly distribute.

Was going to try and make it as fancy as possible but this is for my hackmock so I'm just going for it. I'll build a really nice one later once I have the theory down and get the size and hang right.

[Phychotron]

I made the shell for the UQ and just need some insulation to add to it. It took a few hours of sewing but its coming along nicely.

Does anyone have any recommendations on what to stuff this with?20170518_211005.jpg

[amrbackup]

I just finished watching a review of a hammock with the underquilt built in, look up Arbora insulated Hammocks- https://www.arborahammocks.com/
I don't work for them, I'm not associated in any way with them, or know of their quality, but looking at what they do may give you some ideas.

[Phychotron]

I went with primaloft. $75 for 5lbs on ebay. I was going to get feather but wanted to get a better shell made before spending the money. This way I can make a TQ and have some extra for other projects. Cause ya know, you could always use some more hammock gear.

Its basically the only thing I could actually find that fit my application. The baffling makes for loose fill like down. Every other place I found it was by the roll. I almost just got some cheap polyfill but decided to get the primaloft, as it was designed for the army to be a down replacement. I don't want to be stuck in the woods and realize I should have spent the extra few $. I figure at 1lb of fill it will be about $15 for the stuffing.

[Phychotron]

The plot thickens... I bought a queen size down comforter from goodwill for $17 (retails $3-400). Its heavy as heck and filled with 600fp down. I was originally going to salvage the down but its so nice that I want to get a cover and use it on my bed. But then I'm out the ability to salvage the down. If I did salvage I'd want to build a really nice UQ/TQ shell.

So then I realized that the thing is just an oversized UQ without anything to tie to. So I sewed a Velcro strip down one side and attached it to the side of my hammock where my bug net attached. Then I just looped it below the hammock and tossed the excess over the ridge line. It basically made a nice cocoon that seems like the style I'd really like because the problem I have is breathing cold air makes me sleep funny. Having that heated chamber with a window at the foot and heat gives for better comfort, but the tapestry I use is often too thin to hold the heat.

The problem with the comforter is that the down is not equally distributed among the chambers. Specially the two most important boxes along the body are nearly empty and I can feel the cool spot in my apartment. Alternately there are a few that are jammed packed with down. I was wondering if there's a good way to cut and seal the chambers open in order to rearrange the down. I was careful to not sew into the actual baffles when I put the Velcro on because I know they're notorious for leaking through the threads.

does anyone know how much down is in a queen size comforter? If I take the comforter out the the woods and it gets muddy and trampled will it mess the down up at all for future use?