Let me start by saying our cottage dealers earn their money! I now understand why the cost of down quilts are pricey. This is very tedious and time consuming work! I bought a Hammock Gear Phoenix UQ and have been very impressed with the quality and workmanship that went into it. With that said, I wanted to diy my own top quilt 1. to see how good my skills are and 2. to save money, of course. My goal with this post is to try and make it as easy to understand as possible. IMHO, there is a lot of complicated information and not a whole lot of visual how-to on doing quilts. One pretty good one that I used is found here. I wanted to make the build simple. A rectangle quilt with baffles. The final dimensions I wanted to be 74"x50". It will have a drawcord closure at head and foot with approx. 20" of Omni tape to form a foot box. See the JRB quilts to get a visual of how this works. My starting dimensions were 76"x52". this is to give room for a 1/2" seam around the perimeter of the quilt. I started by making a template out of 36" wide paper, taping two pieces together. I am a fan of doing this after I did it with my tarp. If you make an error here, it will be on paper, so no big deal. It also makes the process that much easier, when marking on your material.
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This can be used to make the inner and outer shells. Once cut out I began marking off my baffles. To figure the width of each baffle, simply divide the final length 74" by the number of baffles(in my case 14) to get a figure of 5.28 inches or roughly 5.25(for easy measurement). I didn't get carried away with the math here. If you're going to end up with one baffle slightly smaller or larger, who cares? It's not a big deal. Put it at the foot end if you want. Make sure to mark the first baffle at the foot and head end 6.25 from the edge, to allow for the seams. Now mark the rest in between these two at 5.25.
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Now that both shells are marked for baffle walls, I numbered each wall 1-13. It doesn't make any difference whether its foot to head or vise versa, but both shells should be oriented the same. You will find out why shortly. Also I marked head end and foot end three times each along both ends. This will help in making sure you orient the shells properly. Now the next step is where the first problem arose. In the link I posted above, Te-wa used tape to measure the no-seeum baffles. DO NOT DO THIS! I don't know if the clear masking tape he used has less adhesive than the masking tape I used, but basically I fused tape and material together! I could not separate them. I finally put a drop of wax and grease remover on one corner, which separated the two, so I could peel them apart. That worked but what I wound up with is a twisted mess of noseeum. I was able to save them by ironing each one back flat. My suggestion is just measure your baffle walls and cut them. Also I would recommend cutting them 1" wider than you need so you have plenty of sewing room. Wish I would have done this.
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Now that you have the baffle walls cut, just start sewing them on one shell. The lines you made make it easy to see on the sewing machine. I recommend pinning it on first with plenty of pins. This will keep the mesh from stretching as you sew. Each baffle wall should be sewed to within an inch of each edge, so that it is gathered up in the seams later. This is one wall with all baffles sewn on.
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Now that you have baffles on one shell, it's time to sandwich the two shells together. This is where the tedious fun really begins. This is where you have to pay attention and don't rush. The numbers and head a foot markings you made earlier are your friend. Start at #1 baffle and work your way to #13. I had two rolls of fabric going as to make it easier to work with on the machine. On the left I had baffles already done and baffles waiting to be sewed. On the right was the "un-sewn" shell roll. Once a baffle is complete simply unroll each side and go to the next baffle, keeping track of the number baffle you are on. Use lots of pins here to keep everything lined up without stretching. I hope this makes sense. Here are a couple pics.
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Once the two halves are together, simply sew a 1/2" seam on head and foot end and down one long side. I left one side open for filling down. Marty at Wilderness Logics has been out of down for about a month. So, I have to order my down this week. When it arrives, I will edit this post and show the final product. Here it is all hemmed and awaiting the down.
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Things I learned:
1. Setting up your machine and practice stitching first is key. These materials are light and want to stretch.
2. Don't use tape to measure baffles! Bad idea!
3. The final measurement of this quilt is 73"x49". I would add at least 1" to starting dimensions for the "pucker factor", to achieve your desired finished dimensions.
Materials:
DIY Gear Supply
1. 5 yds. 1.1 DWR black ripstop
2. 1 yd. noseeum mesh
3. 10 ft. 1/16th draw cord
4. 4 micro elliptical cordlocks
5. 2 yds. Union tape(Omni tape)
Total: $43.64 including shipping
Wilderness Logics
7oz. 850fp goose down in 1/2 oz. bags (1/2 oz. in each of the 14 baffles). Should end up with roughly 10% overstuff. To be ordered.
Total: $70 including shipping
This quilt should wind up with a degree rating of 35-40*. I hope this has been informative. Thanks for following along!
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Originally Posted by hangNyak
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