If you’re going to make a down backpacking quilt, one of your key decisions will be whether to have an enclosed footbox or just use a drawstring to suck the bottom in below your feet. Beings we’ve tried both styles, we thought we’d share our experience and thoughts.

We’ve made two backpacking quilts so far and are looking forward to our third. (Geez – almost sounds like I’m talking about kids!)

Our first is a three-season, 10-degree bad boy with staggered vertical continuous box baffles on the top, horizontal baffles from about mid-thigh down, and the ever-so-toasty enclosed footbox. We chose this design based on the scant MYOG info we found on YouTube and various blogs/forums.

Creating the enclosed footbox required fitting a down-filled “plug” into the end of quilt, which makes it more like a sleeping bag below the knees. While some folks opt for a rectangular or square box, I chose round so I didn’t have to deal with sewing corners. The “plug” turned out great and provides three inches of loft between your tootsies and Jack Frost. (Not sure what happened to my pic – the quilt looks discolored but is really just green. Must be the lighting.)

Our second is an ultralight 30-degree summer-weight beauty with horizontal triangular (AKA V or V-box) baffles and a simple drawstring to pull the foot end closed. While this design may not fully stop cold air seeping in, it does seem to do a pretty good job.

We found a few significant advantages to the drawstring bottom. In addition to being MUCH easier to sew than the enclosed footbox, it’s also adjustable. And while it may not be quite as warm, it’s also not as hot in warmer weather because you can easily convert it into a blanket.

So our third addition to the family will be a 3.5-in loft, 0-degree chill chaser, that will definitely have a drawstring footbox. And the little bit of cold that might seep in? Well, that little problem will be easily negated by the down booties (socks) we made (instructions coming soon!).

If you’re interested in more info on how we made our ultralight backpacking quilt, see our detailed video on YouTube and the basic instructions here on WQ.