Good news! With a basic sewing machine and a little time (OK – maybe slightly more than a little), you can save money and create your very own high-end gear. “How?” you ask. Well, read on for the answer.
After sewing in strips of noseeum mesh to create box baffles on our first two quilts, we decided there just had to be an easier way – so we figured out how to create triangular baffle fabric using a continuous piece of mesh. If this technique has been used elsewhere, it’s certainly not well documented on the internet, so we figured we’d add more info to the pool.
Our directions are for a summer-weight quilt for someone in the mid-5-foot range, but you could easily modify it to fit any height by using longer calendered taffeta and noseeum mesh yardage. You could also upgrade it to a warmer quilt by scaling up to increase the thickness for more loft.
We buy our fabrics and components from RipStopByTheRoll and our goose down from DownLinens. Altogether, the cost for this quilt was about $130. Considering you’d pay more than double that to buy a similar quilt, making your own gear makes a lot of sense – and saves a lot of cents, too!).
And now, finally, here are the written instructions for creating your very own MYOG Ultralight Down Backpacking Quilt.
Materials/Supplies
In addition to a sewing machine and basic sewing supplies, you will need:
- 4 yards .66 oz calendered nylon taffeta (58″ wide)
- 3 yards .5 oz noseeum mesh (62″ wide) (preferably NOT black)
- 10 oz 850 fill goose down
- 3 yards 3/32″ shock cord
- 2 mini cordlocks
- 3 snaps
- 1 yard 5/8″ grosgrain ribbon
- 1 22-yard roll 1/4″ quilter’s tape
- 70/30 polyester thread
- Bit of painters tape
Basic Instructions
NOTE: These basic instructions are supplemental to our demo video, How to Make an Ultralight Backpacking Quilt.
- Starting 3.5″ from one end, mark your noseeum mesh across the width of the fabric every 3″ along the full length of the yardage.
- With the calendered (shiny) side in, fold your taffeta in half across the width of the fabric to form a double-thickness rectangle 58″ wide x 2 yards long, and then mark the fold at each edge with a Sharpie.
- Sew the mesh to the taffeta 4″ from the fold.
- Rotate your fabric and sew the first marked line on the mesh to the taffeta 6″ from the fold.
- Rotate the fabric again and sew the next marked line on the mesh 4″ from the previous line on that side. MAKE SURE YOU’RE ALTERNATING SIDES.
- Repeat rotating and sewing along the taffeta yardage, stopping 4″ or so from the end; trim away the excess mesh.
- Sew your taffeta layers together 1/4″ from the edge across the bottom to close, and then fold on the stitch line and sew the raw edge down.
- Sew across the taffeta 1.5″ from the bottom to create the casing area, and then baste 1″ from the bottom for the casing fold line.
- Sew across the taffeta 1.5″ from the fold at the top to create the casing area, and then baste 1″ from the fold for the casing fold line.
- Taper the foot, if desired.
- Trim the excess mesh along the side(s).
- Sew 1/2″ from the edge down one side to close, fold along the stitch line and fold the raw edge under, and then sew along the folded fabric to finish.
- Insert goose down into each baffle.
- Sew 1/2″ from the edge down the remaining side to close, fold along the stitch line and fold the raw edge under, and then sew along the folded fabric to finish.
- Attach pairs of male and female snap pieces to folded grosgrain ribbon and sew in place next to the fold line within the casing area on both ends of your quilt. Note that the ribbon will overlap the casing stitch line. Also attach a snap on the sides of the quilt at the top of the taper.
- To create the drawstring at each end, sew a folded piece of grosgrain ribbon to the end of the shock cord and run it through the casing, and then sew through the casing and ribbon to secure.
- Attach a cord lock to each drawstring and you’re done!
For a detailed demo, see How to Make an Ultralight Backing Quilt at JoelHornOffGrid on YouTube.
Interested in More MYOG Projects?
In addition to three (so far) down quilts, we’ve also made a few pairs of down booties, a down balaclava, stuff sacks, some merino wool shirts, a fleece hoodie, and a silnylon rain suit. With each project, I use my decades of sewing/quilting experience to simplify the construction process and will share the results here and on YouTube.
So if you haven’t already, go subscribe to JoelHornOffGrid on YouTube and be sure to click the notification bell so you know when we publish more MYOG how-to videos.