evening…
the search for the perfect sleep system still eludes me. i have decided that a down bag will be what i get…. however… i have now discovered backpacking quilts. as someone who gets majorly claustrophobic feet and sleeps mostly with the zips on a bag open, i reckon these may be the answer.
anyone on here use a quilt rather than a bag?
cheers

Head over to the bearbonesbikepacking forum. You will find something very relevant to your interests…..
http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB3/index.php

I* made a double quilt for mrs stoner and I based on advice from Bob @ backpackinglight. I still prefer a bag when it’s just me, but it’s a good system, esp when married with a silk sleeping bag liner.

He now stocks a range of quilts too
http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/category-56/page/0/

*my mother may or may not have been heavily involved in the fabrication….

I too my mother helped make a double quilt for myself and my partner too. We made sure there was a small foot box (unquilted below) still because I get cold feet. Can be very light if you buy some decent filling, works very well for two. I think I prefer a bag still on my own too much like Stoner. You can get top fill bags too but I roll around too much and would wake up col I recon. You could try to make a cheap basic one and see how you find it.

i bought a PHD quilt it is as light as a light thing but it is a bit slippery you really do have to use the ties to keep it in place

stoner… bob seems to be one of the only people who do these in the uk, and i spoke with a lovely lady over the phone yesterday about them, likely will get one but want some real world (from people i trust!?!) usage stories.
b!galus how warm is the phd one?, i have some phd mitts so know the compay products are good.
when i mentioned making one mrsvader just gave me that “special” look!!! 😀

daftvader – you probably spoke to the lovely Rose, Bob’s wife.

I’ve been meaning to drop in (its only 10mins away) to check out one of these: http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/category-56/XA107.html

my neighbour made a quilt with a foot box and shoulder baffle to help keep it in place. He used primaloft as stuffing whereas I used polish goosedown.

I added poppers round mine and to the double bag liner to pop them together. which kind of worked. Obviously pertex on silk is going to slip around a lot otherwise.

here’s mine

I use a quilt and sleep fine with it. It has a sewn-in footbox so the bottom half is like a sleeping bag which helps stop it from going anywhere.
Ordered mine from Enlightened Equipment in the US. It’s a winter weight one.
in the process of getting a summer one from UKHammocks via the bear bones forum.
I tend to half unzip a sleeping bag whenever I use it anyway so a quilt seemed like a sensible choice.

Stoner where did you get the “ingredients “? And how difficult was the construction?
Dknwhy I emailed enlightened and their delivery times are 5-7weeks from order! Bit too long for me.

Im afraid it was over 8 yrs ago and I cant find any record of it in my email system so I cant remember.

Someone else may be able to help, as I think I got some of it from a Down equipment repair company somewhere in the lake district.

EDIT: it might have been these guys from whom I bought the pertex off the roll.
http://www.mountaineering-designs.co.uk/shop/2/

I may even have got the down on ebay from poland…
EDIT2:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/95-5-White-Hungary-Goose-Down-Feathers-by-the-7-OZ-/221582782056?pt=US_Fabric&hash=item33975cee68

Fabrication was relatively easy as we went with a stitch through design as opposed to the more complicated box method. Getting the down into the cells was a bit messy, but I found just counting handfuls and stuffing them in worked ok.

Mrs Stoner Sr was a flag maker at the time so we had a nice big table and commercial sewing machine to make life easier, but with a bit of space there’s no reason it cant be done on a kitchen table with a domestic sewing machine.

more outdoor tech fabrics than you could ever want – including synthetic and down insulation for sale – http://www.extremtextil.de/index_en.html

very handy link, ian.

Cheers for the links…. We only have a hand cranked singer sewing machine from 1820 so I’m not sure it would be up to it…. Having a flag making mum to help… isn’t that cheating??? 😆