Bushwalk Australia

I bought an older Fairydown Everest sleeping bag a while ago but it turned out to be too narrow and the footbox was too small for me to feel really comfortable in it.
So over the last few days I have modified it to be a quilt with a large footbox. I used some off-cuts from old army parka liners as the donor insulation for the fitted base and shoved the old draft flap in between 2 layers of the polyester filled quilted nylon and I cut off the hood and used it to insulate the foot area.
Took a bit of fiddling around to use the hood without cutting it up but I got there after a bit of trial and error.
Hand sewn.
Still trying to decide if I need a draw cord at the top and a couple of clips along the sides.
Later I will see if my APEX overquilt fits this neatly, if it does I'll try and make the clips position to suit.
It's about 60mm of insulation but Arthur Ellis did always overfill so a little warmer than the loft might indicate and as the US surplus MSS stuff hasn't sold I'll be using that combo to protect the down from dirt and condensation. Should be just warm enough at -8C given my age and total lack of fitness and acclimatisation to the cold this year.
I will be using it on a cot and inside a tent as this is base camping stuff and too heavy for me to carry far

The Nunatak overquilt fits with lots of extra width to spare, as it should. Now all I have to do is find those spare clips.

The clips will be the magic ingredient, I think - very easy for your cocoon to be breached without them, regardless of quilt width.

The big footbox is a good idea, the value of which was reinforced to me a couple of weeks ago on BHP, when despite a FB bigger than my feet, loft compression when sleeping on my back led to cool toes. If weight isn't an issue, I think synthetic over quilts may not suffer as much loft compression as down.

That is one on the reasons I had Jan make the overquilts footbox so large. Fits a wide mat in the base pocket and tall enough to put ski or climbing boots in to stop them freezing. I've just spent the last hour or so searching for the small clips with no luck.
I know if I order another dozen the plastic bag holding them will magically appear.
I need to sew them onto my S2S Traveller too and time is running short, ski season on its way fast now.

Moondog55 wrote:That is one on the reasons I had Jan make the overquilts footbox so large. Fits a wide mat in the base pocket and tall enough to put ski or climbing boots in to stop them freezing. I've just spent the last hour or so searching for the small clips with no luck.
I know if I order another dozen the plastic bag holding them will magically appear.
I need to sew them onto my S2S Traveller too and time is running short, ski season on its way fast now.

Snow is appearing in the forecasts. Unfortunately for me nowadays, snow equates to wet and cold.

I want to get this finished so I am going to order some more clips from Simon at Tiergear. Can anybody comment on the 20mm elastic that Tiergear sell? Used on their quilts.
Stry wet & cold is why my basecamp tent is getting the wood stove in it.

Moondog55 wrote:That is one on the reasons I had Jan make the overquilts footbox so large. Fits a wide mat in the base pocket and tall enough to put ski or climbing boots in to stop them freezing. I've just spent the last hour or so searching for the small clips with no luck.
I know if I order another dozen the plastic bag holding them will magically appear.
I need to sew them onto my S2S Traveller too and time is running short, ski season on its way fast now.

Hi Moondog, I also put my ski boot liners, cameras, batteries and water supply down by my feet. As a backpacking quilt, Would you consider just putting a single layer of fabric where it goes under the mat? Tim

My overquilt has a single layer under the mat combination but personally I prefer a well insulated foot section. In cool to cold weather I actually prefer a sleeping bag for bushwalking but like a warm quilt for car camping and base camps where carried weight isn't so important.
A lot of what I have been making is taking ideas from Gerry Cunninghams DIY book