I'm in the process of sewing a quilt using these materials:

Shell: Thru-hiker.com 1.1 oz/sq yd Nylon Ripstop 1st Quality
Insulation: 2 layers of Thru-hiker.com Climashield Combat 3.7 oz/sq yd

I finished sewing the two shell pieces together, inside-out. The next step is to attach the insulation, but I have some questions first:

1.) How should the insulation be attached to the quilt shell?
2.) Stitch length to use when attaching the insulation?
3.) Should the insulation be quilted?
4.) When feeding it through the sewing machine, should the shell be on top of the insulation?

Thanks for the advice :-)

Nick

Edited by nkline on 09/07/2010 08:08:27 MDT.

As far as I know climashield does not have to be quilted, but it couldn't hurt. You don't want the insulation on the bottom when sewing.

You want the insulation on top and fabric on the bottom as the bottom is what moves the fabric.

I would pin the entire seam prior. The problem I had a while back was I thought I could just run down the seam without pinning, but the insulation stretched and go out of phase with the fabric.

Of course I really don't know that much about sewing insulation as I am just like most others here and make this or that now and then.

Best to ask Tim M.

1-sewn! No seriously, just sew the insulation the to perimeter of your fabric leaving enough of a unsecured area(a hole) to later turn the quilt right-side out.

2-not too important, just as long as it is attached well. i use medium length stitches and i find no reason to change.

3-nope, thats the whole reason to go climashield vs primanloft, saves alot of work in construction

4-depends on your machine. My old machine would catch the insulation if it was on the bottom and the fabric was on top so i had to put the insulation on top and the fabric on bottom. IT works ok but is hard to see what you are doing with all the insulation fluffed up in the way. My current machine can sew with the insulation down and this makes it much easier as i can see where i am sewing on the fabric, also makes it much much easier to sew zippers and draw tubes as you can see them. Pin every 5" or so and hold all the materials in front and behind the needle. If you hold the material so the nylon is tight this will reduce(not eliminate) the insulation stretching. Just make sure that if it stretches you get it tacked back in place before you remove the next pin. This will keep the whole side from shifting on you.

Hope that helps, Troy got you going in the right direction

-Tim

Concerning quilting, although it's true that Climashield doesn't require it, Jardine recommends quilting anyway due to stresses when stuffing the quilt into a stuff sack. His MYOG quilting method is to tie off short lengths of yarn around a cardboard thickness gauge.

I always add quilting because it's simple, quick, weighs next to nothing, and maybe helps stabilize and protect the insulation.

i have quilts >3yrs old that aren't quilted with no sign of wear. I had a quilt i did the yarn loops with and after only a few trips the holes for the loops were enlarging from stretch due to stuffing pulling against the yarn. I am against the loops, but to each his own.

-Tim

Thanks a lot for all the advice! One more question:

I've been using a Walking Foot (explanation, picture) up to this point. Do you recommend using the Walking Foot when sewing on the insulation or would its feed dogs snag onto the insulation?

Thanks :-)

you could have issues with snagging, but you may not. If you can go insulation down snagging is very unlikely. When sewing mine i use my zipper foot which is shaped like a sled in front with no protrusions to snag the insulation.

-Tim