I just finished my M50 900fp down pullover jacket. It was based off a modified Thru-Hiker Kinsman pattern. I had to make some adjustments to account for down instead of synthetic insultion, but that was easier than I anticipated. The final weight on the jacket is 5.1 oz. I used 2.25 oz of down.

My thanks goes to Brendan Swihart. His M50 jacket inspired to make this one. He helped with some crucial sizing decisions. Things I modified from the Kinsman were: reduce collar height by 1/2", reduce arm girth by 2", and shorten the front zipper by 2". All in all it is a simple jacket...no pockets, no waist elastic, etc. I did add elastic to the wrists (Brendan did not).

Here are some pics.










Jamie

Your M50 jacket looks great, very cool.

That is really impressive Jamie. I've tried a lot of MYOG and for me a *professional looking* down jacket is the hardest to do by far, but looks like you've got it down!

Ryan

Jamie,
That is a very enviable piece of gear. Nice job! This is well beyond my sewing abilities for now but I would like to make something like this down the road. Can you explain the process of getting the down in each square and closing it up? I would imagine it's fairly simple I just can't think of a good method. Thanks

Jamie, I have to say that is a great looking jacket at an amazing weight. I am envious for sure. All of you MYOG looks very professional, you are a truly talented individual.

Great work! Turned out fantastic.

Hey Jamie,

Yet another great piece of gear from you, and yet another couple of ounces knocked off of your base weight! The jacket looks SUPER professional, and I'm very jealous.



... now where did I put that napkin to wipe up all this drool...

Many thanks for all the encouraging words!

Clint Newitt, As to how to fill the jacket... take a look at these instructions I did for making a down quilt (link on page). This should explain the basic process.

LytW8_Summer_Quilt

The differenc with the jacket is I had to create sections then calculate the down in each section and use the shop vac method to transfer it (see the instructions). I then evenly distributed the down in the section and sewed the smaller squares.

For example the back was sewn along three sides, then I sewed 4 long vertical chambers. Each chamber took 4.5 grams of down. I transfered the down into each chamber then sewed shut. I distributed the down evenly then sewed across the chambers creating the horizontal chambers/squares.

I really recommend thru-hiker.com kits for starting out. Materials are top notch and the kits area easy to follow.

Jamie

Edited by jshortt on 06/05/2011 16:02:48 MDT.

Jamie -

It looks like you hit this one out of the park - absolutely fantastic.

keep up the good work,

matt

Jamie

Again an excellent piece of kit you've produced, especially like the weight. You seem to have been bitten by the down bug like myself. I know many people complain about the problems with damp but properly looked after I've never found it a big problem. Each to his own though as they say.

What sort of temps are hoping to wear this in? I've considered something similar before to wear in the Spring/Autumn when it's too hot for my thick down coat.

Nice work Jamie!

Couple questions:

1) which size Kinsman pattern did you start with? (helps guesstimate weight and amount of materials to use on other sizes
2) You reduced the arm circumference by 2 inches. Was that on the full length of the arm? If so, what was your approach to reducing the "arm hole" circumference/ (where the arms attach to the body)

Jim

The Jacket looks awesome. Good Job.

Answer to some questions...

How warm... I made it to replace my montbell down inner jacket. My inner has 2.0 oz of 800 fp down. This jacket has 2.25 oz of 900 fp down so I believe this jacket is at least as warm if not warmer than my down inner. I have pushed the down inner into the teens. Its a stretch, but doable. Low temps are usually in the morning so I put the down jacket on with rain shell over it, fleece gloves and fleece balaclava or cap. I plan to use this jacket the same way.

Kinsmans size...I am almost 5'10" tall and weigh 160 lbs. I started with a kinsmans size medium. I used the athletic cut and the standard collar (opposed to wider fit and wider collar). My montbell down inner is a size medium, the fit is a bit on the small size for me. My new M50 pullover is a better size for me than the down inner.

Arm sizing...this is where Brendan's lead way extremely helpfull. We both agreed that the kinsman arm holes are on the large size. I simple took 1" off each side of the pattern all the way up the arm. Not sure if Brendan took 1" off the entire way up or not, maybe he can comment. When I was 1/2 way through I suddenly became concerned that I had taken too much off at the wrist...i.e. my hand would not fit through. But in the end the sizing was perfect. I did sew as close the the seam esge as possible near the wrist to leave as much fabric as possible. I also made the second seam (french seam) as close as possible. If I were to do this again I would only take 1/2" off each side at the wrist and might go 1.5" off each side at the pit. Then not try to sew as close to the seam near the wrist.

Attaching the sleeve...again Brendan's help was crucial, he explained this process to me. If you reduce the sleeve diameter by 1" on each side you need to reduce the arm hole by "bringing" the side of the pattern up enough to reduce the torso sleeve opening by the same amount. To check the lines I made several measurements using string to make sure the sleeve edge and the torso hole edge were the same length. I was actually surprised by how close all the pieces lined up. They were actually closer than when I did the first kinsman.

Changing the instructions to go from sythetic insulation to down just required surprising few changes. If anyone wants pointers about what to change just let me know.

Jamie