I'm planning to make a quilt for my 11 year old daughter, who's currently 4' 8" tall with ~34" girth. Considering 5 oz Apex and either M90 (both Thru-Hiker) or Apex and 1.1 oz ripstop (DIY Gear Supply). The quilt should last her a few years--her older sister stopped growing at 5' tall and ~95#.

I've been reading past threads on quilts, and think I've got the construction figured out (velcro or snaps + drawstring footbox). Sizing I have questions about.

I measured my own Golite 1+ season down quilt, short length. It's ~66" long (including ~4" for footbox) and 47" at widest point. Fits me fine and I'm 5' 6" with ~ 47" girth.

So I figure my daughter's quilt could be ~60" long by 36" at widest point, meaning I can use just two yards of shell fabric and one yard of Apex--roughly >$35 in materials (if M90) not including shipping, hardware, etc.

Seems like it will come out ~10-11 oz finished, and be good to mid 30s F.

Am I on the right track here? Or will this quilt come out too small?

You may want to go a bit longer, depending on how she sleeps.

I personally like my quilts to be a touch on the large side, so that I can tuck them under me. For instance, my quilts are 75" long and 50" at the widest for me at 5'10", 150lbs, and a side sleeper.

Also, with your Golite quilt, it has the footbox built in. When you close up the foot of an open quilt, like it sounds like you want to make, you will lose a bit of the length of the quilt.

Be sure in your calculations that you note M90 has a 58" width, so won't be quite long enough for your purposes, I think. The 2nd nylon at DIY is usually about 65" though, I believe.

I'd also make the suggestion of using both velcro along with one snap at the top. I've tried both alone and neither worked well. I did recently make a quilt that just had loops that I tied shockcord though, and I like that as well, but it is a summer quilt, so a small draft is fine.

I haven't done any sketches on this yet, but hopefully some of this helps just as general thoughts.

Thanks, Chris. The .pdf quilt instructions from your blog were helpful reading.

I think I will go with 1.1oz shell--the wider yard should be perfect, and for a small quilt, the weight increase vs. M90 isn't significant, IMO.

I'm thinking velcro for the footbox. Here's a few diagrams showing how I'd like to lap the footbox (to prevent drafts) and use a minimum of seams for the draw cord tubes.



I hope to get started in a couple weeks--I'll post pics of progress/ when completed.

I'm glad you found it helpful.

Those drawings are great, what did you do them in?

It looks like you have a good idea going there. One last thing I would suggest is to be careful how which way you face the velcro. If you are using something like Omnitape, it doesn't matter. But I have gone back to using just normal hook and loop. In that case, I prefer putting the hook facing outward on the quilt (also only really matters if you have a liner material different than shell). That way, the hook is catching on your socks and what not when you leave the quilt open.

Thanks, Chris. The tip with the velcro is a nice detail.

Drawings were done in Illustrator--glad you liked them.