There is much debate about which is better, a sleeping bag or a quilt? But why not have both? In most cases it is easy to convert your old bag so you can use it as a quilt. I just did this with my old Montbell bag – and it works a treat. The conversion cost maybe $1 and weighed 3 grams! It took only a few minutes.
I guess my old brain just doesn’t work as well as it once did so this realisation only came about as I tried to modify a couple of quilts I had acquired so that they worked better for me, ie easier to enter/exit particularly. I mentioned this in the post Kam Snaps but I can see that the specific mods will require a separate post – Quilt Modification (though it is disarmingly easy).
Years ago we bought Ray Jardine Quilt Kit. I suspect he was the father/grandfather of the quilt idea anyway. We succeeded (following his instructions) in making a beautiful quilt which I was never able to use.
The instructions were maybe wrong but we made the quilt too slim (for me) so that it would have been excessively draughtty. I think we overdid it on the insulation too (Greenland specs as I remember) so that it would barely fit in my pack. It may well suit someone else. In the same way the Aegismax Twilight quilt I mentioned in the post Big Four on a Budget would not work for me as I am too stout.
I abandoned the idea of a quilt for many years though sometimes in summer I used my sleeping bag (unzipped) as a kind of quilt because it was otherwise too hot. I find it is particularly good to be able to have your feet sticking out in hot weather. From this experience (draughts when the temp dropped) I wrongly concluded that a quilt would not be for me, as I toss and turn too much.
The Waratah and Zpacks quilts disabused me of this erroneous assumption, but they both needed some modification to work smoothly for me – hence the above post.
This morning I realised that a sleeping bag is generally wider than a quilt else it would not zip up to cover you, so that it is certainly large enough to use as a roomy quilt providing that some (simple) remedy was affected to exclude those terrible draughts.
It was the work of a couple of moments to assure myself that this would work and the work of only a few minutes to affect the transformation so that now my old sleeping bag is now both a sleeping bag and a quilt – whichever and whenever I want. The mods also only add a few grams to it, so it is a very desirable thing to do if you have a few modest sewing skills – as you ought.
I started with half a dozen approx 2″ lengths of 3/4″ gross grain ribbon which I foled in half then melted the ends together with my mini Bic so they wouldn’t fray.
I sewed them on in six appropriate places, the first pair at the approx bottom of the zip on this Montbell bag to make a foot box, the second pair around about my waist which is where the additional piece of elastic will go, the third pair at the top f the zipper.
Then I added Kam snaps to them. one up and one down so they snap together.
Similarly with a piece of 3/4″ elastic which I added two Kam snaps to
First you punch a hole with the (provided) awl.
Then you simply press the two halves together.
Then they look like this.
This is all the additional bits to convert the bag into a quilt. You could add a second pair of attachment points and a second piece of elastic which would pull he quilt together better but also make getting in and out of bed harder.
This is the finished project. I hope you can see how the bag is now joined together by three pairs of Kam snaps.
The waist closure combines with the head closure to pull the sides of the bag/quilt in under the elbows to cut out any draughts.
Here I have added a (US$70) Zpacks down balaclava as the bag’s hood cannot be used in this configuration (as it is all on one side). I also have a much cheaper Aliexpress down balaclava which only cost around A$20. It is warmer but heavier. More about Ultralight Headgear.
Detail of how the pieces were sewn on, the Kam snaps joined and the elastic added.
See Also:
