Of the commercially available sleeping bags for mountain hiking, only blanket bags with various synthetic insulation can be recommended for use. they provide a completely complete rest during the hike. cotton bags are practically unsuitable for outdoor activities due to the large weight, large volume and high hygroscopicity of cotton wool. When hiking in the highlands and spending the night above the snow line, you can only use down bags or bags with synthetic insulation equivalent to down.
It’s easy to make your own sleeping bag. Which bag should you prefer - single or multi-person? the advantages of a single bag are obvious: higher comfort during overnight stays; there are no problems when distributing participants among tents; when a group is forced to separate (reconnaissance, transporting a victim, drop-offs, etc.). a single bag can serve as a piece of personal equipment.
The disadvantages of a multi-person sleeping bag include its large volume (a three-person bag, if sewn in one piece, takes up the entire volume of the backpack). When planning winter mountain hikes, it is recommended to sew double (in thickness) sleeping bags - one in one. These bags are somewhat heavier than regular ones, but much warmer. In addition, it is possible to use each bag separately.
DESIGNS AND METHODS OF SEWING There are several ways to make down equipment (Fig. 114). the first method (Fig. 114a) is the most labor-intensive, but with minimal consumption of quilting fabric. It is practically not used in homemade production. with the second method (Fig. 114b), the quilting fabric is alternately sewn to the outer and inner covers. The method is also quite complicated.
with the third manufacturing method (Fig. 114c), the consumption of quilting fabric is greatest, and the bag turns out to be somewhat heavier, but it is easier to sew (in fact, two bags are sewn, inserted into one another and sewn together at the neck), it is easy to dry by removing one part from another. This method is most common in the homemade production of not only sleeping bags, but also down jackets, vests, and trousers.
Rice. 114. methods of making a down sleeping bag: a - with minimal consumption of fabric; b - the quilting fabric is alternately sewn to the inner and outer cover; c - the easiest way to sew; 1 - cover, 2 - quilting, 3 - down, 4 - seam.
rice. 115. Patterns for parts of a single sleeping bag. The sizes are designed for a person with a height of 175-180 cm and are given without gaps on the seams.
There are many designs of single sleeping down bags. We propose a design that is relatively easy to implement in home-made production (Fig. 115). for this you need 8 m of calendered nylon (with a width of 1 m) for the outer and inner covers and 8 m of fabric for quilting. For filling, 0.8-1.0 kg of fluff is required. The bag should be sewn with nylon threads. the weight of the finished bag is from 1.4 to 1.8 kg (depending on the density of the material and the amount of fluff). To facilitate the process of cleaning down and filling a product with down, several devices have been developed using a household vacuum cleaner.
It is advisable to take into account that recently sleeping bags have been used in combination with bedding mats made of polyethylene foam or polyurethane foam, which have high thermal insulation properties, so the bottom of the bag can be made thinner than the top.
It is convenient to cut parts from nylon fabrics with a sharpened tip of an electric soldering iron, placing the fabric on a sheet of plywood, a drawing board, etc. It is better to sew the bag in the following sequence:
- cut out the details of the outer and inner covers;
- cut out the quilting parts according to overall dimensions with an allowance of 1-2 cm (thin parachute nylon stretches a lot and when sewing it is difficult to accurately align the parts);
- attach quilting material to the outer and inner covers so that the seams are shifted relative to each other;
- sew up the down compartments on one side;
- fill the compartments with down;
- sew up the compartments on the other side;
- sew the top and bottom parts of the outer bag;
- sew the upper and lower parts of the inner bag;
- sew the inner and outer bags along the ABC and ADC lines;
- stitch the top edge of the bag for the tightening cord;
- thread the cord.
For a three-person sleeping bag, the following dimensions are recommended: width 170cm (can be narrowed to 150cm at the feet); length 180-190cm, with headrest 220-230cm. to make such a bag you need 17.5 m of fabric for covers, 17.5 m of fabric for quilting (with a width of 1 m) and 2-2.5 kg of down. the weight of the finished bag is 3.2-3.6 kg.
The combination of down with synthetic insulation is quite practical. in this case, the top of the bag is filled with down, and the bottom is made of padding polyester. such a bag is more technologically advanced, cheaper, the synthetic material squanders less than down, and is less hygroscopic. but a combination bag is heavier than a down bag and takes up more volume when folded.
The technology for sewing bags filled with synthetic wool differs from the technology for making down bags. if cotton wool is stuffed like fluff into sections, it will quickly fall off, and this part of the bag will lose its thermal insulation properties. To prevent this from happening, a layer of cotton wool is laid out on the cover, covered with quilting fabric and stitched in the same way as a quilted cotton blanket. further - as in the manufacture of down bags.
when using padding polyester, two or three layers of insulation are applied to the cut out parts of the outer and inner covers (depending on its thickness) and stitched so that the seams on the covers are shifted relative to each other. then the inner and outer bags are sewn together in the same way as when making a down bag.
Tourism has always played a fairly important role in people's lives. In the realities of our state, the so-called “wild tourism” is especially popular - hiking in areas untouched by man, spending the night in the forest and mountains, staying away from civilization on the banks of lakes and rivers, etc. and so on. It is worth noting that such an approach to organizing a vacation allows you to get truly unforgettable experiences, improve your health, see many new, unexplored distances and simply be in good company at minimal cost.
One of the most necessary items for a tourist is a sleeping bag - a product that can provide warmth even in bad weather, organize a good night’s sleep and make staying away from home more or less comfortable. Of course, you can buy a sleeping bag in specialized stores, but you should remember that for hiking in the mountains only blanket bags made from various synthetic insulation materials can be recommended. Such products can provide complete rest during a hike. But a cotton sleeping bag is not an acceptable option for outdoor activities, as it is very heavy, has a large volume and has a highly hygroscopic insulation. For those who are going on a hike in the highlands or plan to spend the night above the snow line, the only option is sleeping bags based on natural down or synthetic insulation equivalent to down.
Instead of purchasing a sleeping bag, you can make it yourself. How to sew will be discussed below.
It is worth noting that the designs and methods of sewing a sleeping bag are characterized by great diversity, but one thing can be said with confidence - on the vastness of the Global Network it is easy to find a pattern and method of manufacturing this necessary product, depending on the goals and objectives of the tourist. By the way, on specialized tourist sites it is easy to find such a necessary thing when preparing for a hike, which is a tourist one.
When making a bag, the materials that will be used as insulation are especially important. Down is characterized by the greatest efficiency. Here it is worth considering that when making a sleeping bag from down, you need to take only waterfowl down (for example, goose or duck, eider down is also suitable). As for chicken fluff, its use is impractical, since chicken fluff does not have a fatty coating, which leads to a long drying time after getting wet and the appearance of an unpleasant odor due to rotting.
Today, various synthetic materials, represented by padding polyester, nitron, etc., are very popular. Although these fillers have worse characteristics compared to down (weight, thermal insulation), they are cheaper and less scarce. In addition, such materials are characterized by low hygroscopicity, durability, lack of crushing, and can protect well from the wind. It should not be forgotten that bags based on synthetics take up more volume when folded than bags based on down.
As for fabrics for making sleeping bags, there are not many requirements for them. The main thing is that when sewing down bags, use down-proof fabrics, for example, calendered nylon - a lightweight, durable, but at the same time inexpensive and accessible material. Thin cotton fabric is usually used for lining, and parachute nylon is excellent for quilting the partitions that form the down sections. By the way, you can sew a complete sleeping bag from this material if synthetic material is used as insulation.