HELP! - Top baffle of down quilt void of down

[on_the_GOEZ]

I have a Warbonnet Mamba and after considerable use (AT thru, bunch of overnighters), the down has nearly disappeared from the top baffle of the quilt, the area which surround my head or neck when the quilt is draped over me. This started while on my thru-hike, but has only gotten worse to the point of nearly no down in this area.

Ive tried hanging the quilt by the footbox and working the down from the sides and the footbox with my hands to obtain even loft throughout with no long-term avail. (it will work for a day maybe, but the down settles away again) Ive also tried putting the quilt in a large dryer on zero to low heat to fluff the down and hopefully redistributed the down throughout the quilt, namely at the top baffle, also with no long-term avail.

Question for all you DIYers: I am considering sewing a summer down quilt from a kit and stuffing the extra down in the top baffle, then sewing some part of the baffle to ensure that the down can't escape from the top area. Will this be necessary, or can I open the seams and redistribute the down and resew the baffles to stop the escape of the down instead of just adding more? Could this be fixed by a simple washing of the down (I'm sure it's dirty )

Also, any recommendations for quilt kits? Considering the thru-hiker kit.. Might it be cheaper to gather my own materials (down, synthetic material, etc) and design my own quilt? Any suggestions for other retailers? Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions. Cheers, Phenix

[Wise Old Owl]

Make a small cut on the side stuff it and hand sew it up.. can't be hard... Hammock forum may have down to sell. or scavenge an old bag.

[leaftye]

I have a Warbonnet Mamba and after considerable use (AT thru, bunch of overnighters), the down has nearly disappeared from the top baffle of the quilt, the area which surround my head or neck when the quilt is draped over me. This started while on my thru-hike, but has only gotten worse to the point of nearly no down in this area.

Ive tried hanging the quilt by the footbox and working the down from the sides and the footbox with my hands to obtain even loft throughout with no long-term avail. (it will work for a day maybe, but the down settles away again)

If I'm interpreting the information on the Warbonnet site correctly, you should not be able to transfer down from the foot to the head. Down should not be able to move from one baffle to another. It sounds like your internal baffles are ripped. With the description you provided of moving down from the footbox to the head, you probably ripped them doing this.

The first thing you should do is check your baffles for rips. Gently pull from each side of the internal baffles to see if there are any holes. As a backup to that test, visually inspect the stitching for each baffle. If your baffles are fine, then go ahead and take the trouble of washing it and adding new down to the top baffle. If only the top baffle is torn, then that might be worth fixing, but I wouldn't bother fixing it if all the baffles are torn.

I believe thru-hiker offers the only kit for down quilts. Synthetic quilt kits are available from RayWay.

To build a very light quilt, you would do fine by getting all your materials with thru-hiker. Titanium Goat sells some very light fabric that's comparable with the M50 fabric thru-hiker sells, but not that much less expensive. It used to be a great deal when the older version of M50 was VERY expensive. High quality goose down is hard to find, and there aren't many places that have better down or prices than thru-hiker...maybe none at this time.

If you'd like to build an inexpensive down quilt that weighs a bit more, then go with 1.1 oz/yd 2nds from backwoodsdaydreamer.com and 700-750fp down from feathertex.com.