13 oz. KevinS Fleece Sleeping Bag Liner / Summer Quilt

Contribued by W. Kevin Smith 9/14/2002
Fast, easy and CHEAP!

Ever needed just a little more warmth from your sleeping bag?
Then add a liner.
Just drape the liner on top of you inside your sleeping bag for extra warmth, or use it alone as a summer quilt.
This liner is made from a $15 Wal-Mart Coleman fleece sleeping bag.
One fleece sleeping bag has enough materal to make two of these liners.

Completed Liner/Quilt
Completed Fleece Liner.

HOW TO MAKE IT

1. Go to Wal-Mart and buy a Coleman fleece sleeping bag from the camping department, or buy fleece material from a fabric store for a lot more money.
2. Take your seam ripper from your sewing kit (or buy one while you are in Wally World) and remove the zipper and any hems from around the edges of the sleeping bag.
3. You should end up with a 76 inch long by 67 inch wide piece of fleece fabric.

flat fleece fabric
4. Spread the fleece flat on the floor for measureing and cutting.
(That's a measureing tape across the 76 inch middle of the fleece)

Moonstone liner
(I have put a commercial Moonstone liner on the fleece to help me judge where the cut needs to be made.
I want the new fleece liner to be a little wider than the Moonstone.)

measure and mark
5. On the narrow 67 inch end of the fleece (top of picture), measure 23 inches from the edge and make a mark.
6. On the other 67 inch end (bottom of picture), measure 44 inches from the edge and make a mark.
7. Place a straight edge between the marks (I used the measureing tape) and mark a line along the straight edge between the 23 and 44 inch marks.

cutting
8. Cut along your marked line.

tapered piece
(You should end up with two tapered same size pieces of fleece, 23 inches wide on the bottom, 44 inches wide on the top, and 76 inches long)
9. Set one piece of fleece aside for now.

footbox
(This pix shows how to make a footbox. That's a pad of paper under the edges so you can see the edges)

folded
(making the footbox)
10. Fold the tapered fleece in half along the 76 inch lenght.
(You should have a folded piece 76 inches long by 22 inches wide tapering down to 11.5 inches wide.)

trim end
(The ends of the fleece will not be even because of the geometry of the cut.)
11. Trim the overlaping 11.5 inch side of the folded fleece to match and even up the edges.

bottom trimmed
(Folded lenghtwise and bottom trimmed.)

sewn end
12. Take the folded piece and sew (by machine or hand) the 11.5 inch wide edges together.
(Right side of pix shows sewn end)

completed footbox
(Completed footbox)

head end
13. Fold the tapered fleece in half along the 76 inch lenght again.
(You should have a folded piece 76 inches long by 22 inches wide tapering down to 11.5 inches wide again.)
(The ends of the fleece will not be even again because of the geometry of the cut.)

trimming head end
14. Trim the overlaping 22 inch side of the folded fleece to match and even up the edges.

Completed Fleece Liner
Completed Fleece Liner, 13.0 oz. on my scale!
Repeat steps 10 thru 14 to make second liner from fleece set aside in step 9.

Moonstone and fleece liners
Commercial Moonstone liner on top of new fleece liner for size comparison.

W. Kevin Smith
http://www.datasync.com/~wksmith/
wksmith1000@yahoo.com
Revised 09/14/2002