Down quilt sewing
Now I add the images of the down-quilt I sewed.
Instructions will follow.
One note: Don’t use the tape as shown in the images, it really sucks, use a pen please.
MYOG bivy bag
I’ll update this article until the bivy is finished. There won’t be any follow-ups.
My next trip will provide me with a lot of wind and mosquitoes.
As I’m tarp camping I need something against these two quilt-sleeper enemies 
To make it short, I need a bivy.
After 3 of these prototypes:
I got to the final pattern:
It is designed to fit a side sleeper of size ~1.75cm, a 300g down(6cm loft) quilt and a prolite(2.5cm). It has got a total length of 1.90cm and a mid body(below shoulder, elbow)/shoulder width of 70cm/65cm.
The bottom is silnylon and the top is pertex quantum and nanoseeum.
The estimated weight( size² * weight of material + zipper ) is 205g including a 38g zipper of which I’m not sure if I’ll use it.
I first cut out the silnylon according to my pattern. There’s no secret, but I marked all edges of the pattern with a pen.
The result:
Then I sewed the edges of the silnylon together in order to get the designed cube.
I used double seams to secure the edges.
At the head area I appended two loops to tie out the bivy:
The next step was to sew the noseeum and quantum together.
Now for the interesting stuff, the zipper.
I first secured the edge of the quantum with needles to the side of the zipper.
Then I turned it around to double the quantum and secured it with yarn.
After sewing the zipper I sewed the two pieces of quantum/noseeum together (the zipper was not full length).
I started sewing 2cm away from the ends of the zipper. I sewed the 2cm’s by hand to ensure that it is midge-proof
The final step was to sew the top piece to the bottom piece, this was done with one simple seem and one insurance seem before the first one(so 4 layers of fabric were secured).
The sad thing is, when I finally took this bivy out to test it, I got a lot of condensation were the silnylon was. In fact it was so much that my sleeping bag was completely wet on its sides. The quantum was no problem and worked fine.
I now make a second bivy consisting of quantum only with the same pattern.
The final weight of the old bivy was 200g without lines, 217 with elastic lines.
The new bivy will weight(estimated again) 178g. I’m really looking forward to it, because it offers full bug protection and I can turn and toss in it. It also offers wind protection
Sauerland 201005
My monthly trip in the Sauerland
This time I had a pack weight around 5.7 kg for the whole trip.
My friend Christian joined me on this tour through the Arnsberger Wald.
He tried his simple can alcohol stove, with more or less success, while I enjoyed my special trail bread(409kcal/100g) and freezer bag cooking(because water is always a problem).
Sewing a tarp
Getting into light gear you will realize that a lot of gear is overpriced, or you might want specific features the commercial products don’t offer.
But in my case I’m simply one of these DIY people, and I sewed a silnylon tarp.
Material:
As material I used silnylon, because it is cheap and does the job. I would prefer cuben….but the price 
Cut:
Hiking alone I don’t need a big tarp, but I want a luxury size. I already own a 3x4m tarp which is simply too big. 2,5×3 is also too big. I decided to cut the foot part half the size of the head part. The following image shows the final draft I used:
The draft includes the seem allowance. This was transferred on a sheet of paper and then cut out of the silnylon.
Cutting:
One note on this: Cut the diagonal sides very straight or your tarp will sack and be difficult to pitch.
Sewing silnylon:
This is the difficult part. To make it easy for you: USE NEEDLES. I stichted my seams with needles every 5-10cm, otherwise my sewing machine will not transport the material correctly and I will have a lot of mess. The lap seem is quite easy, I used the tutorial from http://www.flusslinie.de
On the tieouts I used 3 layers of silnylon to secure the straps, this is bomb proof.
Result:
Thinks I will do differently the next time:
- create a pocket at each tieout to store the line when packing the tarp away. I will use one of the extra layer of material for this.
- make the tieouts very short and use lines instead.
Waterproof tent materials/Wasserdichte Zelt Materialien
Silnylon:
Silicone coated nylon. Coating is either on one or on both sides. Can be mixed with PU coating.
Weight: 45-?g/m²
Properties:
- As ripstop material it doesn’t tear out on cuts
- stretches alot when wet, be careful about this. You need the possibility to strengthen the pitch of your shelter
- very durable, but thin and you can cut it very easy
- when cut, it doesn’t fringe
- it’s very slick, mud doesn’t stick.
- silent in wind
PU Nylon:
Polyurethane coated nylon. Coating is either on one or on both sides. Can be mixed with Silicone coating.
Weight: 60-?g/m²
Properties:
- As ripstop material it doesn’t tear out on cuts
- doesn’t stretch
- is not slick
- very durable, but thin and you can cut it very easy
- when cut, it doesn’t fringe
- not as durable as silnylon
Cuben Fiber:
The current hype 
Comes in many weights and is the most expensive material available.
Weight: 27-?g/m²
Properties:
- very light, fully waterproof
- need more information about it
German:
Silnylon:
Silikon beschichtetes Nylon. Kann auf einer oder auf beiden Seiten beschichtet sein, eventuell zusammen mit PU.
Gewicht: 45-?g/m²
Eigenschaften:
- Franst als Ripstop nicht aus
- dehnt sich bei Nässe, hier ist Vorsicht geboten! Du musst deine Unterkunft nachspannen.
- sehr haltbar, aber dünn und leicht zu schneiden
- es franst nicht aus an Schnittstellen
- sehr rutschig, Dreck bleibt nicht haften
- ziemlich ruhig bei Wind
PU Nylon:
Polyurethan beschichtetes nylon. Kann auf einer oder auf beiden Seiten beschichtet sein, eventuell zusammen mit Silikon.
Gewicht: 50-?g/m²
Eigenschaften:
- Franst als Ripstop nicht aus
- dehnt sich nicht
- nicht rutschig
- sehr haltbar, aber dünn und leicht zu schneiden
- franst nicht aus an Schnittstellen
- nicht so haltbar wie Silnylon
Cuben Fiber:
Das neueste und leichteste Material. Leider sehr teuer.
Gewicht: 27-?g/m²
Eigenschaften:
- sehr leicht, komplett Wasserdicht
- ich brauche mehr Informationen hierrüber
Harz
This was the first time I put a pack on my back, it was nice but the Harz is a pretty small area.
Eggeweg
The Eggeweg was an “addon” to the Hermannsweg I hiked before. I settled of with Christian for a weekend and enjoyed a lot of fog.
Hermannsweg
This was my heaviest trip, which was actually four days long. And I carried around 23kg, including a 500g hobo a heavy steel pot two heavy duty planes as shelter. Nowadays I would carry around 10kg including 2l of water and the food for all days.
Eifelsteig
In mid-summer of 2009 I walked half of the Eifelsteig, I had to abort because of a tick bite infection(borreliosis) and spent 7 days in hospital afterwards…
Jandia
This was a little day trip in an otherwise boring beach&sun&eat vacation.
From sea level to the 8xx meters Jandia mountain.
