DIY Gear ~ Gaiter Prototype

I've been working on creating dirt gaiters for out hiking trip, using fabric from my old swimming suits. I initially started with this pattern, with some modifications, like fold-over elastic and gaiter hooks. They came out waaaay too huge (maybe because the well-worn lycra is extra stretchy?), so I cut them down until they fit my shoes and ankles.



I took them for a test drive this weekend, but I didn't go far because I had an injured foot (don't worry--minor puncture wound from walking around the woods in sandals--it's getting better now), but the gaiters were already starting to ride up a bit. So I looked online, to see how Dirty Girl, the primary mini gaiter seller, handles the problem and saw that they use velcro to anchor the back of the gaiter to the shoe. I've added a couple strips to mine and will give them another test run this weekend.

Why, you may ask, don't I just buy Dirty Girl gaiters and be done with it--after all, sewing lycra without serger is a giant pain in the neck and DGs are only $20 a pair. Well, $20 x 5 people is $100, which seems like a lot for just keeping pebbles out of your shoes: I've shelled out maybe $15 altogether for the FOE, gaiter hooks, and some grosgrain ribbon. Also, I've been saving my old workout suits for years, and I was excited to find a good use to put them to. And, once I get something stuck in my craw--like the idea of whipping up my own gaiters--I just can't seem to let it go.

Hopefully they'll prove successful this weekend and I'll find time to whip out four more pairs before the end of June!

DIY Gear ~ Sleeping Quilts

Over the weekend, I finished sleeping quilts for E and Z for this summer's Colorado Trail hike.

The idea behind the sleeping quilt is that it's lighter than a sleeping bag, allows for ventilation, so you don't sweat and then get cold during the night, and you don't lie on top of any of the insulation, smashing it down. I made one for myself last summer and tested it out on our two-week Colorado camping trip. It worked really well, mostly. The two drawbacks were that there's nothing between you and your sleeping mat, so if it's too warm to wear sleeping clothes with long sleeves and legs, you stick to the mat, which is not that pleasant. Also, I was cold when we camped at Sand Dunes, where it got down to the 30s at night.

I'm a little nervous about being cold on our trip, and even more nervous about our kids being cold. Lightweight backpacking philosophy is to have a lighter bag and wear your warm layers while you sleep. I hope that works. Ray Jardine, the godfather of lightweight backpacking and the manufacturer of these sleep quilt kits, claims to have used this same bag on a trip across Antarctica, so...it should be warm enough. Just to be on the safe side, I added a layer of insulation that I had cut off the make the bag the right length to the torso area of E and Z's bags.


The quilts are not difficult to make, just fussy. And I don't do that well with fussy. Making them does give me a great appreciation for the workers in sweatshops who manufacture our clothes and gear. Now I just have two more to make and the countdown is on!

Weekend Things ~ More Rainy Sunday Projects and a Finished Sleeping Bag

After a nice, lazy, sunny day loafing lakeside at a birthday party Saturday, we had another rainy Sunday--perfect for getting some work done inside the house. I worked on the sleeping bag I started last weekend. The kit is from here. I found the directions very clear and the sewing, while a pain in the neck dealing with such a large object (I had to co-opt the kitchen table for it) and feeding such thick layers through the machine, not terribly difficult. I didn't keep track of the time it took, but I spent a couple of hours cutting it out last Sunday, a few hours Saturday working through the first few steps, and then much of the day Sunday. Maybe 12 or 16 hours? About half of which was spent refilling the bobbin (I think I refilled it six times, including about eight inches from the end of my last seam) and un-jamming the bobbin thread. I think this is the project that will finally push me over the edge into buying a new sewing machine. It can't possibly be normal for the bobbin to jam so much, can it?

Meanwhile, E and Z assembled the birthday projects their grandfather sent them.

Every year my dad puts together kits of woodworking projects for the boys to make. This is their only real chance to get in any woodworking practice, since that's not really my thing and C is more of a "get it done with as few distractions and interruptions as possible" kind of woodworker. Which is not really conducive to ten-year-old assistance.

This year they made tool boxes, which they'll be filling up with tools for more projects in the future.

After dinner, Z made scones for strawberry shortcake (C picked 30 lbs of berries Friday morning!!!). He's made this recipe enough now that he can pull the cookbook off the shelf, find the recipe and all the ingredients and put it all together with minimal parental input. Which I love. E has almost reached this point with banana-chocolate-chip muffins (though he called me at work about eight times while he was making them last week). I also discovered that whipped cream keeps in the freezer from Christmas to strawberry season. Excellent.

I finished my sleeping bag just minutes before Masterpiece Theater came on Sunday night. (Photos taken Monday afternoon.) This is me telling C how to use my camera: "Hold down the button halfway until it beeps. Then push it down the rest of the way. No. Halfway. Yeah, it didn't focus because you didn't hold it down halfway. Wait till it beeps and you see the red dot. Did it beep?" Cell phones have corrupted the photography skills of a generation.

It's really a sleeping "quilt," not bag, because there is no zipper; you just drape it over yourself, like a comforter. The idea is that in a traditional sleeping bag, you compress all of the insulation beneath your body, so it doesn't do you any good anyway, and gets worn out sooner. Also, there is minimal ventilation, so you sweat and then get cold as the sweat dries. 

And, of course, it's much lighter weight than a sleeping bag (though I forgot to weigh it, so I don't know exactly how much less it weighs), so less to carry when backpacking. It's also fluffy and cozy (I snuggled under it while watching Poldark), and all of the boys want one now (Who are you making that for? Can I have it?), except for C, who is extremely skeptical of all my lightweight backpacking endeavors. My plan is to test it on an upcoming car-camping trip to see how I like it, and then make them for everyone in the family if it works out as promised.

Rainy Sunday Projects

All the rain that didn't fall in April, May, and the first half of June decided to come this week, all at once, starting Sunday. I got out and about a little between downpours that day, but spent the rest of the time inside working on a few projects.

First, E and Z and I tried making a marble/car run with a few dozen toilet paper tubes I've been saving for ages. It ended up using a LOT of tape and not being terribly successful (I was picturing something with more twists and turns and drops, but even a straight run was hard to pull off and marbles and cars got stuck in the wads of tape and overlapping tube lips). I'm putting it down in the category of "it's all about the process, not the product," and hoping the boys at least had some fun putting it together and know their mom is still willing to sit on the floor with them for an hour or two playing with tinker toys and cardboard tubes.

I also started making a sleeping bag (because that's how I roll). I didn't get too far because measuring and cutting always takes so much out of me, I can't face the sewing part once I've got the pieces ready. (If you're curious, the kit is from here. I'll post more about how it turns out and how it works once it's done and in use). I hope to have it finished for an upcoming trip, so I need to get cracking.

I also dusted off my sewing machine, which has been lounging around doing nothing for months, and threw together a clothespin bag as a bonus Father's Day present for C, since he does most of the laundry and had complained about the state of the previous one, which you can see here (when it was new). I didn't take a before picture, but the previous bag was not in quite as bad of shape as its predecessor. 

I'm of two minds about whether 4 1/2 years is a good life for a clothespin bag or not long enough. The problem is, we leave it outside exposed to rain and sun, so it's gonna wear out. The new one I made from two layers of red polka-dot canvas which a friend had given me when she de-stashed. It's nice and festive and should inspire cheer in the heart of anyone who's hanging laundry (right?). Also, I'm hoping the canvas fabric will give us another year or two of bag life before I have to make another one.