The Year Round Down Bag

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If you've ever packed into the back country, or piled your young'uns (and their seemingly endless array of gear) into the car and headed off for a sojourn in the woods, or even just pitched the old pup tent in a friend's yard while traveling ... chances are that you've experienced the cozy comfort of a good sleeping bag.

I have, and I put a value on my downfilled snoozer that's far higher than the bag's actual cash price. After all, the portable "bed" is light to carry, it can be compacted into a small mass for packing, and — once the bag is fluffed out to its full loft and I'm snuggled inside — it's toasty enough to combat even the chill of a winter-camping morning.

Furthermore, if given proper care, a quality down bag will last for many years. My husband and I received our traveling sleepers as wedding presents ... and they still look as good as new, even though they've already seen seven years of hard use.

And as an important bonus — in addition to offering warmth, compactability, light weight, and long wear — a down bag can be used for far more than just "vacation bed ding", which is brought out of storage only when a camping trip is in the offing. In fact, it needn't go into storage at all: Between backpacking trips, I convert my bag into a comforter in winter and a bolster in summer ... and thus use the sack yearround!

THE COMFORTER

A good number of folks, of course, do turn their sleeping bags into blankets ... by simply tossing the sacks over their beds at night. However, my experience with this "improvised quilt" technique seemed always to end with my waking up shivering in the middle of the night because the bag had skittered off the bed and was lying on the floor in a large heap (likely with a sleepy dog snuggled on top). So, to make sure that the sack stays in place and warms my toes instead of those of my canine friends, I borrowed an old Scandinavian idea ... and devised a slip-free cover that effectively domesticates the slithery outdoor bedding.

Any sleeping bag that can be unzipped to lie completely flat is a comforter candidate. And the only supplies you'll need to make the conversion are a spool of thread, some straight pins, and enough material to encase the down sleeper. I find that two colorful full-sized (81" X 96") cotton sheets can be used to make an excellent cover. If you prefer a different fabric, though (some folks like to use flannel), just prepare two sheetsized sections, and hem one of the narrow ends of each piece.

Now, you're ready to construct the cover. Lay the two sheets — right sides together — on a firm, flat surface (in my house that's the floor, with newspapers spread out to keep my work clean), and spread the unzipped down bag, opened flat, on top ... so that the hemmed edges of the fabric pieces extend an inch or so beyond the end of the sack. Then-while carefully holding the feather-filled sleeper in position-use a felttipped pen or tailor's chalk to trace the form of the bag on the cloth.