Thursday, August 21, 2014

El Saco Rojo: My MYOG / DIY Summer Sleeping Bag and Winter Extra-Warm Sleeping Bag Liner

Finally got around to it after months of planning and then trying to find time to actually make it.  I wish I had a cool name for it, as it's kind of a mouthful to say, looking at the title above.  I guess I can name it now.  So let's check out "Saco Rojo," shall we:



On the scale above it's in a Zpacks Cuben drybag, which weighs 16g--so the total weight of Saco Rojo is 311g / 11oz.  

Pretty light as far as sleeping bags go, but actually a bit heavier than I thought when I planned this project on paper.  Several months ago I wrote that I thought it would be around 250g.  But oh well, sometimes it's hard to make an accurate estimate of weight, especially things like fabric and insulation.


All Saco Rojo is, is a silk sleeping bag liner with some 2.5 oz Climashield APEX (a thin, synthetic insulation) on top of it, and then an M90 (special type of nylon) shell on top of that.  I ordered the insulation and shell fabric from Thru Hiker, and bought the silk liner on Ebay.  I got enough materials to make two bags--two square yards of each--one bag for me and one for my wife.  

Total cost per bag was around 40 bucks--which covers the cost of the silk liners, insulation, fabric, and shipping.  It took my wife a few afternoons of sewing to finish this first bag, and she said it was a bit tricky to sew with because the fabrics are both light and slippery.  If you don't know how to sew, you probably know someone that does.

I doubt temperatures will be high enough to give Saco Rojo its first field test for my section hike next week, so looks like it will see action in the winter when it gets cold enough to use in combination with my down sleeping bag.  Hopefully next summer when it is really warm I can get a lot of good use out of it--should definitely be great for future SUL and XUL trips. 

Of course I have some more thoughts on Saco Rojo, so check out this video where I discuss it further and show it off a bit for the camera:


Well both this post and the video are fairly short (at least for my long-winded ass), sweet, and to the point.  As always, feel free to ask questions or give feedback.