Had anyone ever tried sewing two poncho liners together with some type of filming in between them?

I haven't been happy with sleeping bags the last few years.  I tend to turn a lot when I sleep, and I usually wake wrapped up and unable to move my legs.  I was thinking about looking at backpacking quilts, but the $200-$300 they seem to go for i just can't swing anytime soon.  I was thinking about trying to fashion something out of poncho liners (I usually use one when it's warm out), but I'm not sure how well it would work out.

I'd like something that will be warm down into the 40's.  Anything colder than that, and I'll probably sleep in the back of my truck.

The Korean places off post used to sew them into the poncho itself.  Depending on your quilting abilities you can get shelter halves real cheap.  Cut off the triangle end and snaps, then sew back together in the shape you want.  Then attach the woobie.  Add some camp dry to the shelter halves with wax over the seems and you should be ready for about anything.

I like $10-$20 fleece blankets from target and Costco. Buy them in any size, cut them down, sew them, whatever. They compress well and keep you warm. The biggest downside is they don't dry as fast and they'll get smelly/dirtier faster.

A poncho liner gets a lot of admiration because people were limited to only that for comfort at some miserable point in their lives.. Everyone else buys it because it's camo and usgi.

The problem with fleece blankets, is they tend to pick up all sorts of crap from the ground like pine needles, small sticks, dirty, etc.

Back in the day one of the big mail order surplus stores sold a Thinsulate poncho liner, but I don't know if it was standard thickness for more warmth or thinner for equal warmth. Kifaru has their Doobie, which is a double-sized Woobie, but I'm not sure I'd drop $210 on a 2lb 10oz Doobie when I could get a warmer and lighter down bag for not much more.

I've used my woobie inside my MSS bivy sack many, many times, and have been relatively comfy in the 40s. The important thing is to use your sleeping pad for insulation below you and use the woobie on top - don't try folding it in half like a tortilla with you as the taco filling. I'd still use a MSS patrol bag over a woobie, the slight extra weight and bulk is worth it.

I still sleep on a pad, I just get claustrophobic sleeping in bags.

Check out the Snugpak Jungle Blanket. It's much warmer than a GI woobie and one side is wind/water resistant. It comes with a stuff sack and compresses down a lot smaller than a woobie, to not much bigger than a 32 oz. Nalgene bottle.

I have two poncho liners sewn together with a zipper around three sides with the top open (like a sleeping bag). I can sleep in it full size or folded in half. If it is folded in half, you can sleep under one to three layers of the poncho liner. I left the poncho ties on the liner so I can still use it with a poncho if needed.

When I was in the Army, several years ago, I tried to sew together a poncho, mylar blanket, and a poncho liner with a zipper. It was not a very good idea. The mylar blanket did not allow air flow and allowed the moisture to build up. It was a wet mess.

If you are going to sew anything to a poncho liner, I would suggest sandwiching it between two poncho liners or go with the sleeping bag system I currently have set up. A light fleece blanket between two poncho liners would be titts! Just make sure it is quilted to the poncho liner in the same pattern making it all one blanket. This would make sure it stayed one blanket rather than having the fleece blanket coming loose and bunching up.

I use my mummy bag as blanket.

 

Feet tucked in the bottom and just on the pad.  Works well for the summer, or when you might want to get out of it frequently or fast.  Also, since it's easy to maneuver temperature adjusting often happens without having to wake up.  I just find it tucked around me or off depending on what I did in my sleep.

I have made something similar. I found a wool blanket at goodwill for 4 bucks. It just happened to be the same size as my poncho liner so I punched holes around the edges where the ties on a liner are and used cheap metal grommets so it would hold up. When it got cold i would tie the liner to the wool blanket and use the liner against me since the wool was so itchy. It worked well into the 30's if I wore a good cap and socks. The only down side was it weighed 7 pounds.

A harbor freight moving blanket can be a good cheap source of fabric for a DIY liner. I have a couple I use as ground clothes

You can get fleece material at a sewing/fabric store by the yard also in almost any pattern you can think of.
What are your thoughts on a piece of Tyvek sewn in there also for a wind breaker, weather-resistant, and lightweight?

So after looking at different material, and buying two new poncho liners, I decided to just make a backpacking quilt.

Started this weekend:







Got to learn all about how a sewing machine works, and  all the ways you can screw it up.

It's two pieces of rip stop nylon with 3oz primaloft sport between.  Now I have to sew some "tacks" every 8" or so, then sew up the bottom.

This is how I pack my camping sleep gear. I have the full MSS system and typically only carry the patrol bag and woobie.  If it's too cool for the patrol bag I pull the woobie over the top of it and I'm warm in a few minutes.  If it's too warm for the patrol bag I use the patrol bag ontop of my sleep pad as extra padding and just use the woobie.

Finished up my project:










I don't have a scale that reads under 5lbs reliably, but I think I'm the study sack it's under 2lbs.  The scale fluctuated between 1.5 and 1.8lbs.

Nice job.

My favorite combo is a poncho liner against my body and wool blanket on top of that. I have been through iterations of punching holes in the corners of the wool and tying in the poncho liner, and then one where I had a lady sew in a hole in each corner of the wool to tie the poncho liner to. These days I do not tie them together at all and still like it just fine.