Laura posted a question a while ago and my answer to it made me think. She was asking about camping pillows and people’s solutions. I usually have two Buffs with me, a winter and a summer and I stuff them both with my spare clothing and use one for my head and one for my knee, shoulder or hip, depending on how I’m lying and how I feel. It then occured to me that I had had a problem during last year’s Challenge when I’d needed to wear my winter Buff as a hat in my sleeping bag.
Whilst I was rooting around in my t-shirt drawer yesterday I found some fabric that I’d forgotten I had. It’s an extremely lightweight, fine fabric but very soft. A light bulb flashed on in my head, cartoon stylee. A lightweight pillowcase! As I am still recovering from tonsillitis, I’m keeping myself occupied with gentle activities to ensure I don’t go walking again too soon, so out came the sewing machine and this is the result.
Empty
Stuffed, with my size 5 Brasher Hillmaster alongside for a bit of scale.I have stuffed it with my Montane down jacket and as it is quite a snug fit, it makes quite a firm pillow. It measures 35 x 28 cm and weighs in at a mighty 18g.
I don’t think it will be overly robust, but I have plenty more of the same fabric, so could easily knock up another if need be. I’m not sure if I’ll carry it in May or not, but as it weighs next to nothing and takes up no real space, so it would provide a solution with little inconvenience, it’s a real possibility.
My first (and probably only!) MYOG!
Now, just to get rid of these white spots and nasty cough.
(“What happened to the nice cough you used to have?!)
5 comments:
Yours is a good idea - I usually roll up a fleece around some other garments and it unrolls through the night and I'm forever readjusting it. Perhaps now I'll use my buff to hold it all together though. Haven't got any of that fabric, and even if I had I probably couldn't be ar$ed to sew it all up.
How are the preparations coming along?
Hi Carl!
The Buff works well and is less likely to shoot off like an inflatable pillow does! I think last year, the times I wore my winter Buff at night as a hat, I used my soft shell as a kind of pillow case. I put the sleeves inside, zipped it up, stuffed it with spare clothes (saving some for stuffing the other Buff) then tightened the bottom cord. It worked okay, but this gives a more compact, firmer finish.
Well, the preparations!
* I'm still holding off making my final overnight 'booking' at Ault-na-goire. Mrs Sutherland tends to post on the message board, so I thought it polite to wait.
* Should be able to book my train journeys very soon.
* Book a seat on the boat.
* Fuzion Freeze Dried meals to buy.
* Dorset cereal bars to buy.
* Pack cover/Berry Superfeet to buy.
* Sundry snack items for the first few days.
* Finish packing parcels (maps already in) to post.
* Oh, and nearly forgot the whisky minature (can't manage a whole one!)
Seems quite a lot 'to buy' in that list, but I do love a good list.
And you did ask!!
How about you? I find all the planning and preparations at this stage make me really excited, fourteen weeks and three days!!!
Nice work with the pillow slip!
A nice idea and a good weight to. Well done. Hope you are feeling better.
Hi Laura! It's all your fault, as usual ;-)
Hi Alan, thanks, and I am beginning to feel much, much better, if I could just stop coughing!
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