Blog Posts - Tardigrade Outdoors

On positioning slippery nylon fabrics in sewing machines

5/23/2013

All of our attention lately has been getting our first product lines ready for sale. Horrifically, this means no backpacking.
I've also been thinking that I want to share some of what I have been learning about sewing these lightweight, slippery fabrics. Bear with me, I've only been sewing for a couple of years and it's nearly all been on Ardeth products.

I don't pin. I don't even pin, then remove the pins as I am sewing up to them. But, I do pin to set up my pieces.
A quick pin at my starting location helps to keep the slippery nylons that we work with in place until I can get a few stitches in, but after that, I remove it.
Granted, I am usually on my needle-feed machine, so that helps greatly.

Locally made flatbread makes a great pizza.

5/20/2013

In our town, we have these local yardsale Facebook pages where people sell the stuff piling up in their garage or handmade crafts and whatnot. You might be able to find something similar by doing a search in Facebook for groups that are in your town.

One local woman started selling the flatbreads that she was baking. We ordered a couple after confirming that they did not have any animal products in them. These flatbreads are so good, we wanted to eat them right away, but the flatbreads are about 12" in diameter and would make perfect pizza crusts! We piled up our favorite toppings and threw them into the oven at 400°F for 15 mins on the middle rack. They came out so great! Homemade pizza crust, some marinara sauce, Daiya cheezy topping, mushrooms, olives, and garden-fresh kale and onions.
These turned out to be a delicious, easy, wholesome, and inexpensive dinner. This could easily become a weekly treat!

Embroidering onto lightweight nylon fabrics

5/18/2013

Here are a bunch of samples that I was working on - different images, stitch densities, and whatnot.

We've been embroidering the Ardeth backpacking gear logos onto our sleeping bags, backpacking quilts and backcountry blankets, but stabilizing lightweight fabrics has been a challenge.
On the left, is 1.1 oz. ripstop as backing, which does not work very well. It's too slippery for the hoop. On right is commercial stabilizer, which is very heavy, stiff and painfully obvious in the finished product. On the bottom is the PrimaLoft One scrim that I remove before quilting the insulation. It's firm, sticks well in the hoop and very light. Not noticeable in the finished product.
I discovered that I can use my millions of yards of unused Primaloft One scrim as the perfect backing. Works better than anything else I've tried in the last year. I did six tests while testing various designs and they all came out great!
-Jason

Cutting lightweight nylon fabrics.

5/17/2013

Cutting lightweight fabric panels for specialized sleeping bags and quilts can be tricky.

Here is a panel of Primaloft One insulation that we quilt in-house with a custom made rig. We're sewing this panel into a Cathedral backpacking quilt. But cutting nylon with a knife or scissors leaves ends that can fray and weaken the stitching. Cutting with a hot knife not only seals the edges of the fabric, but also bonds multiple layers of material together, making our stitching more precise.

Some of the tools we employ to cut panels like this are:
Butane powered hot knife.
Steel sheeting.
Door thresholds.
Magnets (also good for holding down curves).
Various pieces of metal from the backyard junk pile. I mean, "resource" pile.
-Jason

8th North Rim sleeping bag prototype completed

4/30/2013

We are very proud to announce that we've completed our 8th prototype for the North Rim series of sleeping bags.

The American-made North Rim series sleeping bags have been meticulously designed for the adventure backpacker who demands a comfortable and cozy night of sleep no matter where they end up.

We expect to have the North Rim series of sleeping bags ready for sale beginning June 1st. for $440.00 USD. They will feature right and left zip models in medium and tall sizes.

(beta) Specifications:

comfortable to 35°F
1lb. 8oz. (680g)
made with Primaloft One™ insulation and 1.1 oz. ripstop nylons

Key design elements:

insulation eliminated from bottom of bag; bag mates with sleeping pads
engineered for side, knee-up, or belly sleeping
mates to other North Rim series bags
exclusive Ardeth-designed Omni Battens
exclusive Snufflelufugus shoulder cargo baffle
1/4 zipper, in addition to full zipper expands temperature range
intended to mate with any 20" wide sleeping pad
HotBox compatible, creating a super-warm den for users with especially cold feet
designed and made in the USA

Sleep comfortably on your side, with a knee up, or on your belly.

Ardeth's exclusive Omni Battens allow layering of a Cathedral Quilt or clothing, integrating them into your sleep system.

A second, chest length zipper expands the North Rim comfort range

Our Snufflelufugus shoulder baffle also holds and small gear you'd like to keep at hand

Ardeth designed our miniature Omni Battens to be ultralight and indestructible, but still easy to use in the middle of the night

Keep even warmer without the added weight by attaching a rain jacket with our Omni Battens

Primaloft One™ insulation offers exceptional drape, reducing cold pockets of air in the bag

Snug up with our hood drawcord

warm, lightweight and highly compressible - and this is only a stuff sack

New Trip Report - Crocker Point YNP

1/26/2013

We just posted a new trip report about last week's 3 day trip to Crocker Point, Yosemite National Park.
You can read it here.

Cathedral Peak backpacking quilt - 4th prototype

12/12/2012

We've completed our 4th Cathedral Peak backpacking quilt prototype! We've refined many of the features that make a backpacking quilt so great, including shaping it to work in conjunction wit the North Rim series of sleeping bags. We're holding off releasing much of the information and photos on this quilt until we have temperature data in from the field, which will be soon.

The Cathedral Peak series of backpacking quilts are excellent quilts for the backcountry adventurer as well as fitted to be used with our North Rim sleeping bags as overbags. Engineered to be highly compressible, lightweight and durable, look for the January release of the Cathedral Peak backpacking quilts by Ardeth backpacking gear.

6th and 7th North Rim sleeping bag prototypes completed.

12/6/2012

We're happy to announce that we've completed two more prototypes for our North Rim series of sleeping bags. As we continue to refine our design elements and features, we move closer to have sleeping bags ready to sell. We proud to see our sleeping bag development distill into highly refined products for the backcountry traveler. We are testing our bags with a variety of materials and methods, hoping to provide the best American-made products available.

A few photos of the P6 construction and field test:

And a few of the P7:

True Lemon lemonade drink mix review

7/5/2012

We've been carrying True Lemon drink mixes on our backpacking trips for about a year and we really like them. Light, compact, and simple, these drink mixes have become a staple on our backpacking trips.
We search out products that are lightweight, compact, and durable as well as being vegan, simple, and healthful. We think that the delicious line of mixes from the independent company True Lemon are great in these respects.

Backpacking in a kilt and sandals

6/17/2012

Summer is coming, get a kilt for backpacking.

For most of us, getting closer to nature is one of the best parts of backpacking -- fresh air flowing through our hair, sun on our skin, the feel of mountain grasses brushing across our legs; the texture of dirt and stone, bark and branch, grass and dew. Many backpackers may not know what they're missing by donning the encumbrance of boots and pant.

In 2007, I started wearing a kilt and sandals on backpacking trips, and ever since I have resisted wearing