MYOG fleece sleeping mat cover

Last year I made a silk cover out of a sleeping bag liner for my NeoAir short. The main reason for making a cover was the grippy surface of the NeoAir, which I didn’t like. However, it also had the bonus of adding a bit of insulation. I am a side sleeper and, for some reason, my hip always seems to feel cold. This happens on any mat that I use, including the POE mats I have. My solution is to have a short fleece cover to go under my hips.

Instead of buying a length of fleece I bought a dog blanket through an Amazon reseller for £4.99. The size is 100cm x 70 cm, which is too large, so I halved it to 50cm x 70cm, giving the other half to my dog 🙂 .

I didn’t bother to hem the edge that I cut, as it didn’t seem to need it. To hold it in place, I sewed two pieces of elastic that pass under the sleeping mat.

Here’s the finished cover:

It weighs 86g, slightly lighter than my silk cover (93g), but substantially warmer. Combined with the NeoAir short, the setup weighs 342g, marginally more than the stand alone weight for my POE Peak Elite AC (325g).

I’m going to try the NeoAir again on my next trip and see what it’s like. One advantage of a short mat is that it doesn’t dominate the tent in the way a full length mat does. There’s no reason why I can’t use it for the POE if I want. It might also open up the possibility of using a quilt. Sleeping directly on a mat with nothing underneath doesn’t appeal to me.