How to Make Duvet

If you're the type who likes to make things from scratch, try your hand at making a down duvet. A duvet is a down comforter made with plain white or cream fabric. A decorative duvet cover is then slipped over the duvet, much like a pillowcase is slipped over a pillow. The duvet cover protects the duvet so you don't have to launder it and possibly ruin the feather/down mixture, causing it to form lumps and bumps in your duvet.

Things You'll Need

• Good quality, high thread count sheets for the duvet's ticking
• Sewing notions (thread, pins, scissors)
• Fading fabric marker
• Yardstick
• 75/25 Feather/down mixture (75 percent feathers and 25 percent down)
• 25 to 50 safety pins, depending on the size of the duvet

Instructions

1. Choose the fabric to make the "ticking" cover. Ticking is a term traditionally used to describe the fabric used to cover mattresses and pillows. Since a duvet is essentially a large pillow that is used to cover you up, we'll refer to its fabric as ticking. Good quality sheets are the perfect size to use for ticking fabric for your duvet. You'll need two sheets--one for the top and one for the bottom of the duvet.

2. With right sides together, pin the two sheets along three sides, leaving the top edge of the sheets unpinned (the top edge of the sheets is the part that is usually folded over the blankets when you make your bed).

3. Sew the sheets together by running a row of stitching along the edges of the pinned together pieces about 5/8 inch from the edges. Turn the newly sewn duvet ticking so the right sides are facing the outside.

4. Lay the duvet ticking on a flat surface, such as a clean floor or even your bed. Using a fading fabric marker, mark the center of the duvet ticking along the open end and also at the center of the opposite end.

5. Use a ruler or tape measure to make a mark approximately every 10 inches along the top open edge of the duvet ticking. Make corresponding marks along the opposite bottom edge. Make a third set of marks approximately halfway between the top and bottom edge.

6. Lay a yardstick parallel to the side seams, connecting the dots in a straight line from the bottom to the top of the duvet ticking. Draw a solid or dotted line, which ever you prefer, connecting the marks so that you have a clear line running the length of the duvet from its open top to its bottom edge. This line should be parallel to the side edges. Do the same for the remaining marks.

7. Stitch along the lines you drew in Step 6. This will form channels in the duvet, which will be filled with down feathers. The reason for making channels is to keep the down in smaller, more manageable compartments so the feathers don't bunch up in one part of the duvet.

8. Fill each channel with an equal amount of feathers. This is a messy job and should be undertaken in a closed room away from drafts, including ceiling fans and forced air heat. Fill one channel at a time and pin it closed with safety pins spaced close together, then move on to the next channel.

9. When all the channels are filled with a relatively equal amount of feather/down mixture, sew the top closed. Make your seam as close to the top edge of the ticking as possible. Remove safety pins.

10. If desired, sew or purchase a decorative duvet cover for your new duvet.

Tips & Warnings

• Use high quality sheets with a high thread count for the ticking to make your duvet. This will help keep the feathers and down from migrating through the covering. Sheets with a thread count of at least 400 threads per inch are best.

• Get a feather/down mix that has the highest amount of down. Feathers weigh much more than down, and if you use a mixture containing almost all feathers, the duvet may be uncomfortably heavy to sleep under.

• Fading fabric markers have ink that disappears when laundered and are available at fabric and sewing supply stores.

References

• What Is a Duvet?
• Online Source to Purchasing Down Filling for Duvets