Tutorial: Duvet Cover

I made a duvet cover.  Wanna learn?  Sure you do!  Below is what what I'm working with... AKA, the before.  When I got this white duvet cover 5 years ago I had visions of cozy luxury hotel bedding all squishy and fluffy.  Fast forward to now... I looks like an old flat sheet thrown on the bed.  Like I gave up and went with white because I couldn't pick a color. Not cozy.  By the way, there is a 3 year old in the pillows there.  Apparently there is a rule that she must jump on and destroy all made beds while flinging cheerios, juice and snot.  It's probably because made beds are rare in my house and she doesn't see them often.

What do I need?


• All your regular sewing crap. (machine, thread, scissors, measuring tape, pins, etc.)
• A LOT of fabric.  I measured my old duvet insert.  Remember you need a top and a bottom, so double what ever measurements you come up with to determine the amount of fabric.
    - Side note: I used a set of king sized sheets for the majority of my duvet.  I only put the expensive fabric on the top where you can see it. If you wanted your duvet reversible... use a different fabric on each side. And remember this is what you will be sleeping with... make it comfy.
• Fasteners.  You need a way to close your duvet at the top.  You can add ties, snaps, buttons, whatever.
• Space.  You have to lay your fabric out somewhere to cut, measure, pin...  I have a king size bed and not a king size living room.  I had to move the couch every time I worked on this.  Not fun.  Be prepared for it.  It's big.


Here are the two fabrics I bought at JoAnn's.  I never ended up using the brown one.  I might still make a pillow or something one day.  

Very important note!  Wash and dry all of your fabric before you start!  Here's a good example why....  My "expensive" fabric from JoAnn's was dry clean only. There is no way I'm taking my duvet to the dry cleaners... who has time for that?  Anyway, I decided to wash and dry in the same manor I intended to wash and dry it when it was complete. That way, any shrinking would be taken care of and I could wash and dry at will down the road. Holy shrinkage! (I was in the pool! I was in the pool!  George Costanza?  No? Never mind.)

Yes I realize that because it was dry clean only it shrunk more than other fabrics, but they all shrink to some degree.  See how wide it used to be? Don't go through the effort of making this to have it shrink to an unusable size later.  OK, enough shrinkage lecture.

Let's get started!

I took out my duvet insert and measured it.  It was 105" wide.

I then rolled out my expensive fabric and cut it to 110" wide.  5" bigger for seam allowance and wiggle room for the insert.  

Because I only had one roll of this fabric I knew I wanted it to be a stripe across the front of my duvet.  Like this...

Then I laid out my sheet to cut the top and bottom "stripes".  Because I was not smart enough to buy two flat sheets, I had to use the fitted sheet for the stripes (I cut out the elastic) and the flat one for the back of the duvet cover.  Make life easy on yourself, buy two flat sheets if you are going the sheet route.

See that thingy there?  It's a laser level and it came in super handy for cutting such large pieces of fabric square. (See that juice cup way back there?  Probably some rancid milk in there for me later... sweet)

After I had all of my "stripes" cut, time to sew them together.  I used french seams which I also used in the Tank Revamp Toddler Dress.  Soooo much nicer to have a perfectly finished project inside and out.  Check it out.

See the little pocket it tucks all of your raw edges into?

Then I top stitched both of those seams to make it look professional.

Then I felt like this toward my duvet cover...

That's it in a giant pile on my floor.  So tired of all the measuring and endless lines of sewing! It's not a hard project, just BIG!  Ugh.  

Once my funk wore off I layed the whole thing out again (move the efing couch, AGAIN). Make sure at this point to hem what ever is going to be your top on both the front and the back of your duvet.  

Then put the pieces together, pin, and sew a giant "U" around 3 sides (both sides and bottom).  I again used french seams.  Leave the top open so you can stuff your duvet insert (or old comforter) in there.

Last thing to do, add your fasteners to the top to close it.  I used snaps with this thingy.

Aren't they pretty?

And now that you've moved furniture and crawled around the floor for days, take a nap in your new finished duvet cover!

Had to post this.  My husband and son were waiting for me to finish taking pictures so they could wrestle on the bed.  I told you made beds don't last in my house.

Let's be friends!

I heard the Easter Bunny likes fabric rosettes.

Happy Easter!  How many times have you threatened to call the Easter Bunny and tell him not to come to curb some sort of behavior? 3? 4? I'm going on 6 I think. I actually picked up my phone and made The Call  tonight while child #1 shrieked and flailed at my feet. Mr. Bunny said he would give her one more chance if she apologized to her brother. I'm pretty sure she spit on him when she said sorry. : )


I'm sad I won't be able to use this one until Christmas again... when I call the north pole. After tomorrow I'll just have to go with the "I'm going to throw your Easter candy in the garbage" threat.  That one works too.  What?  Your Easter doesn't look like this...?

That's sibling love there.


But on to the crafting.  Have you seen the fabric rosettes that are everywhere?  Here and here for example?  I decided to give it a shot.  I used hot glue because I'm impatient and want it dry immediately. Even if it means burning the crap out of my fingers.


I did a headband first.  I started with a cheapy one I got in the dollar section at Michael's and wrapped it with an old maternity shirt I cut up.  A scrap of felt and a "pearl" later, here ya go.

I made the next one into a pin and thought I'd let kid #1 add it to dresses or whatever she wanted.  But after this weekend, I'm not convinced she won't stab her brother. I might hold off on giving it to her. Specifically I had this dress in mind...

This is a Goodwill find... $3.50 for a lined Old Navy dress.  Thanks Goodwill. : )

Eh?  Maybe a couple more and down near the bottom hem?  But that might make the dress hang weird.  Good thing it's a pin.

I sewed some little do dads to the middle for some sparkle but I'm not convinced I love them.  The fabric is a sheet remnant from the duvet cover I sewed.


So shop Goodwill and don't be afraid to glue/sew some crap to what you find.  It's easier than you think to make ugly/smelly things look cute.


And if you're wondering why there is no model in any of these pictures, it's because kid #1 was in this mood most of the weekend....

Happy Easter!

Let's be friends!

In memory of my 20's

So confession: I'm not exactly 30 yet.  29 and 11+ months.  The big day is the 30th of April.  I'm saying goodbye to my carefree 20's this month (well, the beginning of my 20's were carefree... the husband and kids came along right in the middle there and "carefree" was quickly replaced with crying, diapers, work, poop, laundry, dishes... etc...) and hello to what?  What do you call the 30s? Thrilling? Thoughtful? Thrifty?  Just trying to come up with "T-H" words.  Anyway.

I'm excited to be taken more seriously... like a real adult. Yey me! But I'm also sad to be noticing the models from my favorite store seem to be getting younger and younger.  Hmmm.  They look like 16 year olds in sensible chic work wear (see below).  It's very odd. What 16 year old is wearing $250 worth of Ann Taylor in the real world?  I wouldn't want to stuff that in a locker when you have to change into your gym clothes.  It's probably dry clean only.  I'm sure they've always been this young.  I'm just not anymore... so I get to make fun of them now. Ha!

I clearly remember being a junior in high school at soccer practice one day (not wearing Ann Taylor) and another girl was singing a line from a song..."I still remember, when 30 was old"...  I remember thinking, "but 30 IS old".  And another time, I was about 22, and at a bar with a guy and 10 or so random people who were friends of friends of friends (why did I always travel in a flock back then?). One of the girls asked me if I was 30 because that's what she heard and I remember being so offended! "NO, I am not 30!" 


Now it's here. The day I thought I would be "old". Sure, I have a few wrinkles now (Can you believe I actually laid in a tanning booth back then?!), but I also have further confirmation that I indeed was young and stupid once.  30 is not old.

So, I'm excited to start a part of my life where I am still young and less of an idiot.  At the same time I get these little visions of myself getting older. They're not good.  I'm a little scared that I will slowly start to turn into a homely frumpy mom who's let herself go, puts her kids in pageants, and wears those horrible velor sweat pants in public.  All I'm missing down there is a scrunchie and a nice muffin top. See?  Bad, is't it?

My husband would argue that that will never happen, noting my obsession love for Ann Taylor Loft and the time I put into blow drying my hair. He's probably right. I'm powerless against the forces of LOFT sale items, they don't sell sweat pants, I hate pageants and I love make-up.


I guess I'm ready.  My mini skirt days might be over (thanks to the varicose veins my kids gave me) but they will be replaced with a nice chic pencil skirt (that I plan to sew)... not sweat pants.  Bring it on 30!

Let's be friends!

It's a start

Soooo, I started my first quilt this week.  Here's what I have learned...

A. This is going to take forever.
B. It might have been cheaper to just buy a quilt.
C. Your rotary cutter gets dull eventually.
D. My iron is hot.
E. This is going to take forever.

Other than that, I'm excited about what I've done so far.  Stay tuned.  At this rate I might be done before Christmas.

Let's be friends!

Citrus Pillowcase Skirt

I love this skirt. I think I would have loved anything made from this pillowcase.  It's about 40 years old it was my mother-in-law's back in the 70's and my husband inherited it when he moved out for college.  It's soft, it has that old linen closet smell (minus the mothballs), and it looks oh so vintage in it's worn yellowey citrus goodness.

So, what to do when you come across such a pillowcase?  Pillowcase dress naturally!  One rainy Monday, kid #1 went down for morning snooze and I decided to wing it with kid #2 awake. (Of course I didn't take any pictures... not to worry... my artistic genius is below to entertain you)  A quick glance at some tutorials and I was off.  After all, I only had 2 hours to take out sewing machine, set up, heat up iron, measure kid, etc.  Speed sewing... it could be a new sport.  She was coloring, I was quickly stitching and ironing away.

30 minutes later, I was done!  Woo hoo! (Time left over to pee by myself... I actually think about this.  Getting to pee minus an audience. Nice, isn't it? Never mind... getting off track)  I am awesome!  Kid jumping up and down stripping in the kitchen, ready to try on.  Here we go...

That pretty much sums it up.  It was awful.  It looked like a giant cube of butter was swallowing her face.  She actually cried when she looked in the mirror.  I think she was terrified I was actually going to make her wear it.  "Take it off, take it off!" I yelled as if the dress were on fire. Maybe I should have read the directions and actually followed them.

Determined to save the pillowcase dress disaster, I laid a skirt she already owned on top of the butter-cube-mess of a dress, aligning the bottom hems. I added two inches for the elastic casing at the top, cut, sewed the casing, and put the elastic in.  I think it took about 20 minutes total. Hem and side seams done already... thank you pillowcase.

Because my kid has an obsession with rocks and mulch, I asked her if she would like me to add rock/mulch pockets. She excitedly agreed.. it needed pockets... for acorns too.  I cut two small squares, and folded all of the sides in, and pressed.  Then I pinned in place and sewed a big "U" shape around them.

She also loves to go through my stash of buttons and asked if we could put a couple on.  After convincing her that it didn't need 14 different colored buttons, I sewed the two yellow ones on after she went to bed.

Done! Just perfect for a trip through the orange groves on a warm spring morning (though almost all of the oranges were picked clean).

Let's be friends!