Making a king-sized duvet cover

Penelope_Penguin

My spare duvet cover is becoming somewhat tatty, and having searched for over a year, without success,to find a replacement that we like, and matches our bedroom, I've decided that I'd like to make one.

Any idea where I can buy wide fabric (ie about 2.3m)?

If it's not easily available, any ideas how to make a cover, without a seam on each panel? Patchwork has crossed my mind

TIA, Penny. x

Bitsy_Beans

One of the reasonable places I've bought (or should I say my mum has bought) fabric from is Dunelm. Do they exist up North? You can buy all kinds of fabric from the roll.

Just off to google a website......

http://www.dunelm-mill.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/MCategory_11100_22-14878_-1_10551

I suppose you could ring your nearest store and ask them if they stock fabric of that width. Then you have to find one you like

As for making it? Pass.....I don't do sewing My limit is stiching buttons on shirts LOL!

rosieben

I made a duvet set for dgd years ago; I used a pink sheet for the underside and pink check fabric for the top and pillowcase; the neat edges of the sheet made life a bit easier as I was hand sewing, this was after my sewing machine caught fire... don't ask.

sorry I can't help with where to buy fabric, the only place I've used recently is Fabric Warehouse and they're only in the south east I think but I'll post the link in case its useful for anyone else

love the idea of a patchwork duvet Pen Pen!

foxgloves

Last summer, I decided to start work on a patchwork duvet cover (double). I prefer knitting to sewing, so haven't done patchwork for a while but will be starting it again soon. I like sort of vintage shabby-chic things so it seemed a good way of having a nice new cotton duvet cover that looked good & was eco-friendly cos of the recycling. I was also wondering where to get the plain piece of cotton fabric for the reverse side. I think you can buy sheeting, which should be wide, but I really want this to be a 'thrift' project, so decided to look in charity shops. After only a couple of weeks, I found 2 pale pink cotton king-size flat sheets in the local Sue Ryder shop for about £3 the pair. One will be used as the reverse side of the duvet cover and the other, I am making into patches for the background colour for my multi-coloured daisies. So, I'm thinking that even tho' you want to make a King-size, would it be worth looking out for some good flat sheets? They have to be big enough to tuck under the mattress so with a fairly narrow seam allowance, they might do?

flea72

if you havent been able to find a duvet cover you like in any shop, then the likliehood of finding suitable fabric to make one, would be fairly low too

wide fabric also only tends to come in plain colours (also costly), and i still dont think plain sheeting would be wide enough to make a kingsize duvet, so joining strips would be your only option

perhaps your best option would be to post a pic of your current duvet (if that is similar to what you want), or describe what you do want, and then we can all hit google/favourite haunts, and post links for what we find

F

wssla00

John Lewis deffo has kingsize sheet fabric, but it's about £13 a metre

The other option is why not use the back of your old one as a base and redo the front?

Paulie'sGirl

Could you have a top strip? Most of my duvet covers have a plain band about a foot and a half wide at the top.

Is there an indoor market near you? IfI wanted fabric like that I'd go to the Grainger market in Newcastle. I know there used to be several good fabric stalls in Nottingham's indoor market, but its been years since I was there.

You could use a cheap kingsize sheet as the back, and then pay more for the front fabric?

Sorry if that's not overly helpful!

PGxx

Gingernutmeg

I don't know how you feel about plain bedding, but what about getting a plain coloured duvet cover and then making some co-ordinated accessories to go with it?

I saw a seller on ebay making what looked like old-fashioned eiderdowns with single quilts. She was making a cover for the single quilt and then laying it 'horizontally' over the foot of the bed, IYSWIM. I think on some of them the cover was removable, but on others she was using a thin single duvet as the 'padding' and quiliting through it. I thought this was a really good idea and it looked really nice - on most of them she was was only using a strip of ordinary width fabric with a band of contrasting fabric to make with width and length up. She also made some patchwork quilts, but with really huge patches. It struck me as a great way to make dearer fabric go further, and a great way to get a co-ordinated bedroom as you could make cushions etc to match. It also seemed like a good way to change the look of your bedroom fairly cheaply. We have plain white bedding and fairly neutral curtains, so what I'm planning to do is make a couple of sets of eiderdowns and cushion covers and use them to ring the changes.

MrsMW

Pen-Pen, I think you live in the same area as me, if so it might be worth looking in Boyes, they sometimes have wide sheet fabric although it's usually plain colours. HTH

morganlefay

John Lewis (tho not v economical) used to do lots of good sheet etc fabrics but now they seem hardly to do any fabrics of any sort and old sewers like me feel very grumpy about it, but it might be worth asking them - I have made huge double duvet covers with their stuff in the past (long gone now tho).

ha ha, I've just realised I called myself an old sewer, but I mean seamstress, not drains !

janetmw

I tend to make all my bedding sets (duvet cover and pillowcases). I don't mind plain fabrics as I have an embroidery machine and do my own embellishments.

If I remember correctly, a king size duvet is 220cm long and 230cm wide. I buy two double flat sheets each of which should be big enough for one side of the cover. I can then get the pillowcases to match or buy an extra single sheet for the fabric I want a fancier design.

Instructions for making the cover can be found here:

http://www.alternative-windows.com/duvet-covers.htm

An extra tip if you want to make a single duvet cover is to use a kingsize flat sheet. Folded in half, they are just the right size for a single quilt (135cm) and you will probably have enough material left once you have cut the length down to 200cm for a pillowcase.



Good luck

Janet