has anyone 'remade' feather pillows?

Grumpysally

Have found several old feather pillows at MIL ( she's moved into a residential home) The first lot I foolishly tried washing in my machine and after spending ages trying to get them to dry in the tumble dryer I chucked them out because they smelt manky still.
However our local laundry is doing a special offer on 'refreshing' pillows 'it's like having a brand new pillow'
However as the covers of these are pretty stained I was thinking about making new covers out of feather proof ticking, pouring the feathers into these covers ( stitching them up, obviously ) then taking them to be cleaned.
I suspect remaking the pillows will not be as easy as it sounds. Has anyone tried this?
Thanks, Alison
PS when I say old I mean over 50years old, so maybe thats just too much dust and goodness knows what accumulated to get clean.

GreyQueen

feather pillows will last many years but 50+ is pushing it beyond the boundaries; I suspect the structure of the feathers will have broken down and that there will be a lot of dust in there.

In general terms, if you want to remake a younger old pillow (is it me or does that sound odd?!) you can buy traditional ticking but the OS way to ensure that the feathers don't penetrate outwards is to rub beeswax (from a stick of beeswax; craft shop) on the inside of the ticking before filling the pillow with the old feathers. HTH.

Grumpysally

I think you are right, it just seems such a waste. I have however read somewhere that you can put the feathers in the compost bin so might try that,and use money saved to but nice new pillows

BitterAndTwisted

When I washed feather pillows in the washing-machine they did smell a bit manky while they were still damp. I agree, they do take ages to dry out properly and I don't have a tumble-drier. I put them in the cupboard where my hot-water tank is and gave them a good shake twice a day until they were bone-dry. Now they're fine and smell completely neutral.

If you're going to re-stuff those feathers, for goodness sake do it outside on a calm and un-breezy day!

[Deleted User]

I cannot remember for the life of my why I was doing something with pillows, but I can tell you now that as soon as you open the pillow you will have feathers EVERYWHERE and you will be finding them for years. They will not pour from one cover to a new one they will float upwards and off and you will find them in lampshades, belly buttons the toaster and so on.

Would it be possible to just make a new cover, leave the old one on and just re-cover everything with the new cover?

emiff6

After 50 years a large proportion of the weight of those pillows will be dust mites and their droppings! Chuck them in the compost bin and buy new, (or get younger second hand ones from a charity shop). Even £10 a pillow is cheap if they're going to last you another 50 years!

ETA: Just looked at this site, that says 10% of the weight of a 2 year old pillow can be dead mites and droppings!!!
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2157.html

Grumpysally

Uggghhhhhh_pale_
Dont think I'll bother!

meritaten

emiff6 wrote: »

After 50 years a large proportion of the weight of those pillows will be dust mites and their droppings! Chuck them in the compost bin and buy new, (or get younger second hand ones from a charity shop). Even £10 a pillow is cheap if they're going to last you another 50 years!

ETA: Just looked at this site, that says 10% of the weight of a 2 year old pillow can be dead mites and droppings!!!
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2157.html

OMG:eek: my pillows are about 8 years old!!! Thats it!!! they are in the composter tomorrow!