Old Feather Pillows, what to do with them ?

balabooberlies

Hello

have numerous old feather pillows whose outer cases have seen better days.  Cannot sew to save my life so wondered if there was anywhere I could take them to either be recycled or could I pay someone to create a few good pillows out of them.

thank you...........

Apintplease

Have you washed them or sent them to a laundry to be washed? I do two at a time in my machine during the summer

However if they are that far gone, removing the feathers for reuse is soooooooo messy so perhaps washing and sending on to an animal charity for bedding?

If you fancy your chances reusing them after washing, do it dry still day outside, You can buy cushion inners from the likes of Dunelm etc, but if they really are old, it may not be worth your time and the feathers do break and crumble and you may just be using dust

theoretica

There are a few places that will remake them eg https://www.thefeathercompany.com/services/ but I would only bother for expensive down. 

Mostly, I put them in the compost bin as they make an excellent source of nitrogen, or put a couple of handfulls of them (wet or they get everywhere) at the bottom of a hole when planting something in the garden.

balabooberlies

Hello

Thank you both.  Yes, have washed them numerous times over the years and have learnt that drying fairly quickly is imperative.  I now have a few ideas and am glad that they are not going to end up in landfill.  once again, thank you.

bala

theoretica

PS wool sweaters etc that are past wearing or charity shop make great compost too!

balabooberlies

Thanks Theoretica

wanted to ask you if the feathers will still produce nitrogen if they have been washed many times ?

Martin_the_Unjust

Buy cheap pillow cases, put old pillows inside and sew across the top, it's only one straight sew, it'll be good practice.

balabooberlies

thank you Martin

never thought of that.............

KP20

You may not be able to do it with feathers but I take the stuffing out of old regular pillows and put them into zip up cushion cases rather than buying expensive filled inners.

theoretica

balabooberlies said:

Thanks Theoretica

wanted to ask you if the feathers will still produce nitrogen if they have been washed many times ?

Yes - it's the feathers themselves composting down - a last use when they have no other!

lynsgarden

If you put the feathers out in Spring in a pile or hanging up in a net bag, the birds will take them to line their nests.