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Making A Duvet Cover

This is one of my first posts from the old 20th Century Homekeeper website. Hope you enjoy it.

Materials Needed:

Two Flat sheets of matching of contrasting colors or patterns.
Sewing Thread
Button Hole Thread
Needle
Scissors
Your Comforter or Duvet

If your comforter is a full size one, you will need queen sized sheets. If your comforter is Queen sized, you will probably want to use King size sheets, although you will have a considerable amount of fabric left over. Use this fabric in other projects or to make the ties for your cover. If your comforter is for Full or Queen sized beds, consider it a Queen size comforter.

You will have when finished, a cover that is a bit larger than your comforter. Just remember to center the comforter, and when it comes time to Tack it, tack it as it is centered. Don’t try to put the corners of the comforter in the corners of the cover.

Wash and dry your sheets before beginning. You will be happier with your results if they are laundered and relatively wrinkle free before you start sewing.

Lay one sheet right side UP on the floor. Place your comforter on top of the sheet. Center the comforter as well as possible on the sheet. If you are using a king size sheet, center the comforter toward the top of the sheet and cut excess from the bottom of the sheet.

Next, place the other sheet on top of the comforter right side DOWN. Pin the edges of the sheets together, don’t pin the comforter. The right sides should be facing in toward each other with the comforter between them.

Remove the comforter from the “sack” you have made and sew the edges of the sack all the way around three edges. Don’t sew the top of the sheets together, this is where you will insert the comforter. Sew the three edges again to make a strong seam. Clip the corners flat, all the way to the seam.

Turn the cover right side out now and press the seams with a hot iron and a bit of water sprayed on, or use a steam iron.

There are several ways to fasten the top of the cover. You can sew button holes to one sheet and buttons to the other sheet. Then they can be buttoned directly together.

Another way to fasten them together is to sew on ties that you make out of extra fabric. Make the ties about 10 inches long and 2 inches wide. To do this you will want to cut a piece of fabric that is about 10 1/2 inches long and 4 1/2 inches wide. Fold the fabric right sides together, and stitch one short end and the long end closed.

Turn the fabric right side out. You have a little tube. Stitch the remaining short end closed. Make at least 10-12 of these so you can have 5-6 two-piece ties at the top of your comforter. Sew the ties opposite of one another along the top of the cover.

Next you have to fashion a way to hold the comforter in place inside the cover. If you don’t, and you use the comforter and cover alot, the comforter will shift around in the cover.

Again, there are many ways to do this, and you may have an idea of your own. You could sew buttons to the comforter and sew button holes in the cover. You could use heavy duty Velcro fasteners and sew the hooks to the cover, the rings to the comforter. But I don’t want to sew stuff to my feather comforter so I Tack it to the cover.

After I have sewn the seams, pressed them, and sewn the top fasteners the way I want them, I place the comforter in the cover and lay it on the floor. Then I arrange the comforter inside the cover just the way I want it to lay. Next, I take Button Hole Thread and needle and push the needle through the top of the cover, through the comforter, AT THE CORNER OF THE COMFORTER. Then from the underside of the comforter cover, I move over about 1 inch and pull the thread up through the cover and comforter to the topside. Once through the top, I tie the thread in a double knot and trim the remaining thread to about 2 inches.

I do this at all 4 corners of the comforter and 2 times on each side of the comforter and cover. This helps keep the comforter stationary inside the cover and does not damage the comforter.

Additional tacks can be made on the inside area of the cover and comforter. The heavier your comforter is, the more tacks it will take to hold it in place inside your new cover.

Your new comforter will protect your comforter from stains, spills and some odors. This is a great way to save wear and tear on your feather comforters.

If you make a comforter cover with these directions, I would like to know how it turned out. These directions are as old as the hills! They have been passed down through my family for many years along with other homekeeping wisdom. I hope they are helpful to you!

Simple Food {for spring} Cookbook

Just look at this beautiful book! Shannon over at Nourishing Days has put together what is destined to become one of my favorite cookbooks.  Its called Simple Food {for spring} Cookbook.

Isn’t it a pretty book?  And the recipes sound delicious.  I think what I like most about this cookbook is that the author has used fresh, easily obtained ingredients to make healthy and delicious dishes.

This week I have decided to try Dandelion Green & Caramelized Onion Pizza, Lamb Stew with Peas &
Potatoes and Spring Colcannon.

Look what is included in Simple Food {for spring}

  • 80 pages.
  • 28 (brand new!) grain-free recipes.
  • full-color photos with every recipe.
  • 5 essays encouraging sustainability and homegrown living with information about cleansing and wild edibles.
  • Salads: Raw, Cooked, & Dressed
  • Basic Cream Dressing
  • Blue Cheese Salad Dressing
  • Honey Mustard Dressing
  • Ranch Salad Dressing
  • Radish & Sour Cream Salad
  • Beet & Feta Salad

 

  • Main Dishes: Meat-Free
  • Asparagus, Spinach, & Spring Onion Tart
  • Braised White Beans Scented with Rosemary
  • Dandelion Green & Caramelized Onion Pizza with Sprouted Garbanzo Crust
  • Greens Burgers
  • One Pan Baked Eggs with Spinach
  • Roasted Asparagus & Cheddar Soup

 

  • Main Dishes: Omnivorous
  • Chicken & Two Pea Curry
  • Lamb Stew
  • One-Pan Deconstructed Stuffed Shells
  • Roasted Leg of Lamb with Garlic & Rosemary
  • Spring Colcannon
  • Spring Vegetable & Ground Beef Thai Stir Fry
  • Sprouted French Lentil, Ham, & Asparagus Salad

 

  • Side Dishes: Vegetables & Baked Goods
  • Grain-Free Scones
  • Mediterranean Pea Mash
  • Quick Southern Style Greens
  • Ranch-Flavored Pea Mash
  • Skillet Garbanzo Flat Bread (Socca)

 

  • Food Preservation
  • Dehydrate Greens for A Better Greens Powder
  • Chimichurri Sauce
  • Lacto-Fermented Asparagus
  • Lacto-Fermented Radishes

CHK is an affiliate of Nourishing Days, so if you purchase the cookbook using our links, we receive a percentage of the sale.

 

Surviving Off Off-Grid ~ New Book

Today, March 4, 2011, is Book Bomb day at Amazon .com for Michael Bunker’s new book called Surviving Off Off-Grid.  What that means is that as many people as possible are buying this book today in order to get Michael’s book into Amazon’s Top 100 Books listing and keep it there for an entire day. Right now, as of this post, it is #57.

You may have heard of living Off-Grid. That’s a lifestyle marked by growing one’s own food and  producing one’s own electricity and pumping in water.

But, according to the author, living off-grid really just sets you up to live on another grid system. And if something goes awry with that grid, what then?

The author isn’t a conspiracy theorist, he just believes that living completely off grid, no electricity, no city water, etc. is the best way to live.  Here’s a quote from the book:

“We want to learn the old ways, not just because they are old or because they are historical, but because they work and because they are sustainable. I do not mean “sustainable” in quite the way the modern eco-friendly folks do, though there is something to that as well. I mean “sustainable” in its literal meaning. We learn these ways because we will be able to continue in them even if the grid beast collapses and dies. We can continue in these ways without … without being stained or harmed by too much dependence on what the world calls “necessities.”  Michael Bunker, Surviving Off Off-Grid

Oh, he isn’t suggesting that there is some magical formula to live like this. He isn’t saying that we won’t need to work.  That’s the problem with all of us today, we’ve forgotten what it means to work hard.  Read this next quote.

If you realize that you can do the things you want to do with hard work, with industry, and with your own labor without paying $24,000 for an off-grid solar power system, then you will have just saved $24, 000 and all you have to do now is learn to replace stuff with skill and know-how. –Michael Bunker, Surviving Off Off-Grid

Living Off Off-Grid isn’t for everyone, obviously. But if you’ve ever given it serious thought, if you’ve been working in that direction but can’t seem to find the encouragement or motivation to keep going, I think this could be the extra help you are looking for.

If you purchase Surviving Off Off-Grid through the links on this page CHK will earn a commission from Amazon. CHK was not paid to recommend this book, I just thought it looked like a great book! And here is a link to the Kindle version of Surviving Off Off-Grid!