The Closet Intellectual: Quick & Easy Duvet Cover~*

The cooler temps mean its time to bring out the down comforter (yay!). Unfortunately, the cover I had gotten for it was meant to be a space saver until I had found "the perfect" fabric to make my own cover (boo!).
My Mom suggested I make one out of sheets & outlined the project. Brilliant! I found some adorable ones at Target.com that matched our room & satisfied my desire to change my environment from time to time. And the beauty of it is, this is inexpensive enough & easy enough to make several covers. Woot!

1. Get some coordinating sheets-- two flat-- in a size larger than your duvet. Ours is a queen, so I bought king size. I also got a whole sheet set-- since technically a duvet is supposed to take the place of an upper sheet, I figure I could use the fitted sheets & pillow cases. I had to shorten the pillow cases to fit our regular size pillows, but no biggie~*

2. Lay out one of the flat sheets out, pattern side down, and put your duvet on top of it. Make the "fold over" wider hemmed side of the sheet the "bottom"/open end of the cover & lay the duvet near one of the sheets finished edges. Measure the width of the sheet-- the bit that is wider than the duvet itself-- slightly larger than the duvet to accommodate its thickness. Repeat this procedure on the length/"top" of the sheet. The pattern on my sheet set was slightly off, so be sure to use a measurement and not rely on a visual! Pin to mark the measurement.

3. Flip the sheet, pattern side up, and lay the other sheet, pattern side down, on top of it. Pin the sheets together, following your measurements. Line up the finished edge, pin and sew. Then sew down the opposite, measured & pinned side. Finally, repeat for the "top" of the sheet. Quick tip-- to make sewing easier & less pin filled, I measured out the distance from my machine needle & used a piece of electric tape {which I had on hand, but painter's or masking tape would work just as well} to mark it on my machine. All I had to do was keep the fabric aligned with the tape~*
I double-sewed-- once on the mark, once slightly outside it-- for strength.

4. Before you cut, slip the duvet into the inside-out duvet cover. If you haven't cut & you've made a measurement error, you can rip your stitches & adjust. If it fits, remove it & cut & remove the excess. Mine fit, so out came the scissors. I used pinking sheers cos I have pinking sheers, so why the heck not?

5. How you seal the open end {where you insert the duvet}-- buttons, hook & loop tape, zipper, ribbon or ties-- is up to you. I decided to do ties. I used the excess material, measured out the opening & divided to come up with 7 ties {14 strips total}, made them about two finger lengths wide. I sewed them all, then cut in the channel {which isn't the best description so hopefully the photos help} & got Jeremy to chip in by turning the sewn ties outside-right {with the help of a chopstick}.