Which duvet: advice please!

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Oh no, don't get me stated on silk sheets again.

I think Jasmine25 revived the thread on silk sheets as well, which was quite amusing in the end

I made a duvet from two old feather-filled eiderdowns many years ago, but had to get rid of it when DD1 used to wheeze if she jumped into bed with us in the mornings.

Good tip Elegran - thanks !

You do have remember to tack each side of the new case separately to a side of the old one - otherwise you can't let them fall through.

I have moved feathers from one pillow ticking to another without them escaping by first shaking all the feathers down to the other end of the pillow, and tacking it firmly across a few inches down from the (now thin) end.

Then cut across a bit above the tacking and tack on the new case to the old one. Once you have them firmly fixed together, take out the stitches holding the feathers in and turn the whole thing upside down.

THe feathers fall down into the new case, helped by a shake, and you can sew across the top of that one before taking out the stitches holding the old and new case together.

Does that make sense? The feathers are never out of a sealed bag, so they don't fly away.

Yes Tegan you can wash the feathers. Keep them in the feather-proof cushion (the inner bit not the fancy cushion cover) and put in a cool wash in the machine with only a little detergent and fastest spin. They will feel very lumpy when they come out of the machine so try and pull them apart. Either dry in a warm place - this can take a few days - or in a tumble dryer. In either case continue to ease the lumps apart but whatever you do do NOT take them out of the cover !! If you want to reuse them for a different size cushion then make/buy a new feather proof liner first and then empty the old one into it carefully ! Best done outside on a calm day!
Hope it works as well for you as it has done in the past for me.

We have been very satisfied with our hollowfibre duvets. Never had feather ones, so cannot compare. Like the idea that we could wash them if required. On the odd occasion we needed to wash them (when we had young children) we used one on the big washer at the local laundrette.

A really good (therefore, probably expensive) hollow fibre duvet drapes beautifully, doesn't cause allergic reactions (as far as I know...)

Oh, how I remember the feather beds at my grandmother's house - great, deep clouds of feathers into which you sank, all cuddled up. Making them up the next morning, however was hard labour!

My daughter went to China on a holiday and bought one back with her...she was raving so much about it I decided to treat myself....I have silk duvets a summer and an autumn one when together acts as a winter one...( beware of imitations out there as some say they are silk when in fact they have other materials mixed in and not pure silk) they are warm in the winter and cool in the summer....they don't need washing you just air them on a nice breezy sunny day....The mulberry silk also repels any bed bugs and dust mite...
Expensive yes but well worth the money..

On the subject of feathers I was going to throw out some old feather filled cushions that were in the loft and smelling a bit frousty but am wondering if I can wash them [when we have the next heatwave, that is]. They're quite expensive to buy new and, from what I've read here if there was cruelty involved in obtaining the feathers I'd rather get more use out of them than buy new ones.

I have always had duvets filled with goose down but no longer! I had no idea what the farmers were doing, is there no humanity left in this world? There is a farm in Devon that sells wool duvets so that and alpaca (which I have some outerwear and find it so warm) is worth exploring next time I think

My sister has just bought an alpaca duvet from an alpaca farm in Lincolnshire. She says it's marvellous and all made in the uk.

Sorry, that's the whole site. This should do it.

www.infonet-biovision.org/default/ct/715/livestockSpecies

I'd rather silkworms turned into moths. This is how silk is made.

www.infonet-biovision.org/

Here's one more address for you:

www.jasminesilk.com/

The quality is great. By the way, silk linen will be cool in summer,so it means comfortable for you

I'm going in to JL tomorrow to get a 2.5 tog goose down duvet.

I find just the duvet cover with nothing in it gets all tangled up.

Very relieved that I bought my down duvet from JL. Our summer one is 3tog and it is plenty warm enough.

In the Summer I just take the duvet out of the cover , which we then sleep under , seems to warm enough for us . If it does get a bit chippy , there"s a little opportunity to have a snuggle up

I wrote to the White Company to ask them about their policy about live plucking, and they never replied. So came to my own conclusion and won't use them again.

That's good to know, petal! I had always assumed that was the case and am glad to find it still is for good merchants.

Good old John Lewis! Just googled goose down and cruelty and up came a statement from JL saying they ensure all their down is a by-product of the food industry. They do not use any live-plucked down.

Good! Now I can buy a goose down duvet!

I think you are right about the silk fibres Bags . They suggest hanging them out in the sun occasionally (yeh-well, this week then) - UV light has a very strong antibacterial effect.

I wonder if that's because of the way the silk fibres are laid inside the quilt, and not anchored down very much, so washing would scrunch everything up too much? Because silk is washable. Dry cleaning is not advised for any kind of duvet.

I hear silk duvets are lovely except you can't wash or dry clean them.