Resize a Duvet Cover

 Hello Readers. I love to sleep. Going to bed is my favorite time of day. I love going to bed. That means I think bedding is important. I have a nice weighted blanket that helps me sleep. I wanted a second duvet cover for it. I had a full size duvet cover but my weighted blanket is smaller than that. Instead of buying something, let's resize it. 

Queen size duvet covet got cut down to size.

 

This project started with a weighted blanket that was about 40x60 inches. I like to use it at night to help me sleep. I wanted an easily washable cover for it. I'm sure I could buy one but could I use something I had on hand?

I had this Piltandvinge duvet cover from IKEA. The cover I had was queen size. That would not work for my small weighted blanket. 

I made this very low-tech visual aide to explain my plan. Imagine this is my pink duvet covet. 

 

My weighted blanket is much smaller. The pink duvet would be much too loose to fit on my blanket. 

 

I needed to cut away the excess pink duvet fabric away. I left 2 inches of extra pink fabric all the way around the blanket for my seam allowance and for room to slip the blanket inside the cover. The
pink duvet cover had an opening at one end to get the blanket in and out of the cover. The real cover had the opening where I am pointing. I made sure to keep the opening on a side I DID NOT cut. 

 

I planned to sew the 2 sides I cut and then my new cover would fit my weighted blanket very well.

 

I measured and cut out my pink duvet. There are so many different sizes of weighted blankets, your measurements may different from mine. Just make sure to leave extra room on all sides to slide the blanket easily into the cover. An inch or 2 on each side would be plenty of extra space, some of that space will be used as the seam allowance.

 

My weighted blanket had loops all the way around it to attach it to the duvet cover. I used chalk to mark on the pink cover where the loops were. I wanted to add ties to my cover at each spot. That way I could attach the blanket to the cover and prevent the blanket from shifting around the cover and getting piled up in one corner. The weighted blanket is heavier than most blankets, it will be better to try to hold it in place.
 

I put the right sides of the duvet cover facing each other and then sewed the new side seams. I added a piece of ribbon too. I added the piece of ribbon to the spots I had marked. They need to line up so the blanket and cover fit together well and can be nice and smooth on the bed. 

I used ribbon for my ties. Any ribbon would work for the ties. They are hidden inside the cover and no one will see them. I cut my ties about 6 inches long, 8 inches would have been even better.

 

Here you can see how I tied the blanket and cover together. This makes the blanket stay put and keeps it spread out smoothly in the cover. 

 

When everything was tied together, I flipped the cover right-side out and shook it out to make the blanket and the cover spread out. 

 

The easiest way to get the blanket and cover sorted out was to hang them over the stair railing and give it a good shake. 

 

I liked the pink cover a lot more than the industrial gray blanket. It looks nicer on my bed and it can come off for washing once a week with the sheets. Thanks for reading al, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making Pillowcases

 Hello Readers. I wanted some fresh white pillowcases for my little guys bed. It is getting colder and I like flannel bedding in the winter. I looked online but then I remembered that I actually had a stash of flannel in my sewing room. It was for lining curtains but cotton flannel is cotton flannel right? I can use it for whatever I want. Let's make some new cozy pillowcases. 

This was so easy, I will never buy pillowcases from the store again. I will just use fabric I have on hand. Why haven't I done this before?

I went to my fabric stash and found all the flannel I could. I only had white but white bedding is classic and works in any room. Flannel would be soft and warm no matter what color it was.

I got a pillowcase that I already had and used it as a pattern. This is a brown satin pillowcase but that doesn't matter. I knew this pillowcase fit well so I knew I could rely on it for sizing. You can use whatever pillowcases you have on hand for measurements to make your new pillowcases, standard, king size, extra long body pillow, you can make any size you want. My table has a cutting mat on it with measurements that I could use to keep track of my measurements. You could also use a tape measure of even a ruler if you need to. Use whatever you have.

Once I had my size measurements I could cut out the pieces of flannel I needed. I added 4 inches to the length so I could fold the edge over at the opening of each pillowcase. 

 

I folded the edge over twice and sewed it like a hem. With pillowcases the folded hem can on the outside and it can show as a way to trim the pillowcase and make it look nicely finished. You can also make that fold inside if you prefer. I stitched straight across what would be the open end of the pillowcase to make this finished edge. 

 

I stitched the 3 sides of the pillowcase closed with the right sides together. These are straight seams and they are quick and easy to sew together. This is a great beginner sewing project.

 

I turned the pillowcases right-sides out and they were ready to use. I put all the pillowcase on the pillows and they were so soft and cozy. The flannel is not as cool to the touch as other bedding materials can be. In winter warm cozy flannel bedding is much nicer to sleep in. Thanks for reading along, now go make something warm and cozy for yourself.

***Year End Update***- We are sleeping cozy with these. i would make them again in a heartbeat.
 

 

 

 

Repurposing Fabric; Clothes to Bedding

 Hello Readers. Sometimes we get stuck on what things are supposed to be and we miss what they could be. I needed and wanted some new bedding but what I had was clothing. I never would have thought to use the clothes to make bedding until I noticed the colors matched so well. But fabric is fabric so, let's repurpose a few items of clothing to make some fun bedding.

Before and after some easy sewing.

I found this duvet cover at a swap and loved the colors and the fun stripes. I really didn't have any pillow cases to go with it. I thought I would work on that later.

 

I didn't have any fabric in my stash to match the duvet but I saw this dress on my clothes rack. The colors seemed perfect. I liked the mix of patterns a lot too. I could mix several patterns and get a fun, eclectic bed. The clothing items were all different so let's look at each one at a time. First, this dress.

 

I put the dress on the floor and saw immediately that the skirt was large enough to make a pillowcase. I used and old pillow case as a pattern. The hem of the dress could be the open end of the pillowcase. I cut around the pillow case with my sharpest scissors and left about 1/4 inch of each side as a seam allowance. That way I would have room for my new seams. 

The pillowcase is just a rectangle with an open end to put the pillow in and out. 

 

  I needed to sew it together with the right sides facing each other. That hemmed edge from the dress will be the open end of my new pillowcase and it is already hemmed for me.

 

These clothing items are all cotton and linen so they will make comfortable bedding. Some dresses have a lining. This dress had a nylon lining that I did not sew in my pillowcase. I threw it away after I cut my rectangle. I do not know of a use for the nylon. It doesn't breathe and it wouldn't make a nice pillow.

 

Let's look at the second dress. This dress had the color scheme I wanted so I took it out and spread it on the floor for cutting too. It had a pleated skirt. I needed to remove the skirt from the dress to lay it out flat for cutting. 

 

 I used the same pillowcase as a pattern for my cutting. The skirt was not long enough to cut the pillowcase vertically from the skirt. I had to cut it horizontally from the skirt. That is not a problem, it is just going to be a little different to sew together.

 

   I sewed it together with the right sides facing each other and left one short end open for the pillow. 

 

  I had to hem that open side to finish the pillowcase. That was not difficult.

 

 I turned the edge under and stitch it down. I turned the fabric in twice and stitched it down all the way around the opening of the pillowcase.

 

 The other 2 clothing items were shirts. They were both medical scrub style shirts and I cut them both the same way. I cut across the body of the shirt horizontally and used the body of the shirt as my pillowcase. The V-neck and shoulders were not a good fit to use for my pillows.  

 

The shirt was not wide enough for the length of my pillowcase so I needed to add a bit of fabric to the end. That gives me the chance to add another pattern of fabric. I liked that. 

 

I compared the new pillowcase fabric I had cut to the old pillowcase I was using as a pattern so I could see how much fabric I needed to add to get the right size pillowcase. I measured with my sewing gauge. I needed about 3 inches of extra fabric to add enough length to my pillowcase. I went digging in my fabric stash. 

 

I found another floral that I thought would complement the other fabrics I was using. 

 

I cut strips of fabric to add to the ends of the pillowcases that I cut out from the shirts. 

 

To save time I folded the pink fabric so that I wouldn't have to hem the end of the pillowcase. The folded piece is about 3 inches wide, so about 6 inches wide when unfolded. I wanted to use fabric that I had on hand so I didn't worry about being exact with the measurements too much. I clipped the added fabric to the right side of the pillow fabric. 

I sewed the cut edges of the light pink fabric to the edge of the pillow case. 

When the light pink fabric I added is flipped up it has a nicely finished seam and I can sew the 2 sides of the whole pillowcase together with the right sides facing each other. All the edges will be finished and sewn together. 

The second shirt was cut and sewn in the same way. I liked how the added pink fabric looked and it gave me the extra length I needed. 

Here are all my finished pillowcases. It is a fun mix of fabrics. 

Then I made the bed. The pillowcases fit well. Using a pillowcase as a pattern was a good way to make sure the new pillowcases turned out to be the right size. 

Pillow fabric close-up!

Thanks for reading along with my fabric repurposing project and sweet dreams to you. 

***Year End Update***- I still need to sleep and I still like cute bedding. These have been use a bunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Easy Bolster Pillow

 Hello Readers. I wanted a big pile of pillows for my bed to make it cozy. I wanted to have lots of cushion to lean back on to relax and read a book. I made a quick and easy bolster pillow that you can make too.

 Put this big pillow together easily.

I almost bought this pillow from Amazon. I hate to buy stuff I don't really need and Jeff Bezos doesn't need anymore money so, I made my own. 

I grabbed this light-weight yellow blanket from my linen closet. It was the color I wanted so I thought it would work well with my bedding. 

I took the body pillow I had and put the body pillow on one end of the blanket. I started folding the blanket over the pillow. 

Then I started rolling the pillow in the blanket. I rolled it like a ... jelly roll cake? a taquito? a cannoli? (You get what I mean.)

 

 I tried to keep the pillow snug in the blanket. I kept rolling until I had a blanket tube with the pillow inside.

 

When I was done rolling the pillow in the blanket I had the loose ends on both sides. I wanted to secure them and keep the whole pillow together.

 

I got some ribbon that would match my bedding. I had this ribbon in my sewing stash but you can use any kind of string or yarn for this. You could even use rubber bands or twine. 

 

I tied my blanket ends as tight as I could. I wanted the blanket to be held in place really well. 

 

  When I looked on the back of the pillow this edge of the blanket was a little loose. I didn't like that.

I pulled the end of the blanket and that made the blanket tighter. This made the pillow more firmly wrapped together.

This metal headboard is not comfortable to lean back on. This big bolster pillow will be so much more comfortable.

I added every pillow I could just to get the biggest and squishiest pile possible. (The pillows in front are satin and I love how gentle they are on my hair. I recommend them highly.) Thanks for reading along, now go make yourself something cozy too.

***Year End Update- This big pillow is still on my bed. It's very cozy.