try this company

Here is a link that might be useful: pine cone hill

I also make duvets out of flat sheets. The other flannel challenge is that most of it seems to be sold in sets. I had good luck orderring a flat flannel sheet from Lands End. Their heavier weight flannel is much nicer than the thinner stuff commonly found. You might also check out LL Bean. I bought mine from the website.

Try linensource.com and search for duvet covers.

duvet covers

Pottery Barn has velvet ones!

Years ago, I was a newly married Californian grad student living in Massachusetts. We liked to sleep the same way as your daughter. Here is what we did. I bought one thick flannel flat sheet and one regular flat sheet in a contrasting color. I sewed them together into a duvet. (I left the top two corners open to make the process of putting the comforter into the duvet easier, but you don't have to do this.) The bed made up VERY quickly and let you see the colors of the pillows, bottom sheet, the flannel sheet and the top sheet. It looked good and was very simple and cheap. Perfect for a newlywed grad student.

A heavy duvet cover will flatten the down and make it less warm, because it's the air trapped around the fluffy down that provides the warmth. That's why duvet covers normally are no heavier than a sheet.

If she needs more warmth, then she probably would be better off with a heavier duvet instead of a heavy cover, or she could use two together on colder nights. They are available with different amounts of down, from thin blanket-weight on up. Also, if she goes to bed cold, it'll be difficult to warm up the duvet, because it is body warmth that does that.

We switch between three different-weight duvets and use them with no top sheet for a good part of the year.

On the link below, scroll down to "Duvet Covers" for an explanation. The other information is interesting as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: click

wooderlander's post reminded me of something I should have explained. The flannel was on the BOTTOM of my duvet cover. The regular sheet was on top of the cover. The flannel added just enough warmth to make the duvet+comforter work through the coldest Massachusetts months. (While I would have liked to have 3 different weight comforters, our student budget didn't allow for it.) Wooderlander is correct that you don't want a heavy sheet for the top of a duvet cover because it would weight down the down's loft.

Flannel on the bottom -- good idea!

You may want to check out Land's End...I just ordered a 5oz. queen-sized duvet cover that was on sale.

LLBean has flannel ones. I think that's where I got mine.
But layering is really the way to go--try to persuade her!
After a while with the flannel-covered duvet, I need to kick it off for a bit.

(darn it! "CONVINCE" her!)

lk, could I ask you a question: what is your favored process for making a duvet cover from sheets? I have some sheets I bought to make a duvet, but I can't decide which of the processes I've found online is the best. For instance, do you take all the hems out and press everything flat? That's one thing I saw in one of the instructions. Do you make some sort of device to hold the duvet in the corners? Those kinds of questions.

If you could share your instructions, I'd appreciate it very much.

Land's End, Garnet Hill, Cuddledown and The Company STore all sell flannel duvet covers. Garnet Hill's are famously wonderful.

But it is often cheaper to make your own from two flat sheets. I usually buy the next size smaller flat sheets, but you should check the dimensions.

Here's the drill:

(After measuring to make sure you have nominally correct sizes.)

I usually take the hems out at this point but that's optional depending on how long your flat sheets are. If they are long enough to not need the hemmed area to make the cover, you can just leave the hems in, for now, as you'll just cut them off and meanwhile they'll keep the ends from unraveling. Wash the sheets in the hottest water they may ever have to face to get the shrinkage taken care of. Machine dry them even if they will be line dried later. Flannel is notorious for shrinking and the time to get it done is now, before you cut the sheets to length.

Purchase matching thread and long zippers for the closing. If you can't find zippers long enough to go at least three quarters of the way across one short end, then buy two and have them meet in the middle. This works OK for twin sizes but for wider ones you'll have to order zippers over the internet where they can be had in any length and color you like, for a price. Or you could do buttons if you're adept at making buttonholes. If so, then choose matching buttons; figure enough buttons so they are spaced about 12", or so, apart along one of the short edges. You'll also need one package of 3/4" or 1" cotton twill tape to make the tie thingies to hold the comforter in the corners if you want to do that.

Meanwhile measure your comforter, length, width and thickness. I like to allow at least 3" inches wider and longer than actual comforter; if it's thick you can add as much as 5" inches to the width and length measurements for ease and loft. Err on the generous side, if there's a question.

Now add to each side of both the top and bottom at least half an inch preferably as much as 1" for a seam allowance

(Actual width of comforter + additional for ease and loft 3 - 5" + 2" for seam allowance = dimension across top or bottom piece of duvet cover.)

Check this proposed width against the width of the washed and dried sheets. If you're lucky it will be just about right, and you can use the selvedge edges along the long dimension (sides).

Now for the length: Actual length of comforter + 3" to 5" for ease and loft + 2" seam allowance, plus additional couple of inches to account for a folded-over zipper placket unless you are using an on-seam (invisible-type) zipper.

Now how does the length compare to your sheets? This will tell you how much if any you need to cut off of the two hemmed edges. If necessary removed one of hems to make it fit the sheets.

The next step (and this only matters if you are not using the entire width of the sheet) is to make sure you have a reasonably true on-grain sheet so any part you cut off along the sides will be straight. If I have to cut along the sides, I do so on only one side and keep one selvedge edge.

After your pieces are cut to proper size, turn them rght side to right side (in other words good sides in) and stitch them together, inserting the zipper(s) across one of the short ends.

I like to use a french seam on percale duvets covers, but for flannels I just double stitch the seam and then pink the edge.

On the corners you can sew a ten inch piece of twill tape (folded in half and sewn in across the fold- backstitch well). These are ties to hold the corners of the comforter into the corners of the duvet. A nicety, but not necessary and useless unless you comforter has little sewn-on attachments on its corners.

I have made a lot of duvet covers, but fewer these days as the price of the covers has come down (or maybe the price of two flat sheets has gone up.) There used to be a $30-40 price differential, but now it has shrunk to $10-20, and for my time and the additional cost of the long zippers it comes out about even.

Sleeping with a flannel-coverd duvet instead of a top sheet has a yummy, sleep-away camp feeling about it. It's very cozy and sort of the sleep equivalent of comfort food for me. Even though I love my percale and linen sheets, every now and then I get a hankering for sleeping under just my flannel-covered comforter. It's a very good feeling.

BTW, if your daughter is cold she can add another comforter within the same duvet cover. I do that when it gets particularly cold: I'll add in my summer-weight comforter to the stack of winter weight ones. Deep in January, I sometimes sleep with 8 or 10" inches of down on top of me since I live in northern NY have no heat in the second floor of my 160 year old house.

HTH,

Molly~

Without a sheet, youhave to wash it every few days? I would prefer having a sheet to wash instead of a duvet cover. But then I could not imagine sleeping without a sheet next to me, even in summer.

housekeeping, thanks so much for the details. Unfortunately, the duvets I would purchase are still probably about 2-3 times as expensive as the sheets I've bought--so it's still economically justifiable. I was hoping to avoid a zipper somehow...snaps? Lazy person here :)

Flyleft,

Snaps will work fine. They would be the easiest and least expensive way of closing the bottom edge. If you wanted to dress it up you could install the snaps with a placket covering the closures.

I never thought of snaps, but they are easier to make than either buttons or a zipper application. Great idea!

Do you already have a grommet setting tool? If not, you might be able to use the snaps-already-installed-closures that are used for slipcovers. Now that would be the fastest way of all.

HTH,

MOlly

Cool, thanks :) (laziness is the mother of invention, quite often :)) I don't have a grommet setting tool--I don't even know what kind of closures you're talking about...maybe I should look into it before I get started. You've helped so much--the duvet cover is in the queue right after shortening/hanging the draperies (I'm going to make a nice bolster pillow for the bed out of the extra from the drapes, too).

This site gives me way too many projects :)

I'm also for the easiest construction methods. I don't remove the sheet hem for the opening side. I make the size adjustments on the other 3 sides. If you're putting in a zipper, get rid of the hems because it's easier to work with a single layer of fabric. I've both put ties on the cover and comforter and done it without them. There's not much fabric slippage with flannel. So, I wouldn't bother putting ties on.

Doing french seams is great for ravelly fabric like flannel. I'd probably just stitch it twice or for the second seam use a zig zag stitch.

I use velcro for the closings often. Zippers have a nice look and feel. But, for most fabrics it doesn't look that much different. I put 1-2 inch velcro piece about every 6 to 8 inches which is about the button distance you see on commercially made ones.

This discussion is going to make me want a new cover and will have to check out the websites mentioned.

We just put the flannels on our bed. There is really a significant feel difference with the heavier weight flannel that companies like Lands End sell: much thicker/denser and softer.

In high school and college my mom helped me make my duvet covers from flat sheets sewn together. We used velcro to close the opening because it was the easiest way to go. My purchased duvet covers were closed the following ways: buttons, decorative ties, no closure, just a flap of the material.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for all the great suggestions here...and I'm definately printing off some of the instructions for making my own covers.

What I've learned here is that I need to get a winter weight duvet for my daughter.

So, I've been shopping and now need to know the difference between summer and winter weight. Is it a matter of ounces? Does anyone have thoughts on down-alternative and how do you tell if your getting one of these that's winter weight?

Thanks!!!

Karezz,

Heavier weight is usually an indication of winter warmth, except that you also have to compare the loft of the down as well> It's not purely weight but the amount of air trapped within the down that creates the insulation, so down that lofts more is warmer for the same weight. I think you should peruse the websites of Cuddledown, the Company Store and Garnet Hill which make really nice down comforters and I believe have good explanations of the differences.

A final thing regarding warmth is the stitch design. Warmer comforters will have internal baffles, be sewn with karo-step techniques, etc. as opposed to "sewn-through" construction, either boxes or rings. The reason the sewn-through designs are less warm is that the down is compressed to a thickness of just the two layers of fabric at every seam point. On the ones with internal baffling, the top and bottom covers don't meet except along the sides where it doesn't matter. However, if one always covers the duvet with a removable cover then this is somewhat less critical since the cover bridges over the seam lines. I only have one comforter with internal baffling, and it's not my warmest.

Flyleft:

A grommet (or snap) setting tool simply crimps the snap pieces in place: no sewing, though it's a little fiddly. It looks like a pair of pliers.

The Snaps-already-installed thing is something you can buy which has the snaps already crimped to twill binding which you just sew on all at once. The snap tape is often used in making fitted slipcovers. It propbaly has a "real" name but I don't know it. Chelone probably will, though, so you could ask her.

Good luck with your project.

Molly~