A Vintage Twist For A New Duvet Cover

Yippee Doodle!!!!!

I finished making my buddy Kris's guest room duvet covers!!!!!

I figured it would take me two or three days to sew them.....

it took me a month.

You'd think I'd learn by now.....

Everything takes longer than I think!!!!

I've been working on Kris's guest room,

 for those of you new to my blog....

We had gotten this far.....

And it was now time to work on the bedding for the pair of twin beds.

We found a green fabric we liked and brought it back to Kris's house to see how it would look at the end of the beds.

It pulled in the green of the chest of drawers. 

(that I had painted several years ago.....)

(Since the beds are not the same, being antique, 

and Kris wanted a mismatched pair.....

the first thing she had to do.....

was...

get the mattress guy back to remake the boxspring on the second bed.

I needed the top of the boxsprings to be the same height off the floor, 

so the bedskirts would be the same.

But that's for the next post.....

Today I'm going to show off the duvet covers.

I just got a little ahead of myself!!!!!)

We went to Calico Corners to chose a soft green matelasse cotton.

It's really pretty, but a pain to work with because it is very stretchy and unravels.

The down comforters were 66" wide, and the fabric was 54" wide, that meant I had to have a seam down each side.

I was thinking of the fabric as being a solid, and didn't take into account the repeat of the pattern.

I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. 

THEN.....

I had a brain fart, and cut one of the sides 10" too short.

Now I didn't have enough fabric!!!!

Luckily, Calico Corners was able to get me two more yards in the same dye lot.

WHEW!!!!!

I've found that very often my mistakes cause me to rethink the design of something, and It ends up being better than I had originally planned.

In this case.....

I had to add a border at the top and bottom of the back and bottom of the front of the duvets, giving the cover a much more finished look.

I'll show pictures of this, so you'll understand my ramblings.

Arrrggghhh!!!!!

I didn't take pictures!!!!!

I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. 

Well...

here's a shot of the matched repeat on a seam....

Now,

imagine that on the sides, bottom and top, as well as having to have little squares in the corners that also have to have the repeats match.

IT TOOK FOREVER!!!!

And then I had to serge every cut edge, so it wouldn't unravel when cleaned!

For the closure, 

I wanted to have a buttoned envelope style.

Sooooo.....

I had gotten some buttons from Joanne's Fabrics.

They had a pretty mother of pearl look.

I had another brain fart when I bought them, and didn't realize how many I would need.

I didn't have enough.

This is just standard operating procedure for me.

Sooooooo.....

Of course Joanne's had discontinued selling them.

Of course.

WELL!!!!!

I wasn't about to throw in the towel.....

No indeedy doo!!!

So I started troweling the internet, and found the manufacturer, and was able to buy enough for the project.

BUT...

While I was looking for matching mother of pearl buttons.....

I came across some vintage ones on eBay.

They were really interesting.

They were really pretty.

They were really me me me!!!

Kris liked them too.

Now, we just had to get them.

There were some serious bidders wanting these buttons.

I started copping an attitude towards the other bidders.

Didn't they know that these would be perfect for the duvets?????

I WAS TAKING NO PRISONERS!!!!

I was going to get these@#$ buttons 

NO MATTER WHAT!!!!!

and I did!!!

They were great!

They were all different sizes!!!!!

I sewed 16 on each duvet.

That was 36 different size button holes!!!!!

I hadn't thought of that when I had the brilliant idea of using them.

I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. I am an idiot. 

Sooooo.....

I figured out the order I wanted them to be sewn, and then threaded them on a string to keep them in the proper order.

I did this for both duvets, and then pinned the strings to the button holed pieces that would be sewn onto the duvet covers.

Then I had to sew each button hole.

I marked the center of where each button would go, as they were all different sizes, so I didn't want to measure the distance between each one.

THEN....

KEEPING THEM IN ORDER.....

I had to sew each one, adjusting the button hole pressure foot 32 times.

THAT'S thirty-two!!!!!

Then it was time to sew on the buttons.

I needed to keep them in order, and start from the correct side, so I didn't sew them on wrong.

I finally finished!!!

I watched/listened to old Judge Judy TV shows whiled I sewed on 32 buttons.

I LOVE JUDGE JUDY! I LOVE JUDGE JUDY! I LOVE JUDGE JUDY! I LOVE JUDGE JUDY!

Kris and I hauled the covers over to her abode, and here they are, getting ready to be put on the duvets!!!!

and here they are, on the duvets!!!!

Folded at the end of the bed....

I will show you the new dust ruffles and the new bedding and the beds made up on my next post.

This is what is called a cliff hanger!!!!!

On that note,

Latah, Gatah