Are ya'll sitting down for this?!
I have been the type of person that always kinda irritated me. You know, the ones with the duvet with no cover on it. They spend night after night sleeping under their naked duvet cover and risking spilling, sweating, and who-knows-what-else-ing on it.
Yes, that has been us since last spring when we received this incredible synthetic (I'm allergic to the "real") down duvet as a gift. I'll let you know that there really is no excuse for this other than the fact that we've had a million other things going on, I have been super picky selecting a style I liked, and I just can not bring myself to pay more than $30 for something I'll likely want to change out in a couple of years. So our duvet has remained naked, until this weekend!
I really love the idea of a pinstriped duvet, but I knew I would be over perfectionistic with that sort of thing and I was sick of sleeping under our naked duvet cover. I also am not trying to make business suit the style in our bedroom, I want it to be cozy and romantic. So I found somethings else I loved...
Here is my inspiration photo:
A pin tucked duvet cover from West Elm. Really the price tag of $99 is not bad at all. However, it's more than I wanted to spend, we have tons of sheets around this house just waiting on a second life, and there really is not a color gray in this style that matches the look we are going for.
The flat sheet is a king size. We started by laying out on top of our queen sized bed, on top of the duvet I was covering. I started the first row of pins just a couple of inches above the bottom left edge of the duvet (which is queen sized, the sheet hung over it). We measured from that left edge of the sheet, our first measurement was 7.5" from the edge, just because it ended up that way then we made the measurement, you will want to know what yours is so you can do the math to know where each column goes. We did each column and from pin to pin about 10" apart in this particular pattern:
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If you measure diagonally from the first * on the left to the first * on the right the measurement would be 10" this is how we checked ourselves through the process. The distance from the first * on the left and the second * on the left is 10"(diagonally). At one point we actually taped two measuring tapes together for the width of the bed. Yes, my amazing and faithful husband helped me, yes we can both get a little perfectionist (in our own ways) at times, and YES it is much easier if someone helps you with this.
Here I am sticking little pins on each point on our dyed sheet:
Sadly, we didn't have a photographer to capture the process with the two of us measuring it out.
This is how we do Saturday night in the Danner household! Notice the two glasses of vino on the night stand (among the clutter)!
We are pulling this home together one piece at a time, and while the state of our master bedroom is rather embarrassing at the moment, we are taking strides to make it a haven. Hence these big projects we've been taking on. As much as I'd love to deceive you to make you think we are perfect, and everything is always tidy in our home, that's just not my style.
Once I got all of the pins in and measurements confirmed, I used one of the kids' washable markers to put a dot in the middle of each pin just in case one of the pins fell out while I was sewing. So very happy I did this since 2 almost fell out and one most certainly did.
Let the sewing begin!
From the underside of the sheet, pinch where the pin is and pull the pin out.
Twist your pinch, I did each of mine twisted to the left.
Then slide your twisted pinch underneath your presser foot and straight stitch and back stitch to reinforce.
It should look about like this when you've put all of your stitches in:
I didn't even know I'd finished all of them when I was done, but I laid it back out on the bed expecting to find a ton of pins I couldn't locate in my lap.
Here is the top of our duvet cover!
I love it so far!
I lined up the top on top of the duvet again with the pin tucks about 2" above the edges of the duvet. The extra sheet was longer on one side than the other but it didn't matter since it needed to be trimmed anyway. I chose a super soft cream colored thrift store sheet ($2.99!) to be the underside of my duvet cover and placed it on top of the gray pin tucked sheet right sides together and pinned them on both sides and straight stitched them together. There will be little pleats in these stitches and that is fine it is because of the pin tucks, just go with it!
HOLY sheet pile! LOL
Its kinda cumbersome, but trust yourself!
I then placed my project back on the bed and pinned the bottom and sewed it just like the sides, then trimmed all of the way around. I just have the bottom closure pinned with safety pins at the moment, but I made it so that the gray folds over the cream and I'll be adding ties or buttons of some sort.
Here it is!
Every time I look at it I marvel! I can't believe I made this! I spent only $2.99 on the sheet and about $5 on dye!
The pillowcase on our body pillow in the back is an inspiration for our room colors! I know it is "from" Target, however I got this one from the thrift store for $2!
Here is a photo of the underside of the corner showing:
We will be making a headboard in the very near future. What color do you think it should be?
I am thrilled about this project. It took about 4 hours total, I'll certainly be making covers for the girls' comforters soon. Not sure if they'll be pin tucked or not.
If you decide to make one, please share the photos with me!!
Reduce, reuse, and Up cycle, my friends!
xoxox,
Lauren D.
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