Advice needed for making a Calif King Duvet

[Teri L.]

I am a newbie and my daughter wants a duvet cover for a California King bed. I suppose the good news is that I don't have to quilt it. Any suggestions on what form/design the top should be. The back I will purchase. She has specified chartreuse and teal blue.

[Teri L.]

Since it is to be a duvet cover, I would suggest that you find a quilt block you like and just make one huge block, or to break it down a bit by size divide the duvet size into a large 9-patch and then make either 4 or 5 largeish pattern blocks and put plain patchs in the alternate positions. Being a duvet cover, it will probably be washed regularly, therefore you might want to consider making it with 3/8" seam allowances and serging them (make sure all your ends are started & finished off properly too) for durability. Make sure you wash all the fabrics first to eliminate any shrinkage at the beginning.

[Jill B.]

I made one for myself in all white fabric, I used 12 inch squares and used the embroidery stitches on my machine to just sew rows of different stitches all across each block, and then I used the overlocker/serger to join them into rows and then joined the rows together, then put a 4inch border all around that.

You could use your two colours, one for the fabric and then one for the embroidery stitches or use white for the fabric and then use the two colours for the embroidery stiches alternately, Of course you could use any colour or type of fabric etc etc.

I actually cut the squares about 14 inches to allow for shrinkage etc and when all finished I trimmed them to the 12 inch needed, that way I ended up with perfect size squares. I did sew the embroidery stitches to about ½ from the edge of the 14 inch square that made them all lovely and even around the edges after they had been sewn together by the overlocker/serger.

The white fabric I used was what you buy for table cloths and the name totally escapes me at the moment, maybe someone will know what I am talking about.....Margoooooo are you in the building........hee hee hee. It has a self pattern on it and you can usually buy it in white, cream, red, green or black
I think, it is a little bit thicker than typical cotton fabric and also comes a bit stiffish which was great as I found I did not have to use any stabilisers (mind you I only used the stitches on the everyday sewing machine perhaps if you used an embroidery machine with a hoop you may need to still stabilise the fabric).
I found this fabric worked our great as the width was I think 240cm wide and the self pattern just gave it a beautiful look to it, at first I thought it was a little heavier than typical cotton fabric but after I washed twice all the stiffness came out, I would say it still is a tiny bit heavier than a standard duvet but in our winter it worked out well.

p.s. I dont have a photo to show you, besides it being white on white and you wuld not really see anything, once when my best friend visited she loved it so much she packed it and has taken it with her and now sits on her bed............lol lol lol

What ever you decided you must put a photo up for us to look at.

[Jill B.]

Thanks for the tremendous input. I found this site: http://tipnut.com/make-duvet-covers/ and sent it to my daughter who now wants the top that is the center square and envelope style. This may all change when we go fabric shopping. I watched the Anita Grossman Solomon video and picked up the hint of stitching the fabric together before washing, I will keep you informed on this one. Oh, I also looked at Nancy Zieman's Column Quilting which I thought was a great idea. She nixed that one. What are you going to do!?

[Jill B.]

Thanks for the tremendous input. I found this site: http://tipnut.com/make-duvet-covers/ and sent it to my daughter who now wants the top that is the center square and envelope style. This may all change when we go fabric shopping. I watched the Anita Grossman Solomon video and picked up the hint of stitching the fabric together before washing, I will keep you informed on this one. Oh, I also looked at Nancy Zieman's Column Quilting which I thought was a great idea. She nixed that one. What are you going to do!?

Cool website! I'm in the process of redecorating my master bedroom and already have my fabrics, but was trying to decide on whether to make a quilt or a duvet cover. I've already finished my bedskirt and window seat cushion. My fabrics were purchased at Calico Corners, which is having a 20% storewide sale until March 24th. You can shop online, if there isn't a store near you --> http://www.calicocorners.com/categor...or+the+home.do The fabrics were all 54" - 60" wide and they are shipped free to your home. The cuts were very generous too!

Here's another design website that you might enjoy --> http://www.designsponge.com

[Jill B.]

great web site thanks