Feathers as duvet filling -How?

A few years ago one of our neighbours was having a clear out and gave us a big bag of feathers that she had saved. I believe that she intended to make a feather quilt, and had collected the feathers from her own birds but am not really sure. There's certainly enough feathers for a thin cover, either a summer quilt or an additional light winter quilt. They were sewn into a big cotton bag, maybe a sheet folded in two but with no structure and not a big enough bag to actually function as a bed quilt (it's a bit pink too).
Now we're having a bit of a clear out of the room the feathers have been living in, and I'd like to complete the project of making them into a feather  eiderdown.
I have two questions:
Do I need to buy special fabric to form the bag of the duvet so that they don't poke through or can I just use a spare old duvet case?
What is the best way to stop the feathers from moving around inside the bag thus losing warmth coverage?


source - (not my feathers)

We recently had our feather duvet refurbished and restuffed.    

The feathers are stuffed into individual pockets measuring about 18 -20 cm square so perhaps you could cut up the individual pockets, stuff them and stitch them onto a flat sheet, then stitch over a top sheet to secure the pockets ?

The fabric is a very close weave cotton (cotton duck) that the feathers don't poke through. The regular cotton used in duvet cases may be too thin?

The outer edges of the duvet are boxed, will dig it out of the linen cupboard and try to remember to post a photo.

Hope that this helps.

I agree with Megan about the fabric. Here they used to call it "ticking" - not sure why, but maybe you should google what it might be called locally. We bought a feather pillow on sale for my son at one point and regretted it - it leaked feathers *everywhere*! I bought the proper ticking fabric *and* washed and put it in my automatic shrinking machine which other people call a clothes dryer, but I can't imagine putting my clothes through such a thing on a regular basis!

I then sewed a zipper cover, but in retrospect I'm shouldn't have bothered with the zipper as I was afraid to ever remove the cover as we didn't have a single more feather leak out.

I have seen styles of duvet where there's top ticking, bottom ticking, and a zigzag piece of fabric sewed alternately to the top and the bottom so you end up with a bunch of tubes, but with the seams off-set. The idea is to not have seams with no feathers that leave cold spots. You might be able to manage the same concept with Megan's pocket idea, but I wouldn't go any larger than her suggestion - maybe even smaller - if you want the warmth to be consistent. That said, you could consider whether there are parts of your body that tend to get cold - say the feet - and put extra feathers in that area.

Whatever you do, it's going to be a lot of work, and the ticking won't be cheap. I'd consider putting the word out in the community for more feathers so you can make something you'll feel is really useful. I raise ducks and am in the same position. I think I've got enough now to be useful (I've heard that feather bed toppers are lovely), but I know it's going to be a large and messy project, so it hasn't made it anywhere near the top of the list. So please post pictures when you figure it out, so I can learn from you!

Thanks for your replies.

I've done a quick bit of research and it looks like what I want is "waxed cotton cambric". Apparently the fabric is 'wax' coated on one side to prevent mites getting in and also helps stops the feathers poking out. Cool wash only. There are several places that stock it in the Uk - here is one: Calico lane

Conventional fabric seems to be about £5 a metre (154cm width) so not too bad for a project cost. I'll see is any higher ecoscale fabric is available before making a choice.

I'm pretty sure that the finished article will be worth while. I'll maybe use an old duvet just to see what the filling looks like when spread out over a bed size and see whether it looks thick enough. If not then I could make a smaller size for the guest bed. We don't have a single duvet at the moment so that might be nice for them...

In the bleak midwinter thoughts turn to snuggly beds. I'm rather in favour of hibernation during January!
Anyway , I still needed to tidy up those feathers: they had unfortunately got a little damp, but dried out OK after a few days over the clothes airer in the kitchen.
I also found an old feather duvet that needed restuffing, so thought that would be better to do that first rather than start from scratch. This is a single duvet made by the Scandanavian Quilt Co. Edinburgh possibly in the late 1960s judging by the labels. It had got rather flat, but the fabric was still in good condition.

Old feather quilt for refurbushment

So I decided that refurbishing this with my feathers would be a good start. The construction is simple channels along the length of the cover, sealed by a double seam at the end. The fabric is much finer than standard cotton sheet material, but is a similar weight. You can see the fineness compared to a blue pillowcase.

Pillowcase fabric (blue) comparison with eiderdown fabric

So I started by unpicking this seam and topping up each channel with more feathers. Pushing the new feathers as far as I could and shaking them down to the bottom. Messy!

Re-stuffing in progress!

I had feathers everywhere! There was a fine covering all over the room and me and the dogs. I tacked (basted) each pocket closed as I went so as to try and restrain them a bit. Once I had done all the channels I found that the duvet was a bit over stuffed, and I unpicked the seam again to take some of the feathers back out, before sewing a double seam all along the end again using my machine.

Sewing end closed

The finished duvet is the right size for our spare bed and indeed is being tried out at the moment by our friend Andy, who has reported it as being very warm and cosy, but with a good weight still, so maybe I could have removed a few more feathers.

Trying restuffed eiderdown for size (this was before removing some of the feathers again)

How to do this is a real puzzle. I have various downfield comforters bought from thrift shops, with universal problems of shifting feathers, and cold areas at the seams.

I think the perfect comforter for my needs would be two layers of down pockets. To visualize this I would say imagine 18 inch square pockets filled with down and joined together. On the second layer, the center of the pockets would be over the seams.

I have been thinking about this for years and have not yet tried it.  Nice to see that others are considering the same thing.

Thekla McDaniels wrote: I would say imagine 18 inch square pockets filled with down and joined together. On the second layer, the center of the pockets would be over the seams.

A simpler way might be two duvets as above; one with the pockets running up/down the bed and the other with the pockets running side to side. Yes there might be a small spot where the seams cross with less insulation, but actually when puffed up, the seams are quite recessed and the trapped air insulates there as well.

I use tightly woven fabric for filling down/feather: sewing three sides and stitch down the channels; fill in equal amount of materials in each channel; stitch the side shut and even out the fillings; stitch a perpendicular line in the middle; then do the same at 1/4 line etc until fillings are secured in the grids. I make a duvet cover that is 30% smaller in both dimensions and put the insert in. There is no need to use ties or anything to hold the two together because of the pressure and friction. And the resulting duvet has a lot of loft and is smaller than the flat cover. This is a hindsight though because I intended to made a full size and it turned out to be a short twin.

May Lotito wrote:I use tightly woven fabric for filling down/feather: sewing three sides and stitch down the channels; fill in equal amount of materials in each channel; stitch the side shut and even out the fillings; stitch a perpendicular line in the middle; then do the same at 1/4 line etc until fillings are secured in the grids. I make a duvet cover that is 30% smaller in both dimensions and put the insert in. There is no need to use ties or anything to hold the two together because of the pressure and friction. And the resulting duvet has a lot of loft and is smaller than the flat cover. This is a hindsight though because I intended to made a full size and it turned out to be a short twin.

I also think that the duvet cover is the key to avoiding cold seams. Stuff the duvet in a cover and you have pockets of trapped air over the seams which stay warm. Besides, you need a good duvet cover to avoid the hassle of laundering the feather duvet.