Never again will I repurpose an old duvet... But happy with result.

[hystrung]

Hello y'all,
So a few years ago, I retired a super nice duvet to the back of the closet because having kiddos jumping on the bed tends to bust the internal baffles (grrrr). Flash forward to this month where I decided to try my hand at stitching up a fluffy top quilt. OMG. I Still have little down fluffs everywhere after cutting into the old duvet, dumping the down into the bathtub, and then hand stuffing the fluff into my new quilt.

Hubby was impressed and I will make one for him later this summer, however, I will purchase new down packets instead of harvesting from an old duvet. Lol

Here are a few pics of my finished quilt. It wound up being approx 56x78 and maybe 3-4" high fully lofted. Total finished weight including the stuff sack is 28oz. I guess it might be a 0 degree quilt? Probably too warm, but I sleep very cold) Will try it out in the mountains of Colorado in a few weeks.

Foot area cinched up
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Robin Egg Blue and Black HyperD fabric
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Flat on the floor
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Preparing to cut into my old duvet.
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Down went everywhere!
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[tangara]

Don't speak too soon. The underquilt should last you 20 years or so, and by then you'll have forgotten the mess. I usually do mine in the garage, surrounding everything with blue tarps and then let the air blow through after I'm done making a mess. I've heard if you make the down wet, it's not as bad to deal with. Great looking quilt!

[WV]

I use the technique with a vacuum cleaner wand with a piece of noseeum mesh over one end. Suck the down out of the old quilt or whatever to trap it in the wand. Then disconnect the wand and use a homemade plunger to push the down into the new quilt. This can be done with minimum mess. A valuable refinement of this method is to put the source of the down in a plastic tub and put the tub on a scale so you can weigh the down that is drawn into the tube. I use this with newly purchased bags of down, not just recycled. You need a scale that will weigh tenths of a gram, but it's worth it.

[sidvicious]

beautiful work!

[hystrung]

Thank you for the advice on dealing with the down. Next time will be better, I am sure.

I also will not start stuffing the next quilt in the living room (curious dogs tend to knock over your bag of down and wagging tails stirs up all sorts of air currents)

Filling the bathtub with the harvested down was quite fun and cool to look at, but one sneeze is a mistake. Haha. I was pleasantly surprised to only find 3 or 4 feathers in the down.

The main damage was because the bathroom is on the complete other side of the house from my sewing room. I left a little trail of fluff when heading over to stitch up the opening after stuffing.

[sanglin]

That looks fantastic. I recently completed a down top quilt myself which was my first sewing/down experience ever.... I had the same finished reaction.. Never Again!!! .... maybe one more time tho. haha

Lots of work, but totally worth it.

[Scoutmaster1056]

I will second the vacuum cleaner option. It works great, you can even get the few floaters out of the air before they get away! I have harvested the down from 4 Costco quilts now with no problems. I should be sewing up the new top quilt tonight. I finished the underquilt last month.

[Double]

I used the vacuum method at first but found it faster to just hand stuff into little baggies to get the right amount for each baffle. Then place said baggies as far into the quilt as i can and shake the fluff out.

[ironfish77]

I have re-used down from high quality quilts. I did the stuffing by making slits just big enough to get my hand in the baffle and then I squished the down together and pulled out a fist full of fluffiness. I immediately put my fist into the new quilt shell and then closed up the opening. I found working outside either in the very early morning or at dusk worked very well because there was just a hint, wisp of air circulation, it moved the loose down away from me, my house and most of all my face. Recently I tried that technique in the afternoon, a breeze came along, wala, down all over the place, looked like it had snowed, neighbors looking at me in a very disapproving way. My excuse was the birds and other critters could use the lost down to line their nests.

Many years ago, we just got the down wet, put it in the new project and sewed it up. I believe today's down is higher quality and or processed differently.

Personally I always wash a down article and dry it thoroughly before I reuse it.

[groupertrpr]

That is a great looking quilt!!