a duvet to dream under

Well, it's finally finished! sort of. It's on my bed at least and we slept under it last night. I haven't figured out the bottom where it will eventually have some sort of closure, but I was so excited to see it on my bed that I put it on late last night, right before we hopped in.

The top is from Amy Butler's Nigella home dec collection and I just used the flat sheet to our sheets for the back. We never use it, so it was perfect for the underside, so soft for sleeping under. We like the nordic way of sleeping under a duvet - no sheets (except on the mattress) just under the comforter.

I coached my husband ahead of time that requisite Ooh-ing and Aah-ing was in order or he'd be sleeping on the couch. When he saw it he was genuinely excited. And then this morning I was admiring it from under it's warmth and he said, "yeah, this thing is Awesome! It's nice and warm."

I do love the way it turned out - but I don't plan on making another duvet cover anytime soon. It took longer than I thought for several reasons: (if you aren't interested in minutiae, you can stop reading here.)

1. It's King-sized - that's a LOT of fabric to cut and match and pin together.
   
2. I had to match the pattern in two seams (I didn't want a seam down the middle, so I made two side panels). This was probably what intimidated me the most. Fortunately, the fabric was designed and printed so that matching the designs was relatively uncomplicated. I've never really worked with decorator prints - so maybe they are all printed with this foresight. But I'm going to give the credit to Amy Butler - she's a genius!
   
3. I did have to pin each seam twice. Once with right sides together to match it up and then flipping and repinning so I could sew it.
4. It's hard to cut a straight line that long - sewing the side seams together I had to measure from the seam and draw a line for sewing and then pinning and then manuevering the other 96" of fabric as I sewed the seam. I did, however, break out the Ginghers that my mom gave me years ago - the cut like a dream! I've been using my rotary cutter for pretty much everything - I didn't know I was the owner of such a treasure!
   

I'm sure there's more, but can't think of them right now. I'm so glad I did it! I learned a lot in the process and luckily did the hardest part while my mom was here last month and could hold my hand while I figured out the logistics of it all.

It definitely makes the room seem more put together. I plan on making some pillows and things to go on the bed - some of the blue and maybe some red thrown in too. I wish I could paint the walls. . . .

So I was a day late in finishing for the challenge. I called my mom to tell her and she reported that she just needs to sew on the borders for her quilt. So I guess working out was easier to accomplish last week than our sewing projects - hmmmm. that's weird.