Monday, December 7, 2009

NYR #22, Twill Tape Ties Tutorial

Does anyone else have a problem with their duvet moving around inside of their duvet cover?  We were really getting tired of our duvet bunching down to the bottom of the bed.  I read about this solution years ago on the Martha Stewart Living website, but I've adapted her advice and created my own tutorial.

To do this project you will need:
(1) Package of twill tape in a color to match your duvet (for me it's white to match my boring white duvet)
(2) Spools of thread in contrasting colors
Hot glue gun or fray check
Sewing Machine
Scissors

STEP ONE: Cut (8) eight inch strips of twill tape to make the ties.

STEP TWO: Apply fray check or, as I did, run the slanted end through the tiniest bit of hot glue to stabilize it. 
STEP THREE: Beginning with red, I sewed a small box (or you could just sew a straight line) on four of ties.  Then I switched to the pink thread and sewed pink onto the other four pieces.

 **If you have two different colors of fabric markers you could just draw lines on the ties.**
 
STEP FOUR: Beginning with one red tie, fold over the end (without colored thread) 1/4 inch. Then pin it to one bottom right corner of your duvet and sew away.

Really.  Go to town sewing back and forth so this sucker won't rip off.  Repeat with another red tie on the other bottom corner.  Then move to the top of your duvet and sew two pink ties to the top corners of the duvet.

STEP FIVE:  Now you will attach the remaining four ties to inside of the duvet cover.  To do this, flip the duvet cover inside out, fold over the non-colored end of the tie 1/4 inch, pin it to a corner of the duvet cover in the seam allowance and sew away again.  Make sure that you use the red twill tape on the bottom of the the duvet cover and the pink on the top.

STEP SIX: Tie the twill tape pieces on the duvet cover to the matching twill tape pieces on the duvet - pink to pink and red to red.

STEP SEVEN: Flip the duvet inside of the duvet cover and you are done!  It's still boring white (perhaps an update is due in 2010?) but at least the duvet is now staying in place.

3 comments:

Betty Rockit said...

Thanks for stopping by! My mom used to do that to all our duvet covers, genius idea!

Annie said...

Great Idea and great tutorial.
But there's one thing I just don't get and need you to enlighten me....Why do you need to make sure not to mix up the ends? I think I understand that you did red and pink so that you can remember which is top and bottom....but is that just a time saver? Would it be awful to just do four white ties and just figure it out as you're tying it in?!!
(Actually, I think the truth of it is, I have no idea which is top or bottom or front or back on my duvet. I just make sure we've got the length and width right to match the bed and then I just throw it in there.)

Your non-sewing, duvet-ignorant friend,
~annie

Mrs. Fix said...

I don't know what size your duvet cover is, but the length and width on mine is just slightly not square... like 85X92 or something like that. So this way I don't have to figure out which is the length and which is the width when I put it into the duvet cover. Does that make sense?