Make two toddler duvets out of one twin or full duvet

When I made my little toddler beds, I decided that I had to have a couple of duvets to go on them.  I think duvets are such a great option for kids bedding.  With a good cover, you don't have to mess with top (flat) sheets and you can just fluff them up in the morning, lay them out over the bed and you are good to go.  No endless smoothing and pulling.  When it is time to wash bedding, just pull off the cover and throw it in with the sheets and pillowcases.  I love it. It makes life sooo much easier for me.

Now, I only had one problem.  Toddler duvets are pretty much non-existent unless you want to pay a small fortune for them.  But, I got thinking, I have a perfectly good full-sized duvet sitting in plastic out in the garage.  I don't have a full-sized bed in my house, so why not use that duvet to make two toddler duvets for my kids new beds.

Now to the hard part.  This duvet is an actual down filled comforter - a real mess if you start cutting it up, so this is how I handled it.

First, I measured the length and width of my little bed frames.  I added  12 inches to the width and 6 inches to the length. (I wanted six inches overhang on each side and the bottom. If I did this again, I would have added closer to 9 inches in length, since I think the duvets ended up being just a little on the short side.)  I laid out my duvet on the floor, smoothed it out, and measured and marked lines right on my duvet showing the exact outline I wanted for each smaller duvet.  I measured from the top and sides of the duvet - this way I would only have to stitch and cut one side and the bottom (Clear as mud?  I really should have taken pictures. Sorry!!)

(Here's a rotten picture of one of my lines.)

Now, for the hardest part.  Go to your sewing maching and try your best to push as much of the down filling away from the lines.  Stitch 1/4 inch away from the lines on each side of the line.  Make sure that the fabric is smooth on both sides and you are not catching any fabric on the underside (Trust me - - this can cause a real mess when it is time to start cutting.) 

Now that you have stitching on each side of all the lines, it is time to cut.  Carefully cut down the lines you have drawn, between the two stitching lines.  You will have a bit of down fly out, but if you have sewn correctly and not caught any fabric in a weird way, then there should be minimal mess.


Now you should have two unfinished edges.  I just zig zagged down each of them and called it good. After all, these are going inside a cover.  But, if you want a nice finished look, you could easily sew bias tape around the edges.


The finished comforters.  You can see a little down escaped onto the carpet.  But not bad for cutting up a duvet like that.

For the covers, I just purchased some inexpensive white bedsheets, cut them to size and then sewed around them, leaving about a 24 inch opening at the bottom.  I then added snaps to the opening to keep it closed, but allowing for easy removal on laundry days.