big girl bed

when it came time to make a duvet to fit the new big girl bed, i can't say i was excited. all i could imagine was screaming matches of dora versus gingham. that was, until i asked nicely what kind of a duvet tova would like. i found a couple of options to see if i could casually introduce something that wasn't neon pink, one of which was a japanese fabric found on ebay with pink robots! PINK ROBOTS!!! i played it cool while showing the options, but i just about did a cartwheel when she let me know that the pink robots were her fave.

i'm pretty sure a picture tutorial of what i did may be over the top, especially since many books describe how to do this much better than me. but for those who are interested, here's the rundown of the process of making a simple duvet. i purchased one yard of the decorative fabric, partly because of cost - japanese fabric isn't cheap and i tried to keep in mind that it's for a kid's bed. i based my measurements of the finished cover off of a 45"x65" down blanket i picked up at target during the holidays. i sliced the yard of robot fabric in two width-wise, cut a extra long twin sized pink chambray flat sheet down to size to fit in between the robots, and started sewing! adding the leftover part of the flat sheet to the back of the duvet, i made sure to sew ties into the inside of the duvet at the top two corners, and by adding two loops to the top corners of the duvet itself, this insured that while making the bed each morning, the result wouldn't be a frustrated toddler trying to get a lumpy duvet inside of a cover to cooperate. for extra insurance that the duvet would stay in place, i made sure to add twill ties to the bottom of what is really just an over-sized pillowcase. voila, a washable quilt! and if you're trying to promote making your own bed each morning, do what the scandinavians do and forget the top sheet and just use the quilt. i promise, that will give those little hands reason to give you hive fives each morning!