Hi,
I feel rather 'sad' posting this! We got a new mattress last week which is thicker than our previous one. Before when I made the bed, I was able to tuck the duvet under the mattress and the bed always looked perfectly neat and tidy. Now that we have the new thicker mattress, I cant tuck the duvet under as it wont reach and so the bed never looks neat when I've made it. I have noticed that our double duvet isn't quite as big as the duvet covers so the edges aren't neat and straight. I've decided to buy a new double duvet which will hopefully fit into the duvet cover properly but can't decide which to buy. I can't decide between a Dorma 'touch of down' duvet which is £39.99 or a luxury goosedown one which is £75.99 - we have the Dorma touch of down pillows and they are really good so that is why I'm considering the same duvet. I have never had a feather duvet before and I have always been put off at the thought of feathers poking through and prickling Can anyone recommend either? I just want a nice fluffy duvet which will stay fluffy that fits properly inside my duvet covers. I know another option would be to buy a king sized duvet and covers so that I could tuck them under the new mattress but I have two rather new sets of bedding and matching curtains from next which I love and were quite expensive so I need to stick with a double size......reading back through this post I feel the need to get a life LOL!!! I am too houseproud for my own good!

Hayley

Proper down quilts are a squillion times better than synthetic ones IMO.

Do many feathers come through and do they keep their fullness?

The feathers have always stayed put with ours, and a good airing (hanging out of the window as they do on the Continent) or over the washing line on a fine day dries them and plumps them up again nicely.

The only problem is that they need to be professionally cleaned and not bunged in the washing machine!

The one that I'm looking at states that it is machine washable or would you just not recommend it?

Is your machine big enough? Some washing machines are quite small, and I'm pretty sure that tumble-drying would be essential to stop the wet feathers clumping. I tried washing a feather pillow once, and learned that it's quicker just to throw it away rather than bother to wash it and then have to throw it away!

But if the care instructions say that it can be machine washed then I'd go for it.

I've never washed our down duvet - always have it professionally washed :) Couldn't get it into our washing machine anyway as it's a super king-size. The only duvets that I have successfully washed in the machine are summer, single, synthetic ones :)

I've never been able to tuck a duvet in - I didn't know that they were intended to be tucked in :D

Fraid that I never 'make' my bed - only turn the duvet cover back to air the bed.

Daisy

I must admit that I too thought the whole point of duvets was that they weren't meant to be tucked in! :o

Down every time - you won't want to get out of bed if it's the first time you've had one. :D

M.

Well, think I will try a feather one then. There are 85% goose feather, 15% goose down which are £35 or 90% goose down, 10% goose feather which are £76 - I take it goose down is better than feather?

Down is softer and lighter and traps more warm air than feathers. Definitely better quality, hence the cost. We've never had the money for a down quilt, but our feather one is far superior to our old synthetic, which was instantly relegated to a dog-blanket once we'd realised the difference!

Yes, the down is better than feather. Imagine they all are these days, but make sure it's 'pocket stitched' (squares) rather than just 'channel stitched' (lines the length of duvet) so the filling stays well distributed.

Ours is washable, takes a long while to dry in the tumble drier - a launderette would be better, give it more room. A tip is to put a couple of clean tennis balls in the drier with it, moves the clumps around.

M.

Well thankyou for the advice ladies! The down one is very expensive but like my husband said to me when I was trying to justify the price of a new mattress - we spend half of our life in bed so we might as well get something decent. I think I will get the down one and forget about the radley handbag that I have my eye on:rolleyes:

Hayley

I love my goose down duvet   As JG says the quality of the covering should keep the feathers in place perfectly.  I have mine machine washed at a launderette and it comes up lovely.  In fact it says not to dry clean.  It is King size so that I can tuck it round down the bottom but you are not supposed to do that really as it squashes down the "loft" but I am not very tall so won't notice :)
My summer one is down and feather and that is good too but much less TOG.  That fits into the larger washer at the self service launderette.

Duvets shouldn't be dry cleaned now, I think. Something to do with the chemicals being retained in the filling and giving off toxic fumes ...... something like that anyway :D

Daisy

I've been chatting to my mum and told her that I'm going to get a goose down duvet but she has put me off:rolleyes: I suffer from quite a few allergies and mother warned me that a feathered duvet could trigger them I don't know what to do now. I would still really like one but don't want to spend all that money and find it irritates me, then again I could be fine

Hayley

Have to say, we decided to buy some expensive feather pillows and I kept getting really bad headaches (around the eye area) and very stuffed nose. They were often so bad that I would go to bed.....and wake up feeling worse !. Somebody asked if I had feather pillows etc. As soon as we got rid of them I was fine. We got rid of our feather cushions also. I like that I can wash the pillows often.

Val

Yep, my father always had a terrible stuffed nose until he realised what was causing it; once he went back to synthetic he was fine :)

If you have allergies, I'd be careful! :)

I think you will have to spend several hours in the shop with your face buried in the sample quilt......or book into one of those boutique hotels that have them on the beds :)

:P  good idea!!

Been shopping this morning and bought a dorma synthetic duvet that is supposed to be very similar to down. Its all pocketed and I'm happy with it I was undecided at first but one thing made my mind up.....all the feather ones stink!! I also bought a bedspread to use instead of the duvet on hot summer nights and I've draped across the bottom of the bed and some little scatter cushions and now my bed looks brill! Must admit though, I had a feel of the goose down duvet and the quality was fantastic - I could tell that it would last ages.

>all the feather ones stink!!

Oh dear, and there was me blaming Hubby :D
When you get them home and air them out they are fine ;)

>>>>When you get them home and air them out they are fine<<<<

Mental image of hubby hanging on line airing out:D:D:D

:D

>Them!

How many Hubbies have you got, Christine? ;)

:-D .......... nutters, the lot of you!! :-D

>>>How many Hubbies have you got, Christine<<<  I refuse to answer on grounds of not wantin to incriminate meself :D

anyway methinks you need to answer that 1, it was you who said them, now we all know what that little holiday cottage is for 2??(maybe more) hubbies, 2 lives not to worry secrets safe here I won`t tell a soul...............:D:D:D