Bedding question

[magid]

Can anyone explain why a duvet cover (which in the U.S. is apparently just a "duvet," with a "comforter" inside, at least on the stuff I looked at tonight) costs so much more than two flat sheets of appropriate size sewn together?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Because it's already sewn?

Seriously, though, I had one quilt-cover growing up that was professionally made, and it was beautifully made, with precise stiching and constrasting ruffled edging and a folded-over, buttoned end; and I had a cover my mother -- an experienced and talented seamstress in my younger days -- put togther from two sheets, which turned out unsmoooth and bunchy and plain and did not close well, seeing as she chose velcro (ugh) for the method of closing.

So, I suppose if you were to find high-quality fabric or sheets and were able to stitch a cover that doesn't pucker and lies flat, you could certainly do it yourself. As simple as the idea is, I don't have those skills, and my mother lost them somehwere along the way.

[magid.livejournal.com]

The covers I was looking at didn't have beautiful stitching, nor nice-feeling fabrics, nothing fancy. I don't have a sewing machine, nor much talent, but the price differential between two nice sheets and an ok-quality cover seemed steep enough that I started thinking about borrowing time on a machine.

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

Because we're crazy like that.

Also, the fabric tends to be different/of a higher quality/more expensive.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I guess I just saw low-quality ones, then, because I didn't like any of the fabrics. The new comforter is silky, with a white-on-white pattern; all I want is something less slidey but still nice to touch, that I can take off and wash, and is blue.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Um, because it comes with the seams already sewn together?

Unless you mean you actually found two flat sheets of appropriate size sewn together.

In which case I'd say the "comforter inside" accounted for the extra cost.

[magid.livejournal.com]

It just seemed like the price differential was much higher than the sewing cost (a flat sheet needs hemming all around, so it can't cost that much, right?).

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, so it's not a matter of why it costs so much more to sew two sheets together than it costs for just the two sheets, but rather of why it costs so much more to sew two large pieces of cloth together into a cover than it costs to sew the two large pieces into two separate sheets. Put that way, it really shouldn't cost more.