When cold weather starts rolling in there is nothing I like more than a heavy, warm duvet on the bed. The only problem with duvets is they often just don’t stay in place in their covers. They bunch up at one end or just end up in the middle. My mom recently picked up a new duvet and cover for her guest room and asked me if I could come up with a way to keep the duvet in place.

I thought about a few different options. I could tie it in different places around the duvet, like some people tie quilts. (You can see here how Jenny at A Mom and 2 Things did this with hers.) Thing is, my mom’s cover was mainly white and I knew with four grandsons using the guest room, she’d want to be able to take it off and wash it easily. My next thought was velcro, but I worried about it catching on the duvet. Finally, I came up with the option I ended up using, I would create tabs with buttonholes in them for the cover and add buttons to the duvet itself.

Make That Duvet Behave

Supplies:

• scrap fabric or cotton ribbon that won’t show through your duvet cover (I used a white dish towel.)
• matching thread
• 6 buttons

Tools:

• scissors
• sewing machine with buttonhole foot
• hand sewing needle

1. If you are using fabric, cut it into 6 rectangles big enough to hem on all four sides and still fit a buttonhole big enough for your button in the middle. Hem all four sides by folding over twice and sewing down. These do not need to be pretty. I didn’t even worry about them being all the same size, if I did it again I would pay more attention to that. (If you are using ribbon you will only have to hem two sides. I used the edge of my dish towels, so I could use the hem already there on at least one side.)

2. Sew a buttonhole the right size for your buttons in the middle of each tag.

3. Turn the duvet cover inside out. Sew a tab onto the seam allowance at each of the four corners and in the middle of each shorter side. I did this by hand, but you could do it on a machine.

4. Sew a button on the edge of all four corners and the middle of  both short sides of the duvet itself. Make sure you are sewing all the buttons on the same side of the duvet.

5. Turn the duvet cover right side out and slip the duvet in. Button the buttons on the duvet to the tabs on the cover. Now your duvet should behave!