{Guest Blogger: To the Bedroom and Beyond!}

Today I am totally pumped to introduce to you my very best friend.. Allyson Drake! She has always been the most crafty person I know. We lived together during college and she was always coming up with fun ideas for her bedroom and our living area. She's smart and thrifty and has a great eye for style. She is the absolute best and everything she does is such a hit! When I asked her about being a guest blogger for us, she was really excited to contribute some of her latest ideas. We will be privileged to hear from her a couple of times each month, so be on the lookout for Allyson's must see projects!

Guest Blogger: {Allyson Drake, White Textured Duvet Cover}

Since moving out to Philly just over a year ago I’ve slowly been decorating and then re-decorating the majority of our apartment. {Anyone else have decorating A.D.D.?} In that time I have never really started our bedroom. So after many nights falling asleep with dreams of paint, duvets, and drapes {oh my!} and after many more nights of of pinning…I’m jumping into it and bringing you along with me in a quest for a Fabuless bedroom!

The first item of business… Bedding.

I really wanted to design a room around the bedding, not the bedding around the room. So I searched everywhere and decided I really like white textured bedding, namely these:

Here, Here, & Here

The tutorial from Made By Lex is amazing and easy to understand. I did do a few things differently...

ONE.
I bought a gathering foot on Amazon.com for $10. Best decision I’ve ever made. Have you gathered fabric by hand? Not fun. And having to do a whole duvet’s worth of gathering by hand? Didn’t want to find out how fun that was. If you’re going to do this project or something like it {maybe THIS ruffled shower curtain???}, I highly recommend it.
To see how it works, watch THIS tutorial.

...but skip ahead 5 minutes into it. You’re welcome.

TWO.
I used wider ruffled strips. My huz wasn’t keen on a ruffled duvet, because he’s a man and all, but I convinced him wider strips would make it less ruffled and less girly. Did it really? Eh, maybe. But does he like how it turned out? Yes.

THREE.
I used thinner flat strips in between the gathered strips. I wanted less attention on those, more attention on the ruffles. Just for fun, here are my strip dimensions: 5 gathered rows at 18” (cut at 19 to allow for ½” seam allowances), 4 flat rows are 1” (cut at 2”).

FOUR.
Instead of using three Queen sheets to make a Queen duvet {as directed in the tutorial}, I used a clearance King Duvet {$18} and 4 Ikea Knoppa twin sheets {$4 each. One of which I already had}. I made my ruffled “sheet” with the Ikeas, dissected the King duvet and cut it down a little bit, attached the ruffled sheet to the duvet, sewed the duvet back together, gently shoved our old bedspread inside, and VOILA!



What do you think?!?

We are loving it, loving the Fabuless price of about $35 {not counting the gathering foot…that’s an “investment” right?} and are excited to keep things rolling with the rest of the room. Thanks Fabuless Girls for letting me share! See you again soon.

sincerely fabuless, Allyson in Philly.

I am in love with this duvet cover. Our sophomore year of college I actually had Allyson make me a twin duvet cover for my bed. I picked out some funky fresh fabrics and she whipped it up like it was nothing (even though she had never made one before). Her first duvet cover was awesome, and this most recent one is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing Allyson! Your bedroom is well on its way to being featured in the next issue of Pottery Barn. We are excited to see what you do next!

For those who are itching to re-decorate their bedroom without spending $300 on bedding..give this duvet cover a try, and please let us know how it goes. Also, Allyson is willing to give more detailed instructions or answer any questions you may have, so just leave a comment if you'd like some more information!