Buying covers for a queen duvet can get expensive fast. After all, prices go up as the duvet gets bigger, and queen sized bedding is large. After a while, it seems silly to pay a hundred dollars or more for something that you could easily make yourself with a few sewing skills. If you're feeling crafty, here's some information on how to make a duvet cover for your queen bed.

While it can be intimidating at first, making your own queen duvet cover isn't really very hard. At the most basic, a duvet cover is just a large fabric bag to hold the bedding and protect it from skin oils and other dirt. With the right fabric and correct measurements, almost anyone can make their own duvet cover.

The first step is to measure your duvet. A queen sized mattress is sixty inches across by eighty inches wide. However, bedding varies, and a duvet might be eighty-six by eighty-six inches, ninety by ninety, ninety-six by ninety-two, or any other combination of sizes. Carefully figure out how wide your duvet is by how long, and then measure the thickness of the duvet. You'll need to incorporate a little extra fabric on every side of your duvet cover to account for the duvet's height.

Once you know your dimensions, it's time to look for fabric. You can use some queen or king sized sheets as a duvet cover material. The big advantage of this is that you'll be able to make your cover using very few seams. Look in discount or surplus stores to find inexpensive sheets that are still high enough quality to be used to cover your duvet. If you don't want to use sheets or can't find any you like, you can take a trip to the fabric store.

Unfortunately, most fabrics don't come wide enough to cover your duvet all at once. If this is the case, buy several lengths of your fabric, so that you'll be able to join them together and create the width you need. For instance, for a duvet that's eighty-six inches wide, two widths of forty-five inch fabric could be used, with a single seam down the middle. For wider queen duvets, you'll need more widths, or wider fabric, such as sixty inch wide fabric. Remember to take seam allowance into account when purchasing fabric. You'll need enough fabric to cover both the front and back of your duvet. Leave a six inch overlap on the front to fold over.

Once you have your fabric, it's time to start sewing. Use a strong, matching thread, and join your panels together. Create a front and a back for your duvet, zigzagging, overcasting, or binding the edge of the seam to make it strong. Then, put the two pieces together, with the right sides facing. Sew your duvet cover on three sides, leaving the top open. The front overlap should stick out a little more than the back. Hem the top edges, and turn your duvet cover right side out. If you want to attach buttons, snaps, or hook and loop tape to keep your duvet inside it's cover, now's the time. However, you can also just fold the flap over. Slide the duvet inside, and you're done!