When all this is finished, take your little cane and whip it all over hard, as though you were beating a carpet. Turn it often as this helps to loosen the down inside.
This completes the cleaning process, which is simple but complete, and then you are ready for the re-covering.
The new cover, needless to say, depends entirely upon individual choice whether it is to be satin, silk, sateen or chintz.
I always use a pretty chintz corresponding to the curtains and hangings of the bedroom the quilt belongs to. One side I cover with this, and the other side I use a self-coloured sateen or casement cloth to tone.
It is impossible for me to give the amount of material necessary, as eiderdowns vary tremendously in size. There are many different widths in what is called a double-bedded quilt, as also in the single-bedded ones. For large-sized ones you will have to have a seam down the centre, as no material is wide enough to cover it completely; but, for a single-width quilt, a forty-inch goods will be wide enough.
Re-covering the Quilt.
The last quilt I covered was for a brown room with a china-blue carpet patterned in white, and so I chose a willow-pattern chintz with a reverse side of brown sateen, and it was really one of the most successful I have done.
First of all, machine-stitch the two widths of material together, being careful to match the design on the right side, and carefully press the seam flat. Then spread out on the floor the sateen—also seamed—and, laying the eiderdown upon it, run a tacking thread all round the edge, being careful to stretch the quilt to its fullest, so as not to make the cover too tight. After this run a line of stitching around each and every little eyelet, of which there are many; these hold the cover in position for the next step.
Taking a long thread of a bright-coloured cotton, carefully follow out the design of the quilting, which, in my particular case, was a very elaborate scroll, tacking the stitches right through the quilt to the new piece of material. If the design is very complicated this needs patience; but nowadays eiderdowns are more often quilted in straight lines, with perhaps a diamond centre.
Always tack your pattern on the plain side of the material, as it is so much easier to stitch on the machine later on if there is no pattern to dazzle your eyes.