BS: Duvets

Subject: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 08 Apr 17 - 04:27 PM

I've been wondering about this for a while, and thought of all the folk on here from USA and many other countries, who may be kind enough to tell me. Do you all use duvets, and if so, what are they filled with?
Do you have 'tog' ratings? Mine for example is a 15 tog (very warm) and filled with Hungarian goose down. It cost £250 some years ago. It's used with cotton covers like huge envelopes, which are washed every week. But the duvet itself has never been washed, only aired on the washing line on sunny/windy days.
In UK duvets began to be introduced in the seventies. I was in Scotland then, and there we called them 'downies'. I believe in the Western Isles (esp Outer Hebrides) they used puffin down. I always had an eiderdown as a child, but this sat on top of all the blankets, and wasn't the same thing as a duvet.
My duvet is so warm one could sleep outside under it and not feel the cold. But it's very light.
I'm interested to know what other folk in other places use as bedding.
My husband had no bedding at all, just a flat mat on the floor. But in Ivory Coast you'd cook in the heat if you had any bed covers!

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Apr 17 - 04:40 PM

We have a summer duvet and a winter duvet. If it was anything to do with me, I'd chuck the winter duvet out. But it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with Mrs Steve. We each think that the other has an equal but opposite terrible heat-related disease to what the other accuses the other of. If you know what I mean.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 08 Apr 17 - 05:21 PM

A sort of reciprocal duvet prejudice Steve?

I found sleeping uncovered on a mat on the hard floor quite comfortable in Africa. My sisters-in-law were beside me, while the menfolk slept in another shack. But at home I have to be smothered in duvet or I feel very chilly. I'd never have anything less than a 15 tog one.

I do remember our blankets as a child (old ex-army, rough, hairy things) were terribly heavy, but necessary with no heating at all in our home except a coal fire in the sitting room. There was always ice on the inside of the bedroom windows in winter.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Apr 17 - 06:33 PM

We had exactly the same. I remember those big thick grey or brown blankets. A cotton sheet, two of them and an eiderdown. Cosy but a bit repressive!

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Apr 17 - 06:35 PM

In the US, practice varies.
Duvets are now heard of, and used, but not by everybody.

By the time I found out what a duvet was, for example, I had left home and gone away to university in a large metropolis on the East Coast; I had never heard of such a thing.

Where I was raised, in the "rust belt" around the Great Lakes, there was certainly snow and cold in the wintertime, and winter bedding changed to keep one warm. What we used, if not "quilts" outright, were called "comforters." However these had no envelope/cover that came off; and often as not, they were not filled with down but with some synthetic filler. Comforters were thrown down on top of blankets which were on top of top-sheets, is how I remember them. And if anybody had said the word "duvet" in the presence of my elders, classmates, or neighbors, the response would have been a blank look; the word was not even heard of.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 08 Apr 17 - 06:57 PM

That's very interesting keberoxu. I remember using the word 'comforter' to mean a thick woollen scarf knitted by my Irish auntie.

Of course, I'm forgetting that across the US, the climate varies markedly, and some winters are bitter while in other places there's scarcely any frost.

I remember in Scotland buying my first 'downie' in a shop called Norway House (which naturally sold Scandinavian wares, rather like a very early IKEA!)

Does anyone remember 'candlewick bedspreads'? My parents bought one in the late fifties and were very proud of it. They also had a silky satin-covered eiderdown which positively glistened, but my father cursed it, as it was always slipping off the bed!.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Apr 17 - 10:15 PM

I totally sleep under a comforter. I like the weight.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Apr 17 - 10:33 PM

We use sheets on top of a mattress cover, which is over a heating "blanket" (note that the heater is on the bottom, which is more sensible than putting it on top). On top of the sheet is very old acrylic blanket, on to of that a Pendleton Raven blanket, and then a quilt with a woolen batting. When we use the electric heater it's cold!!

Yes, I know duvets, and I've slept comfortably under them.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Apr 17 - 11:39 PM

here in Sydney we can get synthetic or wool or feather or down quilts. Also lots of warm blankets made of different fibres - wool, acrylic & other.

My bit of Sydney, on the eastern edge of the CBD & near the harbour (but without a view!) is warmer than the inner west, northern, western & southern suburbs. Some of the western suburbs get frost, & parts of the Blue Mountains which are the western border of the Sydney Metropolitan area, get snow.

I use an 80% down quilt, don't own a heater & keep my windows locked open about a hand & palm span all year.

Later this year I'll be moving (my 38 stairs are a killer!) to the inner south west where I would need heating. Tho if I get the place I want it has air conditioning ...

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Jeri
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 12:51 AM

I have a down comforter in a duvet cover, which makes it a duvet. It's goose down, although I don't know the origin of said gooses. (I suspect they may have been Canadian.) I like the lightness of it. It doesn't have a high warmth rating. I remember it was somehow rated, but nothing specific. It's over 30 years old. It's comfortable early in the night, but as it gets toward morning, the duvet and the memory foam topper conspire to try to bake me - forget the fact the heat's turned way down. I open my window and flap the duvet up and down to let some air in and heat out. You'd think I would have figured out how to get the temperatures right by now.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 04:16 AM

Here one can buy duvets from a wide range of tog. As Steve says, light summer ones (probably about 4 tog) up to my super-duper 15 tog (the maximum) They can be filled with pure goose down (most expensive),goose feather-and-down, duck down, duck feather-and-down, or synthetic fibre, which is hypo-allergenic. One can also get 'all seasons' duvets which comprise two, a winter and a summer one which can be joined together to make a very warm duvet when required.

I have the bedroom windows absolutely wide open all year round, and the bedroom can get like a fridge, but the duvet is my saviour, and I need the oxygen!
.
I like to do patchwork quilting, which is a traditional craft in many parts of the world. You join small pieces of material together in lovely tessellating designs, then attach a sheet of 'liner' (synthetic warm quilting pad) and stitch through the lot in various patterns. I watched a film once at our sewing club about the Amish people in USA making a quilt like this.

Rap, that raven blanket is beautiful.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: DMcG
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 05:30 AM

I dont know what happened to it but we used to have a conbination thing with two that fastened together to make a 15tog, but the two parts were different and one was a 4tog. The remaining bit sounds like you might expect 11 tog but from.memory was 9; presumably the insulation of the air in between them has a tog value as well.

Anyway, it meant you effectively had 4, 9 and 15 which you could change to match the season, but it was all too much of a faff really.

Wr have moved house a lot, changing bedroom configuration and whatnot so I suspect we have the largest collection of spare duvets iutaide a salesroom.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 06:18 AM

I will not inhabit any bedroom that has closed windows, and Mrs Steve generally even has a fight on her hands to stop me from leaving the curtains open.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 10:05 AM

Our curtains are closed at night, but with the howling gale blowing through, they're practically horizontal, so anyone could look in. But our village is as black as the hakes (no street lights) and silent as the grave. Only passing owls would be able to see us snoring away under our duvet.
My sister (bless her) has a horrible synthetic thing for a duvet on her guest bed. We hate it - it's terribly sweaty and heavy. I tend to wear what I call my 'Scottish nightie' (long,thick winceyette model) and chuck the offending duvet on the floor.
It's surprising how comfy and supportive the floor is for sleeping. In Africa, there isn't even a pillow. You rest your head on your folded arms, and wear only a tiny bit of clothing. I always sleep beautifully there. I never mind the heat. But I always set up a mosquito net, or one would be eaten alive.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 11:24 AM

My mother found down comforters on sale (I think the same thing you're calling "duvet") that she sent each of the kids years ago. They're a big job to occasionally clean (soak in a down cleaning soap in the tub then spin dry then dry on low in the dryer) so to make that less necessary I bought a couple of large bed sheets that I stitched together to make a duvet cover. It's not perfect, it shifts around inside that cover, but it does work. I didn't use it this winter because our weather didn't get cold enough for long enough. And like Jeri describes, there is often a point in the night when I have to fold it back on itself to let some cool air into the bedding.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 02:03 PM

"Hakes" ?

This is Norfolk speak for "hook" ?

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 03:15 PM

Hakes were the hooks used to suspend pots over the coal fire (I'm not as old as that, it was before my time) They were extremely black as the soot collected on them. My Irish mother was always saying "...black as the hakes..." For instance, "Yer hands are filthy girl. Black as the hakes. Go and wash them at once!"

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Charmion
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 03:29 PM

I encountered duvets for the first time in Germany, where I was posted during the late 1970s.

In Canada, if one lived in an ordinary house with normally drafty windows, in winter one slept under woollen blankets (one or two) arranged over a top sheet. The blankets might come from the Hudson's Bay Company if one were lucky. If one belonged to the right kind of family, the bed might be topped with a handmade quilt (there was no other kind) or even an eiderdown, which was a quilted bed-cover filled with -- you guessed it -- the down of eider ducks, instead of the second blanket. In my parents' house, which was really quite drafty, winter sleeping was done under a top sheet, a blanket, and a magnificently musty old carriage robe, emerging in the morning as if from some kind of cocoon.

In summer, if one lived in an ordinary house with no air-conditioning (that is, any house I ever had cognizance of), one slept under a sheet, if absolutely necessary, directly down-range from a fan set by an open window. On the rare occasion when more than a cotton sheet was wanted, a chenille or candlewick bedspread would be deployed, or perhaps a quilt.

I well remember the candlewick bedspread as status symbol, usually found in houses without cats, or with bedroom doors kept firmly shut to keep the cats off the beds. I owned a candlewick bedspread once, and it was wrecked in double-quick time by a pair of little black kittens who found it delightful for claw-stropping purposes.

Ever since returning from Germany, I have slept under a duvet in winter. We own two: a huge down-filled thing that is really too warm for this house and thus is hardly ever used, and a lighter one filled with silk that works well in all weathers except the hottest weeks of summer, when we resort to a light quilt or just a sheet. In the depths of winter, when the northwest wind is howling around the house and everything feels chilly, the Hudson's Bay blanket makes a rare appearance on top of the silk duvet; it's just too much of a hassle to haul out the down-filled one and wrestle it into the cover.

Inserting a duvet into its cover is a full-body workout for one person, or an exercise in cooperation for two. I don't recommend it for couples who are suffering with a disagreement.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 04:55 PM

As children we had stone hot-water bottles (pottery ones, always beige/brown in colour, shaped like a short log) They were filled from the kettle and the screw top firmly fastened, wrapped in a bit of old blanket and put into our beds about an hour before bed time. We wore Chilprufe woollen vests underneath long winceyette nightdresses and bedsocks. I never felt cold, in spite of having no heating at all in the house except in the sitting room.

If one uses two clothes pegs on the corners to hold the thing in place, putting a duvet cover on is quite easy.

It's so fascinating to me reading all these posts about different sleeping arrangements. Thank you so much to all who have contributed. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 06:06 PM

And a potty under the bed and a liberty bodice for school in winter!

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 06:12 PM

Yes Steve, both of those! Only my father called the potty a 'jerry'.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: ripov
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 07:49 PM

Jerry certainly - except when speaking to a small child, when it was normally po'. I wonder - were the germans called 'jerries' because their tin hats looked like chamber-pots; or pots called 'jerries' because they looked like german tin hats?
We too had eiderdowns, ie quilted bags of feathers (presumably originally from the eider duck), or quilts. My nan had a feather mattress.
I remember duvets originally (in the uk) being called 'continental quilts', so I presume they were common in europe, and 'discovered' when the great british public could afford to go abroad for their holidays after the war.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: meself
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 12:31 AM

Re: Norway House. There is a 'First Nations' (i.e., Aboriginal; i.e., Indian) community by that name in northern Manitoba. It would have been a Hudson Bay Company trading post originally, or for a time. Wonder what the connection is with that store in Scotland?

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: meself
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 12:37 AM

Or should I say, I wonder IF there is a connection?

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 03:59 AM

Norway House in Edinburgh in the seventies was owned by a Mr Helga Weibye, a Norwegian. There was a thriving Norwegian-Scottish Society in Edinburgh, which held many events and encouraged commerce and friendship between the two countries. The Norwegian way of life had many similarities with that in Scotland, particularly the Orkneys and Shetland. I can't see any links with Manitoba or the First Nations, which is a pity, as that would have been most interesting.

I remember the shop had lots of Scandinavian furniture in light-coloured pine, decor such as curtains in pale colours and those duvets. It makes me smile now, as I much prefer that type of colour scheme, and it was refreshing to see it instead of the heavy, flowery, over-egged seventies style. It pre-dated IKEA by many decades.

When I took parties of schoolchildren to Normandy, I noticed 'continental quilts' slung on windowsills in the mornings to be aired in the sun.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 05:22 AM

I think mine is at least 15 tog and I've enjoyed it, especially as the CH is faulty (new boiler and system flush coming soon) and my room doesn't benefit from the woodburner the other side of the building.

I think the coldest I remember things was sleeping a night near Crainlarich in a railway hut, '81 attempted motorbike journey and the weather turned.. but I seem to have got more wimpy as the years have gone by and like my comfortable warm bed.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 09:32 AM

I remember duvets originally (in the uk) being called 'continental quilts', so I presume they were common in europe, and 'discovered' when the great british public could afford to go abroad for their holidays after the war.
I remember that too.
I think maybe the name was dropped to stop any suggestion that 'bed wetters' should use incontinental quilts.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: JHW
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 09:47 AM

Mine is a 4.5dog hollowfibre it says. Have a too heavier one that never gets used. In summer I use the cover with no quilt or if even hotter nothing at all. There's only me.

Remember though - Though Shalt Not Covet thy Neighbours Duvet.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 11:22 AM

'Harwich for the Continent' graffiti written underneath: 'Dover for the Incontinent'

My 15 tog wonder is as light as a feather. But one is so insulated under it, it could be snowing in the bedroom and it wouldn't matter a bit. In summer, I still use it. It just seems to maintain me at my correct temperature.

Anyone else slept on a hard floor like me with my in-laws? It's surprisingly comfy, as the back is completely supported. My mattress at home is very firm, but the floor was really good. I'm tempted to do the same here in UK and just add my trusty duvet on top! I just worry about spiders...

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 11:31 AM

Senofu,

Other places I've slept/got stuck in include Bangor and Holyhead (although I think that was in a train _ think it was in the station early but only left for LL Junction say 5am). Stations. I've slept in the boot of a Ford Sierra, have slept on a bench and seen the sunlight start at Trefiew(actually magnificent when the Dawn breaks on the hills), got caught, actually to their amusement, rolled in a carpet in a place my parents had sold in Kent (it was a long walk I'd have had otherwise) and taken a nap on the way back to the house in Wales – though I got used to the sort of final mile 25% gradient bit and now live in flat Norfolk.

A floor should be no problem.

Still, I like my mattress (on the firmer side) as well as my duvet.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 12:11 PM

On other bedding btw, Pip/mum remembers having a straw palliasse.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 12:22 PM

Ha! I live in Norfolk too Jon.
Actually I reckon I can sleep anywhere. The problem lies in staying awake. Half my life is wasted while I nod off!
I don't think I could sleep in the boot of a car though.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 12:47 PM

"Half my life is wasted while I nod off!"

Can be sort of one with my mother esp if the woodburner is running hot on a winter's night.

Not complete sleep but things can sort of run

"Mum, your asleep"
Her with say book or tablet thing dropping out of her hands. "No I'm not"
Me: Yes you are and your mouth is open catching flies.
"Her:" no way.
Me: "Mewan" (a cat) "say's you were too and that she had to cover her ears for your snoring".

Usually out of that semi dozing state by then and I think both sides view the comments as jest.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 04:41 AM

My husband crossly shook me awake the other Saturday because I was snoring on the sofa so loudly he couldn't follow the football results. He stomped off to watch TV in his study. I felt awful. He said he was tempted to stuff one of his socks into my open mouth!

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 05:21 AM

Sounds a bit drastic!

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 08:57 AM

If he was going elsewhere to watch why did he wake you?

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 09:42 AM

Because the TV in his study is a tiny little thing, and he likes the bigger screen in our sitting room. He was quite right - if I want to sleep I should really go and lie down properly on the bed!

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: leeneia
Date: 11 Apr 17 - 10:45 AM

I only encounter duvets in hotels, and they are too hot. I'm a cold person, but a duvet is too much. We always ask to have it replaced by a normal blanket.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Thompson
Date: 12 Apr 17 - 02:39 AM

When I was a child I slept under three thick yellow blankets - I loved them! with a sheet under and a sheet over me, and on top of the yellow blankets an impossibly soft and beautiful red-and-black-and-white cobweb of a striped rug my father brought back from North Africa.

Duvets appeared in the 1970s; I tried a down one for a while, but I'm wildly allergic to feathers, so soon defaulted to a polyester one, which I still use.

A friend who is always au fait with the latest snobberies tells me that Europeans - she hangs out mainly with Germans - have no time for duvets and will use only blankets, so I expect a nostalgic return to blankets soon. I like duvets, though.

In relation to the chamber pot, my grandmother wrote in a letter about the baby's "little cha" sitting in the middle floor unnoticed when there was an unexpected visitor. I assume this is a chamber pot, but the baby was only a year old then - can she have been an advocate of very early potty training? (I know that in the East, babies are trained very young by their mothers holding them over a potty or the ground when they want to pee and going "Ssssss", and ditto for a poo, but with grunting.)

Senofou, when you say people in Africa sleep on the ground with head resting on folded arms, I'm finding it hard to picture. On their backs with arms stretched up? On their sides, with head resting on what part of arms?

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 12 Apr 17 - 04:22 AM

Thompson, you lie on your side and crook the underneath arm, and rest your head on the forearm part, near your hand. I have to say I'm 'well-padded', so the hard floor doesn't seem to trouble me. I do sometimes worry about rats and rather huge cockroaches scuttling about, being on the floor. I'm not afraid of them, but they do carry awful germs.

My in-laws are very poor and their home is very basic, just about six small shacks made of bits and pieces, with corrugated tin roofs, set in a family courtyard, with a privy. They live in the outskirts of the city, but there are better areas where the houses have squares of dense foam for beds, and an undersheet for bedding. Some even pay a chap to make a hardwood bed frame for the foam to sit on. On his last visit (last year) my husband got one of these for his aged parents, but he's not sure if they really liked the change, as they're used to the old way of sleeping on the floor!

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Thompson
Date: 12 Apr 17 - 04:38 AM

Interesting. I'd imagine it isn't good for fragile old bones, but perhaps I'm wrong.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 12 Apr 17 - 06:13 AM

I know what you mean Thompson. And unlike me they're all quite thin!
But up in his ancestral village near the Burkina-Faso border, it's like the Stone Age. Mats only, no comfy chairs and the folk up there are absolutely ancient, most on their eighties or above. (The younger people leave for the towns)
But their posture is excellent (I've only seen photos, I've never been up there) and they're strong as oxen. They carry quite heavy stuff on their heads, keeping their backs straight. They squat on their haunches instead of lounging on sofas like us. It seems a much more natural life, but one we in the West would never endure. I reckon we're all too soft!

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Thompson
Date: 12 Apr 17 - 06:52 AM

There's natural and natural! We could certainly do with relying less on oil products, but a return to the Stone Age is a shtep too far for me!

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 12 Apr 17 - 07:46 AM

And me Thompson! Of course, those Africans have undergone a rather cruel natural selection. Only the fittest survive, and the weaker ones die. I'm afraid I like my home comforts, clean water and plenty of nice food (especially buttered crumpets!).

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Apr 17 - 06:35 PM

Had to spend the weekend in a hotel room. It was an upmarket hotel.

Instead of bedspreads, there was a duvet on the bed.

Lighter, much lighter in weight than the quilt on my bed at home,
but every bit as warm.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Apr 17 - 06:51 PM

Since my last post above, we had some very sad news. My husband's old father has passed away from malaria. He had a bad heart and the high fever was too much for his body to cope with.
My husband is devastated, being so far from his family, but we managed to get flights for him. He landed in Ivory Coast this evening, and as the eldest son will be taking a leading part in the funeral ceremonies.
My kind sister paid for the three flights, bless her.
So sad.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Apr 17 - 08:20 PM

Well, Senoufou, you know me. I won't be praying, but you and your man have my heartfelt good wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Apr 17 - 03:57 AM

Thank you so much Steve. He was an interesting old man, quirky and with a dry humour. And of course, had experienced a completely different world from ours in the West. He spoke really good French. I'm sad that I shan't be able to sit beside him and chat again.

Subject: RE: BS: Duvets
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Apr 17 - 08:05 AM

condolences from me, too, sending hugs to you as well.

sandra