Zip closure, internal ties, same cloth both faces
A cover is the only washable part of the warmest thing on your bed. That is why how it closes, and how it holds the duvet still, are worth more attention than the pattern.
Ours is 300 thread count long-staple organic cotton sateen, the same cloth on both faces, closing with a zipper along one side rather than buttons, with internal corner ties that take the hand-tied loops on our duvets. Twin, queen and king. The two things to get right are the closure and the ties. A zip does not gape the way a button placket does, and ties are what stop a duvet migrating into one end of its cover overnight. Buy the cover in the same size name as the duvet going inside it.
Take the cover in the same size name as the duvet. If you are buying both at once, the corner ties and the loops are already made to find each other.
Same sateen on both faces, so there is no thin underside, and a zipper down one side instead of a row of buttons that work loose. Internal ties at all four corners.
Best for keeping a duvet clean, and keeping it where you put it
The down alternative without the polyester. The cotton arrives as a layered pad rather than loose clusters, so hand-tufting anchors it and it holds for years instead of drifting into corners.
Best for most of the year, and anyone who wants something lighter
Wool holds up to 30 percent of its own weight in moisture before the surface feels wet, and it evens out temperature swings instead of following them. This is the one for night sweats and for couples who run differently.
Best for warm sleepers, and beds where the two people disagree
Why the duvet ends up in a lump
Everybody has done the same thing at two in the morning: shaken the whole bed out because all the warmth has gathered at one end and your feet are uncovered.
1
Nothing is holding it to the cover, so the two are separate objects that happen to be in the same place.
2
The cover follows you because you are holding it. The duvet inside has its own weight and does not have to come along.
3
A few hours of that is enough to bunch the whole thing into the bottom two feet of the cover.
4
You wake up under two layers at your shoulders and one at your feet, and no amount of shaking holds it for long.
Corner ties fix it permanently. Tie the loops on the duvet to the ties in the cover once, when you put it on, and the two behave as one object from then on.
The closure
Buttons are traditional and they have two problems. They gape between each button, which lets the corner of a duvet work its way out, and they come undone in the wash and take a threaded needle to put right. A zipper along one side closes the whole edge at once and stays closed.
Putting it along the side rather than across the foot also means the closure is out of the way of your feet. You never lie on it and you never feel it, which is the same reason our pillowcases have no zip in them at all.
Both faces
A lot of covers are made with the good cloth on top and something thinner underneath, on the reasoning that the underside is against the sheet. It is also the side against you if you sleep with the duvet turned back, and it is the side that decides how the whole thing drapes.
Ours is the same 300 thread count long-staple sateen on both faces. It costs more to make, and it means there is no wrong way round and no thin side. How it feels does not depend on which way it came out of the wash.
Why the cover carries the load
This is the part people find out late. A hand-tufted natural duvet does not go in a machine, and we do not recommend dry cleaning one either. Spot clean it, and put it in the sun when it needs freshening.
Which means the cover is doing more work than a cover usually does. It is the only layer between you and the duvet that can be washed properly, so it takes all of the skin oil and moisture that would otherwise go into the fill. Wash it as often as you wash your sheets.
Two of these are about construction and the rest are about the cloth. The construction ones are what people notice within a week.
| What to check | Circadian | Typical duvet cover |
|---|---|---|
| How it closes | A zipper along one side | A button placket that gapes and comes undone in the wash |
| Corner ties | Four internal ties, matched to the loops on our duvets | Often none, which is why the duvet ends up at one end |
| The underside | The same 300 thread count sateen as the top | Frequently a lighter cloth on the side nobody sees |
| Staple length | Long-staple | Short fibers work loose in the wash and become pilling |
| Weave | Sateen, soft without a chemical finish | Softness often comes from a finish that washes out |
| Dye and bleach | Neither on these | The heaviest processing steps in finishing a cloth |
| Certification | Certified organic, licence GOTS-10229 | Usually a claim about the fabric rather than the finished cover |
| Where it is sewn | By hand in New Jersey, from Texas-grown cotton | Most covers arrive imported and finished |
Take a cover with internal corner ties and tie them to the loops on the duvet. It is a two-minute job when you put the cover on and the problem stops completely.
Organic Cotton Duvet Cover ›Match the size names and let the ties do the rest. Our duvets have hand-tied corner loops and the covers have ties in the same four places, so they are made to find each other.
Organic Cotton Duvet ›The cover is not the layer to change for that. Wool holds up to 30 percent of its own weight in moisture before the surface feels wet, so the wool duvet is what fixes it, and the cotton cover goes over the top.
Organic Wool Duvet ›You wash the cover and you never wash the duvet. Spot clean the duvet and give it a few hours of sun when it needs freshening. Everything else is the cover's job, so wash that as often as you wash the sheets.
Organic Cotton Duvet Cover ›Three: twin at 72 by 90 inches, queen at 92 by 96, and king at 96 by 110. Buy the cover in the same size name as the duvet going inside it, and the two will line up without excess cloth bunching at the corners.
A zipper, running along one side. It closes the whole edge at once, so there is nothing to gape between fastenings, and it does not come undone in the wash the way buttons do. Putting it along the side rather than across the foot keeps it away from your feet entirely.
Corner ties, used once. Ours has four internal ties and our duvets have hand-tied corner loops, so you knot each pair when you put the cover on and the two stay registered to each other from then on. Without ties the duvet is a separate object inside a bag, and it will gather at one end.
No, and this catches a lot of people out. A hand-tufted natural duvet is spot clean and sun only, and we do not recommend dry cleaning one either. The cover is the layer that gets washed, so it belongs to the duvet rather than sitting on top of it as decoration.
As often as you wash your sheets. It is the only washable layer between you and the duvet, so it takes on all the skin oil and moisture that would otherwise go into the fill. Machine wash warm or cool, tumble on low or hang to dry, and skip the fabric softener.
Yes, 300 thread count long-staple organic cotton sateen on both faces. Plenty of covers use a lighter cloth on the underside on the reasoning that nobody sees it, which ignores that the underside is against you whenever the duvet is turned back.
A duvet is the insert that provides the warmth and a cover is the washable layer that goes around it. A comforter combines the two into one sewn item, which is simpler until it needs cleaning, because then the whole thing has to go somewhere. Keeping them separate is what lets a natural fill last ten to fifteen years.
Yes, under licence GOTS-10229 issued by Oregon Tilth, with a yearly on-site audit. The certification follows the cotton through processing rather than stopping at the farm, and it applies to the finished cover rather than to a roll of fabric.
The natural undyed colour of the cotton, which is a soft off-white rather than a bright one. Dyeing is one of the heaviest steps in finishing a textile and bleaching to a true white is heavier still, so this cloth is left as it comes.
Barely. A cotton sateen cover adds very little on its own, and what decides how warm a bed sleeps is the duvet inside it. If you are too warm at night, change the duvet rather than the cover, and wool is the fill that evens out temperature swings instead of following them.
Zip along the side, four internal ties, and the same sateen on both faces. Free shipping. Cut and sewn by hand in our New Jersey workshop.
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