Two Beds in a Bag

Necessity is the mother of invention. Our grandmothers knew this as they made loving homes with means far less affluent than in our day. It is inspiring to learn how women of old would use what they had on hand, an ounce of elbow grease, and a little ingenuity to overcome problems and limitations. Women often do this naturally… nesting, rearranging, beautifying, repurposing, accommodating life’s changes.  Certainly you have found solutions in your own homes that have overcome limitations. This all speaks of seeking to steward well the things God has entrusted to our care, including our homes.
Today’s post is a frugal way to make two bedspreads for the price of one. It does require some light sewing, so if that is not your thing, maybe Grandma can help here too. But if you can sew a straight line, you can do this!

We recently were in need of four bedspreads for some bunk beds. Comforters can come with a hefty price-tag individually, let alone when purchasing for multiple beds.

This project uses one King-sized bedspread cut and sewn to make two Twins. The finished product will be a bit shorter in width (53″) than a true Twin (66″). For this reason, they are a good solution for bunks since they don’t hang half-way down the beds. And if your seam doesn’t turn out so pretty, you can always face that side toward the wall.

This King set was a Bed-in-a-Bag from a discount chain–so that was a lesser cost to begin with, and was just a bit more money than one Twin set.  If given the choice between a King or Queen comforter, the King is preferable for its’ additional 8″ width.

How to: To begin, fold the King-spread in half equally, ensuring the corners match. Carefully cut along the fold line the entire length of the comforter with good scissors. It will seem very wrong to cut through this perfect bedspread, but take courage. After cutting, you will be left with one unfinished edge on each of two Twin-spreads.

If you get this far, you’re nearly half-way there.

The next steps involve making binding and sewing it onto each bedspread in order to finish those raw edges (click links for tutorials).

Once pressed, the binding should be about  2″ wide. As you can see near the blue arrow below, I made the common mistake of dusting cocoa powder…on my binding? How I did that is beyond me.  Just keepin’ it real…I am not a perfectionist crafter.

I should also say that any infrequent crafting that happens here takes place in short increments throughout the day or into the wee hours of the night. Having a dedicated space set up allows me to sneak down while the soup is coming to a boil. And by space, I mean a corner in the cold basement.

Choose a coordinating fabric to make your binding or purchase a wide blanket binding. I cut fabric from the included dust ruffle since I would not be needing that. You could even use a flat sheet if you are willing to sacrifice one for the project, and save yourself a trip to the fabric shop.

Here is a quick shot of the pressed binding, ready to be pinned and sown to the cut comforters.

And the finished project is below. These shown are a little shorter in width (45″) because they came from a Queen-spread, but they are for our younger girls, so that is ok. The other two were King-spreads with that additional 8″ of width (53″).

Sometimes constraints drive us to pick up new skills which call to former times and ways of thinking. And that is a blessing when making a home.

Warmly, Erika