Vacuuming the washing machine.

Did you know you can wash feather pillows? But if the material is frayed, then put the pillow in something else first. Discovering my 30 year old pillows could be washed, I got too enthusiastic, and pillows burst in the washing machine, leaving grumpy husband to vacuum the washing machine clear.

So how do you dry a mass of feathers, which if left in clumps go mouldy and smelly? I dry them in our bath room, nice and warm, and turn the feathers over every hour or two. Keep them in open baskets and finally put them in the airing cupboard. But that left me with dry feathers, flying up in the static and the slightest breath and covering the bathroom carpet, so 'twas on a Monday morning that the vacuum cleaner came out again to clear the feathers.

I retain some sewing skills from decades ago. I've bought yards of some cotton material, threaded my sewing machine, remembered how to wind thread onto the lower bobbin, and am now creating something between a duvet bag and an eiderdown. I'm going to put the feathers in the bag and use it on daughter's bed - she was really cold this Christmas holiday.