<p>OK soozievt. You just sounded a little frantic to me. Now I get that the point that you want to do this for your D rather than you feel that you have to do it for her. Good luck with the move.</p>
<p>Sorry but I do understand that it is hard to interpret things written online. I don’t feel frantic about it. I meant that I’d rather we be looking at the fabrics in the shop together which we would have done if she could come home but I offered to take a look for her and bring her samples. It just is that it will be hard to decide what another person may like, but I will narrow it down and show her some things that are possibilities. </p>
<p>I actually do this often for both my girls. If they need shoes or a dress, I’ll look through what I see online since I have more time, and send them some links of some choices I found and they are very appreciative and then they pick what they want and order it. I just did that for curtains and rugs for D2. She could not find these things in person, plus she is currently working all day and all night. (my kids have insane schedules and are overachiever types) I don’t go out shopping or buying things for my kids. </p>
<p>My older D had hoped to come home and shop for her apartment together. Now, she’ll order things online I think, and then I will meet her in Boston before we move her in and go to the stores with her as she is someone who would enjoy going with me to do it. I don’t go shopping by myself for them, no. I did mean that looking at rows and rows of batik fabrics and figuring out what she may find appealing may be tricky but it could be fun. I know she’d much rather be in the shop with me. And I did it last year with D2 and even though we were TOGETHER, it took her a LONG time to narrow the fabrics down, LOL and so I am just wondering how long it will take me to do as D1 won’t be there to even say, “I like this sort of thing, but not that” but she tried to say over the phone…and gave some color categories. The point is that it is UNUSUAL for me to do something like that without her. But in the end, I won’t be CHOOSING…no way would I do that because it is her decision and her money even. But I will see if I can narrow the hundreds down to a more manageable amount of fabric options and bring little scraps to show her as I am going to be in the city next weekend where both my girls are working this summer and to see D2 in a show and to take D2 to get her wisdom teeth out (she is responsible too and did the consultation on her own but I will accompany her to the surgery…she is 19 and has lived on her own in Manhattan since age 16…which is why I realize that you don’t know my kids and so I understand that you misinterpretted what I wrote and thought they needed to learn to be responsible and do for themselves.)</p>
<p>Wow, soozievt, that’s quite a schedule your daughter has going. I hope the wisdom teeth removal goes smoothly for your youngest. Some kids seem to sail right through that. Others, like mine, don’t so I’m glad you’ll be able to be there with her.</p>
<p>I loved the covers in the links, but my son didn’t. It’s too bad as they are so unique. He thinks he will stick with the one at The Company Store website.</p>
<p>So far as shopping at home, I agree. He will bring towels from home and sheets and a blanket we got last summer. He needs a comforter and some sort of mattress pad. I’ve been astounded at the variety --and prices!!-- of foam pads, mattress pads, etc. You’ve got your memory foams, your eggcrates, your featherbeds, your ordinary mattress pads. My goodness. I read on some past thread that sometimes TJ Maxx type stores have really good mark-downs on some of the fancier mattress gizmos. I think I’ll hold off mail ordering something till I can check one out.</p>
<p>2blue, thanks for the wishes for the wisdom teeth. Problem is, she is not home long enough the entire 12 months of the year to do it here and she left for college at 16 and didn’t have it done before college like my older D did. Older D felt fine after just one day. I hope that is true for the younger one…I’ll be there for 24 hours afterward and then go home. </p>
<p>When my kids went to camp, they did use sheets and towels and old comforters from home. But when they each began college, they got the linens as their birthday gift (older one’s 18th birthday coincided with the start of college and the younger one had to call it her birthday gift that year ). We didn’t own extra long sheets. The only comforters we had were used here. It made sense to get towels as this is the only time I will be buying them this stuff until they get married and so it had to last. They bought the other dorm items themselves. </p>
<p>Now, I am onto the next level of this as both my girls are now starting with completely unfurnished apartments and also now with double beds. We had very little to give them and gave them whatever we had but there two kids…I had one extra set of plates and only one kid can have them. I had hardly any extra furniture but gave D2 an old dining table and chairs and a double bed. She has to pay for the rest that I don’t have. D1 got graduation money from relatives and has her own earnings and so the girls have to get everything on their own now. And it is a lot of stuff. </p>
<p>We now have two extra down twin comforters and duvet covers and sets of extra long sheets as both girls will no longer be having single beds. These are in good shape. Perhaps down the line, they will be used at some point. </p>
<p>By the way, for the dorm beds…we got the plastic mattress cover, then an egg crate, and then the regular cotton mattress cover. I wish I could give you these extra long twin items as I have two sets and neither kid will be in a single bed this year. 
For that matter I also have two dorm fridges not being used.</p>
<p>World Market is a lot of fun. It reminds me of the olden days Pier One (before they went upscale). I went to one in Ohio recently while on a family vacation and found some great deals. I also thought that it would be a great place to find those “first apartment” things that most folks need when starting out. They had a great kitchen section and some reasonably priced furniture as well. </p>
<p>Re: styles…kids have different tastes. Soozie…I would never be ABLE to make my kids a duvet cover. But I’m sure they would have liked it if I could have. Luckily both were very happy with things they found on the JC Penney website…shipping free to their far away college places.</p>
<p>Hi soozievt,
Thanks for the link to the Indian duvet store online. Too late for D1, but D2 has similar taste and in two years, this could be the ticket.</p>
<p>Here is a link to Joann Fabric’s selection of batik. I don’t know if this chain exists where you are, but if you could get your daughter to look at the samples on line and indicate favorites, maybe it would help you limit the number of samples you need to buy and bring. A caveat: some of these fabrics were the ones that the dye rubbed off on my hands as we were evaluating them. I’m not sure if a good washing in hot water would set the dye permanently or not. Your seamstress may be able to advise you about quality and handling of batik.</p>
<p>[Joann.com:</a> Online Shopping for Sewing, Scrapbooking, Yarn and Crafts](<a href=“http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat3017]Joann.com:”>http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat3017)</p>
<p>and here’s my other tip:</p>
<p>We did find some great batik bedspreads at import stores. Obviously, check World Market and Pier One, but our town also has a couple of private importers bringing in wonderful pieces from India and Thailand. Our favorites were block printed with a medallion or other designs in the middle, and interesting borders. The advantage of using these over fabric by the yard is that they are much more interesting than a fabric whose pattern repeats every few inches or feet. If the bedspread isn’t quite the right size to cover the comforter, it can be cut down, or a border added to make it right. Your seamstress will have no problem figuring this out! </p>
<p>We bought two in different designs, added black borders and made a completely unique, reversible duvet. One side was a more expensive Thai batik patchwork, but the back was a cotton $15 “bedspread” with great color and design.</p>
<p>Have fun!</p>
<p>riverrunner, </p>
<p>I like the idea of the JoAnn’s fabrics and she could see little swatches online (though of course it is hard to look at such a small swatch and imagine a double bed duvet of it, LOL). There is a JoAnn’s 25 miles from me. Two drawbacks…the selection was WAY less online than what my little local quilt shop has. The other drawback is that i am not sure it is too cool for me to buy fabric elsewhere and then ask the quilt shop owner to sew it up for me (when I have shopped there for years and she has made homemade quilts for my children and also another duvet cover for my other college D). </p>
<p>Your idea to buy imported bedspreads (which are easier to find than the duvet covers) and have those stitched up as a duvet cover is a very good idea. I realize you also had borders put on too. I know my D will want to keep the cost down and not have things stitched together but just have the basic duvet constructed (she is paying for the entire apartment to be furnished using grad gift money and so I am pretty sure it would cost more to have that kind of thing sewn up. Also, this person is not a regular seamstress that you take work to. She makes quilts and related items in her shop, such as pillow covers and curtains and duvets, but with fabric purchased in her shop. She also sells quilts she made herself…we live in a tourist town in VT where many come from all over to buy this sort of VT item). </p>
<p>A funny thing is that while I had had traditional quilts made there several times, I had not been in the shop for years. My recollection was all calico fabrics. And then last summer, one of my clients came to VT and spent the night with me and so she wanted to browse the local gift shops and we went into the quilt store. This was right around the time that D2 needed a new duvet cover as she was moving into a furnished apartment that had a double bed and her duvet was for a single. She had not yet found anything she liked. So, I walk into this shop as a tourist with my client/friend, and lo and behold, the shop now has all these cool fabrics that are like batiks and way different than what I remembered from the past and the calicos. It dawned on me that here were fabrics that D2 would like for a duvet and the shop owner said she could sew up the duvet cover and so when D2 came home for two weeks, she and I went to the shop and she picked out fabrics and I had it made as her birthday present. So, that’s how I got the idea back then. </p>
<p>When D1 came home for five days in May, I mentioned this idea for her but she liked (at the time), the duvets I had found on that Saffron Marigold site and so we didn’t go into the shop to look at fabrics and she was home so briefly with her sister unpacking both their college lives and packing them back up again to move into two NYC apartments for the summer. Now, I wish she had looked at the fabrics because now she is realizing that it is what she wants and her plans to get to come home and shop for a week at the end of summer are now kapoof as she has to go straight from NYC to Boston and not pass home on the way. </p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas though.</p>
<p>If you have a digital camera, I’m wondering if you could go in to the shop and snap away photos of fabric, then just bring actual samples of the ones she likes the best. It’s just an idea that came to mind.</p>
<p>2blue=brilliant</p>
<p>Wow, that is brilliant. I never thought of that. I don’t know how to put the pics online but my husband would know how. </p>
<p>It is funny as I went to go to the shop today and it must be closed on Tuesdays and so I didn’t look at anything yet. I was thinking on the drive home though about the link that riverrunner gave to the fabrics at JoAnn’s and while much more limited, I could ask my D when she eventually gets home later at night to just look at those to give me some IDEA of what she finds appealing. So far, she wanted darker, not light and gave me two color categories but we all know that there are a zillion choices. </p>
<p>The photo idea makes sense if I go tomorrow and find a way to put them onto the computer and she looks at them and I can get samples of a few to bring to NYC this weekend. I am sure I can get a free sample but that will be more like a one inch strip which is too hard to gauge and I am willing to buy a small sample but would have to narrow it down a lot before doing so. I will see about that idea. You guys have good ideas.</p>
<p>I’m glad you think that may work out for you. I don’t have a digital camera, but in the past some friends of mine have used Photobucket dot com. It’s free and my guess is that it is easy as these weren’t super techy type people.</p>
<p>Editing to add on a totally non-related note, I was just throwing out some stuff here by the desk. There was a little regional magazine about college selection that my son got from the high school guidance office. I idly flipped it open to see if it was worthwhile for my youngest. There inside the cover was an ad seeking blood plasma donors! There was even a $10 bonus coupon for first time donors. It cracked me up. I guess that’s still a time-honored way for college kids to get cash.</p>
<p>I think I am going to try the photo idea. That will help narrow it more and then buy a very small sample of the narrowed choices and show them to her when I see her in NYC this weekend. I’ll tell her tonight.</p>