Making Good Use: Gosh, I Haven't Seen One Of Those In Absolutely Ages

That is precisely what I thought when my eyes alighted on this little beauty in the Oxfam shop this morning. I hardly dared look at the price, expecting it to be something truly horrendous (this being Oxfam an' all), amazingly it was only £2.99. Definitely sold to the woman who has stupidly gone shopping without her faithful shopping trolley (why oh why I continue to do this I just don't know. Whenever I am sans shopping trolley I always end up with masses of purchases.)

It is only a single size feather eiderdown but has a beautiful faded floral print all over it, with the faintest of polka dots just discernible as the background.

I remember buying loads of eiderdowns years ago at jumble sales. It was in the days when duvets (or continental quilts as they were then known) had just become really fashionable and people were ditching their old-style bedding (sheets, blankets, candlewick bedspreads and eiderdowns) with gay abandon. I always loved the faded paisely and floral patterns on the eiderdowns and would rush to buy them up at jumble sales. Sadly, they were invariably sold on again when I needed a bit of ready cash.

I wouldn't want to go back to sleeping in a bed made up with sheets, blankets and eiderdowns, I think I'd find all that bedding much too heavy to sleep under. I also have very vivid memories of being 'tucked in' by my Father when I was a small child and he used to pull everything so tight that I could hardly move at all in bed. However, the old-fashioned bedding does have a wonderful faded nostalgic charm about it.

I actually bought the eiderdown with the idea of draping it over our rather dilapidated garden bench which, since I tidied up the garden, has been moved to a new spot at the top of the garden under a pergola-type structure which is very cool and shady in the summer. (I am so keeping my fingers crossed that this year we do get some sort of summer!)

Maureen from New Zealand left a comment last week saying she had a Lloyd Loom chair which has been moved with her from one side of the world to the other, and how it has sat under many a tree in the summer. That gave me the idea of shifting my Lloyd Loom chair out of the bedroom (where it is subsumed under piles of clothes) and into the garden next to the bench when the weather perks up a bit. I thought the eiderdown would add a nice comfortable cover for the bench and would go nicely with the Lloyd Loom chair. HOWEVER, I've just checked out what they sell for on ebay, and they seem to fetch very good money, so, once again, I fear a vintage eiderdown will not stay in my possession for very long.

Comments

It would be lovely for enjoying the spring sunshine, but even if you don't get to keep it for long it's a brilliant find.

Posted by: French Knots | 03/27/2009 at 08:21 PM

Wow, I love that!

Posted by: darling petunia | 03/27/2009 at 10:29 PM

That is a good find!
They are going expensive on ebay at the moment so I'm sure it will be able to finance a few more purchases should you sell it.
You can always find a cheap and cheerful one modern one for throwing over your chair!

Posted by: sharie | 03/28/2009 at 02:37 PM