Goose to comforter

[mch0638]

I am having a hard time finding information on how to clean/cure/sanitize etc. goose down after it is plucked. I want to make a crib comforter for my baby. I've seen a few postings saying to let them "cure" for a few years? I saw something about putting them into the oven at 270 deg to "kill the microbes"....

I was thinking about placing them between a couple of window screens over the bathtub and spraying with a solution of "charlies soap" and rinsing and drying...

What I am dealing with is about 90% down from geese and ducks. some of it had the gooey ends. and no, I am not interested in or worried about sorting it out.

Has anyone done any of this or other ideas?

Thanks for the help!

 

[The goose girl]

You can mashine wash the down. Put them in a cotton bag or a duvet/comforter cover, close the bag tightly and use a very gentle detergent like for silk. Regular detergents - or wool detergents with lanolin - can ruin the down. I don't know what Charlie's Soap is made of, but they say on their website that their liquid detergent is safe for silk, so that should be ok.

Wash them on gentle cycle and rinse 2 or 3 times more than usual.

You can tumble dry the down in the bag/cover. Put a few tennis balls or tumble drying balls in the dryer and tumble at low heat/cold. It takes forever, but the down have to be completely dry - otherwise they'll start rotting.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
I agree! When drying clean the lint filter well first it will help catch the down that excapes. Remove the down from the filter and add it back to the bag.

 

[mch0638]

Cool, thanks for the advice. Will that get out all the powdery white stuff that is in the down? Is there any reason to prewash the down at all, or should I just make the baffled comforter and then wash it? seems like that would be about the same as washing it inside a pillow protector case, and it seems like washing it in a mesh laundry bag would allow a bit of the down out through the holes?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[Omniskies]

You may as well wash it. Goose down lasts for 20 years - duck down for around five years. What's another hour or two of work for something that will last that long before needing to be restuffed?

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
why does goose down last so much longer?

 

[Omniskies]

That's a very good question. After doing a lot of research my response is...

I have absolutely no idea. Because geese are better than ducks?

I can't even find the articles I had read ages ago about how long you can expect duck and goose down to last. The research I did all yesterday (and a little today) to try and figure out the answer gave a bit of a clue as to what _might_ be the reason.

Apparently the older the bird, the better the fluff/fill of the down. Most ducks are processed at 7-8 weeks, while most geese are processed at a later age. A goose will have more "fill" to their down, but an older duck will have more fill than a younger goose (so in essence, if they are the same age, the goose wins, if the duck is older, the duck wins).

Since ducks are processed at such a young age, odds are they have poor fill and won't last as long. But if you live harvested from older birds then it should be of good quality, regardless.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

When you put the down into a bag for washing, what kind of bag is it? How do you seal it?

 

[Omniskies]

I put mine in a pillow case. I will live harvest the down directly into a pillow case and tie the end into a loose knot, then toss it in the washer and dryer that way. There's probably a better way to do it, but that caters to my laziness.

 

[The goose girl]

I would definitely not recommend using a mesh laundry bag. I used a duvet cover and just tied it with a piece of string. It doesn't have to be pretty.

Depending on how clean the down are now, you don't have to prewash them. Remember to use a very tight woven fabric for the comforter, otherwise the down will find their way out in time.