My Review: Duvet Cover, Pillow, And Tote

Hi Cynthia,

Thank you for the detailed and informative review. :-)

I was thinking of getting one of the totes myself.

Cynthia, your typed descriptions are very helpful. But the image links on all the pix underneath the word descriotions are all broken links. I can see each image that is posted before your word description though.

Edited....okay now your pix are there! Things look beautiful! Love everything, especially the tote bag :)

Thanks for posting this. I was going to order all that stuff, just to see the quality and now I don't have to because of your detailed review and fabulous photos. Well done!

Thanks for the review. The product description for the duvet covers state that it is washable. Is this not the case? Does the label say dry clean only?

edited to add: Sorry, re-read it and you do say label says dry clean or spot clean. That's kind of disappointing since the product page says it's washable.

Cynthia that is a wonderful detailed review that is really helpful. I have bought several throw pillows and been really pleased with them and agree with your comments. I am going to be buying some tote bags as if I had some available I could have sold them several times over!

MM, That duvet cover will be going into my college bound kid's room. I assure you it will eventually get washed, when I do wash it, I'll let you know the results. I expect it will fade. I"ll probably wash it in cold and hang it to dry and then give it a quick ironing.

The label does say "dry clean or spot clean". I suppose technically it is washable, just not machine washable.

An exceptionally thorough review....Thank you Cynthia!

Thanks for the info. Glad to hear the results.

Do you think cold water and Woolite would work? Maybe put in the dryer on air dry?

Very helpful review Cynthia, thank you.

Duvet cover looks awesome!!! Great review!!

Thanks for the review!

Thank you Cynthia! Its good to know that should someone buy our stuff it would be worth it.

Thanks for the detailed reviews, Cynthia -- your info, along with some reviews posted earlier, answers most of the questions I had about these items.

Now, the only thing making me hesitate over offering them for sale, is the iffy washing and care instructions.

These items are not cheap; someone who spends 20 or 30 dollars on a tote bag, instead of buying the $3.99 grocery store version, deserves to have clear and easily accessible information on how to care for that tote bag. They shouldn't have to find their way back to this site to check, or call Customer Service, or cruise the forum, or take their chances and hope for the best when cleaning the product.

The same for the duvet covers. 'Washable', with no specifications, implies that it can go into a washing machine; after all, I toss my other duvet covers in the machine. 'Hand washable' or 'Machine wash in cold water' or 'Spot clean only', or whatever the proper instructions are, needs to be clearly conveyed to buyers.

The labels should say the same as the info on this site -- period. That kind of discrepancy can turn a $100 purchase into a dust cloth.

That's just not okay. :-(

If the care instructions matched the quality of the items, I'd already be marketing these. So frustrating!

I'm confuzzled. I'm looking at the still-attached care tag on my "By the Light of the Moon" king duvet that was returned to me for bogus color reasons, and it says:

MACHINE WASH*COLD WATER*GENTLE CYCLE
MILD DETERGENT*DO NOT BLEACH*TUMBLE DRY LOW

And yes, it's 100% polyester, which in my mind always means machine washable. Of course, in my mind "dry clean only" also means machine washable.

Here's a picture of the tag on my twin duvet. Maybe they use a different supplier or something? Odd that they'd be different.

can this here european ask a question? a duvet cover is the thing one sleeps with, right? (which would need to be machine washable at higher temps...) it is not the cover of a day blanket or something?

edit: thanks Cynthia for the fine and detailed review!

Very helpful. Thank you for the review!

Menega, a duvet is a plain comforter sort of thing, usually stuffed with goose down and covered in white cotton. A duvet cover is a decorative cover for a duvet. In reality, most people use duvet covers on comforters than on actual duvets (and thus, they are also referred to as "comforter covers"). I always put a duvet cover on a clean comforter, and when it's time to change the sheets I just remove the duvet cover and continue using the comforter until the next time it's time to change everything, at which point I start all over with a clean comforter and duvet cover. Saves work, time, money, and unnecessary wear on my pretty, not to mention pricey, comforters. In fact, I have two goose down duvets that I rarely use because they are inefficient in my system, LOL!

:::sigh::: I am such a geek.

Thank you so much, Cynthia! The closeups are especially helpful. Being that the duvet is polyester, I wouldn't hesitate to throw that in the wash on cold water only. No need to go to the expense of dry cleaning. Polyester colors don't run if washed in cold. Cotton washed in warm or hot water can run or fade, and possibly even in cold water but I haven't found that to be the case. My mother was a seamstress, and I know just about every fabric under the sun. You can always do a corner test.

Thank you for the detailed reviews and the excellent photos, Cynthia! I've ordered several tote bags - for myself and as gifts and I agree with your review. I'm finding it to be very sturdy and useful.

susan, i love your explanation because it actually managed to confuse me even more which is giving me the giggles. thank you, really! :)
so... that means you (one) sleeps with the decorative cover?

over here we (austria) have them as well - decorative coverings for duvets or comforters or whatever you call them - but i"m used to having these washable at least at 60C degrees ie rather hot water.

THANK YOU so, so much for posting this. I started a thread yesterday but no replies. This helps!

Ume Images
www.umeimages.com

Lovely design Cynthia, and thanks for the review. But I am very put off by the spot clean/ dry clean only instruction. As Menega says, a duvet cover needs to be able to stand repeated machine washes at a higher temperature.

How long did it take for you to get the item?

Cynthia, thanks for taking the time to post the detailed review.
Until such a time that the washing instructions are the same on all products AND machine washable, I wouldn't order them for myself...I machine wash my duvet covers each week with my sheets.
Spot cleaning and/or dry cleaning is fine for a bedspread but not for a duvet cover if, in fact, it is truly used as a duvet cover

Sorry Menega, yes... one sleeps under a duvet or comforter tucked inside a duvet cover :)

alright then. ;)
i would first try washing the cover at a medium temp, it"s polyester, that should work without damage to the print.

Another note of thanks for taking the time to present this review. Very helpful!

P.S. StoryWorld is my favorite picture of yours, and I always thought it would make a nice pillow.

Very helpful.

Another thanks from me too.

Thank you Cynthia...great review!

Hope it is ok...posted your review to my facebook page.

I have ordered the tote bags so far and love them and am in agreement with Cynthia and I also find them great for groceries - in regards to the duvet cover, I would wash on cold setting and hang to dry when possible and if not possible then dryer on a lower heat - it's polyester so it should not be a problem to wash
edit - forgot to thank you Cynthia for the terrific reviews of the products!

Outstanding review, Cynthia. Thank you.

Thank you, Cynthia, for the time you donated to review the items!

Hopefully, Abbie will comment here about the discrepancies in the duvet cover care instructions mentioned above. I have never owned a polyester item that was not machine washable, especially on a gentle cycle.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us!!

Very helpful! Thanks!

Cynthia very helpful, and I particularly loved your capture of show off, there is one in every group,Lol!

This was very detailed and most helpful, Cynthia - Thanks.

Nice review and your duvet cover is wonderful ! I love my tote.

Thanks a lot for this very helpful review Cynthia! :-)

Cynthia,

I work with many intense and saturated colors. So for me the pillows are a bit muted. I ordered three different images. That said, they are still very nice just not like the paintings they were derived from. How could they be? It's another medium. Another way to take this.

Excellent - thank you!

Thank you so much for the review....Everything looks & sounds wonderful.

Getting ready to order a number of totes in various sizes and designs to use for myself and as gifts - Christmas in July, you know. I was especially glad to see your report on the gusset on the 18" bag as I thought I remembered something much shallower from another thread. Maybe that was on a smaller tote? Anyway, thanks for this entire review, Cynthia.

David, I'm in the same boat, color is generally my thing. Can you tell me please if your pillows were the original polyester or newer cotton variety? I've not seen any pillows up close and personal yet.

Hi Cynthia,
Thank You for sharing your Review on these products, very helpful as I have not seen any yet.

Hi Cynthia, Your duvet Cover design looks fabulous.

Very nice review of these products...thank you for sharing so much detail!

Great product review, and the photos of the actual items look really good. I'm a little worried by the laundry intructions, though. I'd never wash bedclothes at less than 40 degrees - I just wouldn't feel they were clean otherwise. I know polyester fabric is usually safe enough at that temperature, so recommending a cold wash would make me wonder whether the printing process is robust enough.

Cynthia, was your tote print darker than expected? I ordered one with one of my night skies. Im happy with the quality of the bag, but disappointed in how my image looked. I knew some detail would be lost, but perhaps the night sky isn't the right image for totes.
I kept a default black background, which wasnt used, but ai was hoping that if I ordered a white background, the inside would be white. I thought maybe it was printed on black canvas, vs.cwhite, and that white canvas would brighten the stars up. If yours was black inside, then I'm probably wrong. What background color did you use?

Are they all black inside? What if a different background color is used?

Thank you so much for the reviews!

Thank you, Cynthia!

Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

Melany, I did notice some loss of detail in the dark ranges on the tote. I think that's to be expected with a kind of coarse fabric like that though. The totes are always black inside, but it's a separate type of fabric fused to the inside of the canvas, probably for strength and ease of cleaning.

This is all good news Cynthia. Thank you for doing this!

Thank you, Cynthia, for the review. Everything looks great. I especially loved "Show Off" ~ made me laugh...out loud :)

Thank you so much for this, I have been advertising the Duvet Covers as White backing as described here on FAA. They are not white on the reverse side, they are cream. I just received a message mentioning the color, looks like I will be doing a refund unless she accepts the cream color or changes can be made. The quality looks great but I will updating my descriptions. Kind of embarrassing to do at this point, I've sold many duvet covers. Thanks for these photos! Besides the cushions, I can't afford to order all these samples here in Canada! :)

Very well done review! Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.

Thank you for taking the time to share your review Cynthia! It was really informative and gave me a photo I could compare with. Recently I ordered a throw pillow for my sister, and fortunately, my sister still liked it, but I was a little disappointed with the results. This is the original: http://fineartamerica.com/products/healing-michelle-lee-rigell-throw-pillow-14-14.html but the actual pillow was really washed out and very pastel and you could see streaks where the thread rows alternate. I thought maybe it was because of the material, but your pillow didn't appear to have the same issues. I was wondering if anyone else had come across this problem.

Exceptional critique of the quality, thank you!

I have ordered three pillows and the colors were perfect, no streaks, no complaints about anything at all!

How long does it take to get the pillows?

Cyntia, thanks a lot for your detailed report, I wouldn't accomplish the order of the products for now just wondered how its really looks like, so your review is a precious help!

Jenny Rainbow

For me, a week

Debbie, Thanks

A question concerning the pillows: When the product was first introduced I bought my wife one to basically checkout the product. At that time the material was the duck cloth, canvas-like material, but I recall people saying the material changed to a softer, lighter cotton shortly after the introduction. I removed the product from my galleries after that. has the material returned to the tougher duck cloth as was first used?

Oh, the pillow we bought my wife is holding-up well.

Thank you very much for this review, Cynthia!

How did I miss this before? :o I wish this forum could be more segregated with subjects to easy find things like this review ;)

Very nice..thank you! Wondering what the shower curtains look like..anyone buy one yet?

Thanks for sharing this information, it has been very useful, I agree with Arletta, have been many times into the discussions and never seen this before!

Thanks a lot!!

Montes

Hi
Can you tell me I'd the tote bag exterior glossy/shiny or not please?
Thanks,
Pa

All products look high quality which is a good thing. I might even buy some stuff for myself.

--Roz Abellera

Patrick, the tote bag is not shiny at all.