If you want to keep the old feathers and make new ticking[covers] you will need to get new heavy ticking by the yard. By all means find a quiet day and DO go outside to change the feathers into your new cases. There will be little down feathers all over the place, and when you get through, throw the old cases away! We used to do this once a year and we feathered all over the neighborhood,'cause we had several. Get a mouth cover too. Barny P.S. We did one at a time. Used our hands to reach into the old case and put feathers into the new one.