comforter construction question
 

I know it's not exactly a quilt question, per se, but I hope someone can help. I want to make 2 comforters for twin beds. I have tried to Google how to go about this, but haven't gotten very far. I think the way to go about this is: make a sandwich from the top fabric, batting, and bottom fabric (right sides together), sew along 3 sides, turn, hand stitch the remaining side closed, and then quilt (in order to prevent shifting). Is this right, or is there a better way to do it-say, construct it like a duvet cover, or even like a pillow and then "stuff" it with batting or stuffing? The top and bottom are not pieced, just one length of fabric each. Hope this makes sense, thanks in advance

I believe your original idea is correct. Comforters are a lot like quilts except that the tops are not pieced, the quilting tends to be functional (as far apart as batting allows), and the batting tends to be medium to high loft polyester. It's just that high loft polyester is very difficult to quilt at home. That is one reason why comforters are usually commercially produced; industrial machines are set to quilt the high loft, probably according to computer programming. It's difficult to stuff a high loft batt under a domestic sewing machine arm. I have also found it more difficult to frame quilt polyester battings; the puffiness makes it harder to avoid unwanted puckers and tucks.

on the 4th side you only need to leave an opeining of 15-18"-----------maybe a bit more if your sandwich is really thick.

And it can be tacked, rather than quilted. Distance determined by the bat manufacturer. I do 6" quite often

I have made quilts much like comforters with the high loft batting and either tying or minimal channel type diagonal quilting.
For me it was easier to do it with the backing a couple inches wider than the batting and top all the way around. Then I folded this excess over the top and treated it like binding, either hand or machine stitching it in place after the tying or quilting was completed.
If this is not as fluffy as you want a second layer of either high loft or low loft batting can be added before doing the quilting.

When I was first learning to quilt back in the 70's, I was told a comforter is tied and a quilt is quilted, that's not really true anymore. And I remember seeing a show by Eleanor Burns where she showed how to "birth" a quilt - it was the way she rolled it up and pulled it through the opening.

If you are determined to quilt these quilts, you might try a quilt as you go but you will have to cut fabric and batting. You start with the center section (rectangle) then add strips of top, back and batting so when you open the seam out you have the next row quilted as you piece. The pieces can be as big as the batting allows you to be.
I know this doesn't make sense, but look on youtube for a quilt as you go video. Seems like I saw one there.

Your first thoughtwould be the way I would do it. I made mine and sandwiched like a quilt and put binding on it. I tied about every three or four iches.