What is down must go up

For the last year or so I have been bothered by the throw pillows on our bed. The covers are nice enough but the stuffing is made from that synthetic material which is so puffy in the store but becomes compacted and rigimortised around the second week of bringing it into your home. I had been keeping my eye out for down pillows that I could buy and switch out for a more puffy and lilting effect. (Things you can think about in a democratic country where one is well fed and secure) Unfortunately most pillows ran around 20 dollars each, and I needed three of them.
Since spring had arrived in Wheaton, Christopher my garage sale buddy and I were out purusing the first sales of the new year. I happened upon two large down sleeping pillows which I procured for $1 each. In my mind I would do a quick sewing job and have myself 3 down filler pillows for my bed. What ensued was a lesson that any turn-of-the-century little-house-on-the-prairie girl would have learned in their wee years...that God made feathers to fly. Any breath of air, and I mean any, would send those tiny down bits fluttering around the room. Within minutes of exposing the inner belly of my new pillows, down was literally covering our living room, my shirt, hair and face. Dan was as pleased as punch to see my project go to hell in a handbasket. He got out the camera and video just to make sure this ridiculous situation was "on the books." He headed off to bed talking about him "having to clean this mess up tomorrow." Well, my project HAD to be completed now, so for the next many hours, I cut and sewed all those stupid pillow panels and stuffed them with whatever feather I could get my hands on. And then I vacuumed and vacuumed and sucked up the down in the air with a minivac and stickied all the feathers on the furniture with masking tape until things looked relatively normal. And to my great pleasure, I now have 3 pillows that look exactly like they did before, but they are now puffy to the touch.