In my post about Cliff's room from the other day, I mentioned that I was planning on sewing the crib sheets for his bed. I looked online plenty, but the sheets were like $20-$25 for the colors I wanted. I figured that I could sew a straight line....so I could surely sew a sheet. Turns out, I was right! They turned out great, and now, lucky you, this is a mini-tutorial. All you need to sew a crib sheet is a 70"x45" piece of fabric, a 90" piece of elastic, a measuring tape, scissors and thread.
I started with a twin sized flat sheet. I needed a piece of fabric that was 70x45. To do that with a flat sheet, I folded it in half, pinned the edge and repeated. Once my sheet was in quarters, I measured, marked, and cut.
After you have a 70x45 piece of fabric, you need to cut the corners out of the big square. Measure a 9x9 inch square and do away with it.
This is what it looks like.
And again in orange.
Next, you bring the right sides of the fabric together and then sew a straight line to form the corners of the crib sheet.
Since the corners are stress points, I sewed once with just a straight stitch, and then came back and did a second zig-zaggy stitch to reinforce it.
This is what the corners looked like when I was done.
The next step was to finish the edges of the sheet. I decided to do elastic all the way around the sheet, so I needed to create a pocket for the elastic.
First I folded over each edge by about 1/4 of an inch. I did the grey sheet in its entirety first, with meticulous measuring. Let me just say, NOT worth the extra time, effort, and measuring. Just eyeball it, unless you are terrible about estimating....then measure it.
Anyway, fold over and sew at about 1/4 inch first.
After the 1/4 inch seam is in place, fold over again to 1/2 an inch and throw in another seam. I really just eyed it. I knew I wanted it to be deep enough that I could run the head of a big safety pin through the pocket, so that's what I shot for.
Sew all the way around the 4 sides of the crib sheet and end the seam about a 1/2 inch or so from where you started the seam. I marked this space with a clip while I prepped the elastic.
My elastic was just 72" long, so I had to cut and sew together 2 pieces. I just used my machine and stitched it forward, then reverse, then forward again to make the "joint" was sturdy.
Next I pinned one end of the elastic to the opening in the seam (so it wouldn't pull through at the end) and pinned the other end to start feeding in through the pocket I made.
Then I scrunched and pulled and scooted my way around the entire sheet.
Once I got to the end, I pulled my ends together,
then stitched them together, and then sewed that small opening closed to finish off the sheet.
From there, it was just a matter of checking the fit and celebrating that I had actually made my crib sheets!
This is what the corner seam looks like.
My sheet on the mattress from the front....
and the back. (That's a shadow...not a giant stain on the mattress)
This is my grey sheet,
my orange sheet,
and my turquoise sheet!
Soon I will be starting Clifford's quilt. I can't wait for it to be in the crib, with the bumpers sewn. Can't wait!
(This is my sheet, with a crib quilt I made in the past. Isn't it cute?!)
I am happy with my crib sheets. I whipped out 3 in an afternoon so I consider that darn productive. The best part...it cost me about $19 for all of them. I must say, I am impressed with myself. I never know just how things are gonna go when I just up and decide I am capable of doing things. Now I feel inspired enough to sew my own dust ruffle. Get excited folks! It's ruffle time!
P.S. Please ignore my terrible picture taking. I realized after the fact, that I had my settings wrong...which is why they kinda suck and are dark.
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