Fitted Crib Sheets

Elastic zigzag stitched around one end of fitted crib sheet

Tried my hand this week at something new... sewing fitted crib sheets.

First I went online and looked at a number of tutorials, some of which were helpful and some less so.

You need about 2 yards of fabric to make a fitted crib sheet, plus approximately 3 yards (or meters) of 3/8 inch elastic.

Measure the crib mattress to see how long and how wide the surface is. ( My new grandbabies' mattress is 53 inches long and 28 inches wide.)
Also measure the depth of the mattress ( in this case it is 6 inches deep.)

Your fabric needs to cover all of that, the top and the sides, so the length of the fabric must be a minimum of 6" + 53" + 6" which = 65 inches in length.
The width is 6" + 28" + 6" + 40 inches in width.

Then of course  you are going to double seam all the sides so you need to add another 1/2 inch on all sides for the seams.

You also will need some of the sheet to tuck underneath the mattress, at least 1 1/2 -2 inches on all sides
so the final length of fabric needed would be  69" and the width 44" - 45".

Cut your fabric that size (in my case 69 X 44").

Now to make the fitted corners:
Cut an 8 inch square out of all 4 corners of the fabric.
(I accidently deleted my photos showing this part.)   :(    

Next sew the cut sides of each (missing) square together.  Those will be the fitted corners.

One blog had a great suggestion for this part:
Sew an 1/8" seam with the wrong sides together, then flip it over and sew a 1/4" seam in the same place on the other side with the right sides together. It finishes the seam neatly with no edges to fray.

Sew cut corners wrong sides together, 1/8 inch seam

Then turn that corner inside out and sew another seam on top of the first one, this time sew a 1/4 seam.

You should have fitted edges on your sheet now.  Now it's time to sew the seam on the outer edge all around the sheet. I pressed a scant 1/4 inch all around the outside, then turned it under another 1/4 inch and stitched it.

 Now for the elastic:
Some blogs suggest sewing the 3/8 inch elastic on around the outside of both ends.
Some tutorials prefer that you make a 1/2 inch casing seam all around your sheet instead, leaving a 1 inch opening to thread your elastic through. (Using 2 safety pins, pin 1 end of the elastic to the opening, put the safety pin on the other end of the elastic and push it through the opening into the 1/2 seam and work it all around to the other side.  Then stitch the 2 elastic ends together, and close up the little 1 inch gap.)

 I chose to try the exterior elastic method, probably a mistake, though. It turned out to be more difficult than I expected.  First I didn't know how much elastic I would need and I only had enough to do one end.

Measure 12 inches from the corner seam on the long side of the sheet and mark it with a pin. Then do the same on the opposite side, 12 inches past that corner seam.

Mark the opposite end of the sheet the same way. (There should be 4 pins on the sheet now about equally spaced.)

Stitch the elastic on, starting at the first pin using a zig zag stitch. (Turn the elastic under about 1/4 inch at the beginning and at the end so you have no raw edges to fray.)

Stretch the elastic as you sew it on.... You will see the sheet pucker behind the needle as you stitch along all around the end of the sheet to the opposite pin. 

This was a bit tricky as the zigzag settings on my sewing machine automatically put the feed dogs down so the seam kept getting stuck under the foot and sewing in one spot. I had to keep helping it along, gently pulling the sheet through behind the foot with one hand and with the other, trying to stretch the elastic and keep the seam straight underneath it. I really needed 3 hands for this part...

I think maybe I should change to a new sharper needle and which might help. 

Or maybe I should set up my old Pfaff sewing machine and do this part on there. The feed dogs are manual on that machine and I can keep them up.  (I wonder if I should check the operating manual on my Janome machine to see if I can override the feed dogs going down during the zigzag stitch...)

I'm staring to wish that I had chosen the other option, making a 1/2 seam to thread the elastic through.... But of course if you want to try that option, you will have to add another inch to the length and to the width of your fabric...  But it was too late for me to do that since I had already cut  the fabric out....

Tomorrow I will get some more elastic and finish the other end. 

Then this weekend when we visit my daughter I'll bring the fitted sheet along to try it out on the crib mattress. Something tells me I should have made it a bit deeper in the corners....

We'll see!    :)