Recently, more and more often, bed linen manufacturers are moving away from the practice of selling ordinary sheets and giving preference to the manufacture of these with an elastic band. Of course, this is dictated by demand, because such bedding is very comfortable. But what should those who have too many sheets at home do, and buying new ones is not advisable?
Is it possible to make one from an ordinary sheet that is secured with an elastic band?
I hasten to please the craftswomen: this alteration is doable and not at all difficult. The only problem that you may encounter is that the size of the sheet is insufficient for a full fold under the mattress and a hem for the elastic band. But this can be solved by selecting suitable fabric and sewing it around the perimeter.
What you need for work
Particular attention should be paid to the arrangement of fabrics. This question will arise mainly for remaking sheets for an adult bed. If you are planning to make an option for a nursery out of a large sheet, then the fabric will most likely be enough.Today I want to talk about a method that will help save fabric as much as possible without unnecessary hems.
For a mattress measuring 200*140, you usually buy (or sew) a sheet with a good margin on the sides for folding. But its length is often limited to 2 meters 20 centimeters - this is the standard width of a roll for adult bed linen. The width of the sheet usually ranges from 180–200 cm, and in some cases you will also have to increase it on the sides. But in any case, this has to be done along the length of the mattress.
Materials and tools
So, we will need:
- regular sheet and companion fabric;
- scissors;
- threads in color;
- rubber;
- long ruler, measuring tape;
- chalk.
In this article, I suggest finishing the edges of the fabric with an overlock stitch, but this does not mean that if you do not have an overlocker, this will be a big problem. I will talk about everything in more detail below.
Pattern
In the format of making sheets, we cannot talk about a pattern in the usual sense of the word. On a piece of paper you just need to sketch out what the fabric should look like before stitching. In the case of converting a regular sheet to a fitted sheet, you must also indicate how much fabric is missing on the sides. The canvas should look like a rectangle (or square, depending on which mattress you have) with identical squares cut out in the corners.
For the 200*140*20 option, for example, you will need a length of blank:
200+2*20 + 2*10 = 260,
where 20 is the height of the mattress, and 10 is the allowance for the bend and hem for the elastic. With a standard sheet length of 220, you will need to add 30 cm of fabric on both sides. In width it will be:
140 +2*20 + 2*10 = 200.
It’s good if the sheet was 200 cm. But if this value was 180, you will need to add another 10 cm on both sides.
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Step-by-step instruction
Before starting work, all elements must be washed and ironed to avoid further shrinkage of the finished product.
So, we will cut off the corners from the initial product. Their sizes will depend on the sheet: solid fabric from corner to corner should correspond to the length and width of the mattress (in our case - 200 * 140). That is, from fabric 220*180 we will cut a rectangle from each corner, measuring 10*20 (where 10 cm is cut along the length, and 20 cm is cut across the width of the sheet).
We cut off pieces from the companion fabric: 2 pcs. size 200*10 (where 200 is the length of the mattress, and 10 is the difference between the desired width of the sheet with an elastic band of 200 cm, taking into account 20 cm in the previously cut rectangle) and 2 pcs. 140*20 according to similar calculations. In these pieces it is worth adding 1.5 cm per seam along the width.
Advice! To make your work easier, cut a rectangle from a regular sheet to the size of the length and width of the mattress + a seam allowance of 1.5 cm on each side, and cuts from the companion fabric will be equal to the missing sides of the mattress 20 cm + 10 cm for the hem + 1.5 cm per seam joining two fabrics. Then the sides of the sheet will differ from the top along the entire side surface. That is, these will be two rectangles measuring 140 * 36.5 cm and 200 * 36.5 cm.
- We sew all the elements to each other using a regular straight seam with an indentation of about 7 mm from the edge, and then, using an overlock foot, we work on the edge of the product using an edge stitch or zigzag. We process all the edges in the same way, except for the sides of a cut-out square. All this can be done on an overlocker, if you have one.
- We sew the parts protruding from the rectangle shape in the same way as described above.
- We turn the edge to the distance required for the elastic band you have chosen. For example, if its width is 2 cm, the fold should be 2.5 cm. And along the entire perimeter of the sheet we stitch it with a straight stitch, leaving an unfinished area 3 cm long.
- We insert the elastic into the hem using a safety pin, pinning it at one of the ends. Then we sew the ends of the elastic together. The fitted sheet is ready!
Useful tips
- To measure the required amount of elastic, you need to fix it on the corner of the sofa and, with some stretching, bring it to the corner on the same side. Then secure it at this corner and go to the next one. Fold the resulting length of the elastic band in half without tension - the desired value will come out.
- The higher the sides of the bed, the more invisible the manipulations with sewing on other fabric will be.
- On the back side of the fabric, you can even use a pencil to draw cutting lines: usually calico on the back side is lighter than on the front side.
As you can see, the work on the alteration, of course, will be painstaking, but there is nothing particularly difficult here. If you're not ready to purchase new sheets just yet, you can always repurpose your old ones. Moreover, you are completely unlimited in the selection of additional fabric and can achieve various effects with its help.
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