Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial
How To Make A Fitted Bed Sheet
This really is one of the most simple projects there is. How many times have you made, or been given a gorgeous blanket that doesn't match any of the rest of your bedding? Or maybe you just looked around a child's room and wanted a really quick and easy idea to brighten it up? Now the problem is sorted!
I made my bedding for a cot bed, which is probably the biggest size you can make from a standard roll of cotton fabric without hunting down extra wide cotton widths or making a centre join.
What you will need:
Enough fabric to cover the top and come up the sides of the mattress.
Fold over elastic (enough to stretch around the outside while edge of your mattress)
How you make it:
Simply put your fabric underneath your mattress, and pull upwards to stretch the cotton to the top of the mattress. Cut about half inch above that level. Just square the corners off for now.
With the pattern facing upwards, pull your edges up around the mattress and pin in place. Trim off excess leaving yourself a quarter inch seam allowance (or whatever you prefer to use).
Sew up 3 of those corners. I like to seal the seams in with an over edge (also called overcast) stitch to make it hold up to repeated washing (a zigzag stitch close to the edge will also work fine).
On the open corner start your fold over elastic so the ends will be hidden in the seams.
Fold the elastic over the edge of cotton. Sew half an inch without stretch to anchor it in, then attach the rest with a 3 step zigzag stitch to allow for movement (otherwise your stitches can break or the elastic doesn't stretch), while stretching the elastic as you go.
Because elastic ribbon is a gentle elastic you'll want it on full stretch.
Now simply sew up your final corner exactly the same way but this time with the ends of the elastic hidden inside the seam
Turn it right side out and your done! Easy hey?!
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We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk
Happy Sewing!
When you sew your own fitted sheets, you can repurpose flat sheets or duvet covers in a larger size, or buy fabric to customize bedding to match your decor. And since mattresses come in different depths, making your own gives you control over the fit. The process is as simple as sewing a few boxed corners (similar to darts used in garment construction ) and then adding elastic to hold the sheets in place.
Great idea! I don’t have babies anymore, but I still have mattresses!
I would love to know how to figure on how much elastic to use on a full size fitted queen sheet? I want it to go around the whole sheet. Not just on the corners.
Hi Karen. I’ve never made a sheet that big before so I couldn’t tell you the exact amount. I’ve read before for similar projects to usually expect to need anywhere from 20-40% less elastic than the length of the edges. Narrower elastic usually doesn’t stretch as much as wider elastic, and fold over elastic has less stretch than standard elastic. Even within set sizes, different brands of elastic will have different strengths. In an ideal world, if you could stretch say 10cm of your chosen elastic to the amount of tension you would like it at, you could calculate the exact amount you need from that. Otherwise, I would just aim for the lower end of the estimation for narrow elastics and the higher end for the wider ones. Hope that helps a bit! Linda 🙂