{Tutorial} Easy DIY Crib Sheets

This is my kind of sewing project; no measuring, no ironing, no mind numbing tedium.  The whole project can be completed in less than half an hour and for cheaper than a store bought crib sheet (if you scour your fabric store's clearance section for super cute fabrics on the cheap!  If you buy pricey fabric it won't be cheaper...but it will be cuter!)

You will need:

• 2 yards of fabric, preferably a 45 inch wide fabric because then you don't need to cut it.  (Avoid stretchy fabric like jersey...it still works but I found it a little more....irritating.)
• 2 to 3 yards of Fold Over Elastic.
• thread

Fold over elastic is kinda like stretchy bias tape.  It gets folded over and stitched along the edges of the crib sheet, allowing it to fit tightly over the mattress without you having to hem the edges of the sheet.  I bought mine from Fabric.com

Lay your fabric out on the floor, nice side down.  Lay your crib mattress in the middle of the fabric.  There should be enough fabric around the edges to fold up over the sides of the mattress and then some.

Use a ruler to draw a square in each corner, approximately lined up with the edges of the mattress. Like this:

For each corner, line up the lines you just drew:

And sew along it:

Trim the extra little triangle off of your corners, like this:

If you have a serger, that would come in handy for this.  If (like me) you don't you can just sew a second straight stitch and a zig zag stitch along the edge.  We want these sheets to hold up to about a bazillion washes.

 

After you've done all four corners you just need to add your elastic.  Fold it over the edges of your crib sheet and stitch it all the way around, stretching it as you go.  I discovered that I use between 2 and 3 yards of elastic for each crib sheet, depending on how tightly I stretch it.

Ta da!  You have a crib sheet perfectly fitted to your crib mattress!

We've got the crib all set up in our bedroom for when our sweet new baby girl arrives!  Only 3 more weeks (give or take!) and she'll be in our arms.

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