Making sheets

Making sheets is not difficult.  All it is, is simply fabric yardage sewn together sort of like making a backing for a quilt.  Then the edges are hemmed.  I'm writing a description of how I plan to do mine for those who don't want to wait until I have the time to make mine and take photos.  It may be several days before I get the chance to finish my sheets. 



Fabric pieces cut to make bed sheets and window quilts.

Here's how I figured the size for my sheets.

I have a double size bed.  The mattress measured 54W X 74L on top.  The mattress is 10 inches tall.  I wanted a tuck under of at least 7 inches.  So let's see...... 54 plus 20 (two sides) plus 14 (two sides) comes up to 88 inches for the width.   Quilting fabric I have is 44 inches wide.  This means that two widths of fabric will be plenty for the width of my sheets.  It will be a little shy of 88" wide when finished but I can live with that.  If the fabric had been narrower than 44, I could have used a third width and cut to size. 

Now for the length.  My mattress is 74" long, plus 20" for the height of the mattress (head and foot), plus tucking in of 7" (head and foot) so this figures up to 108" for the length.  That's 3 yards.  Figuring that I need two fabric widths for the side to side measurement, I need 6 yards of fabric for one flat sheet.

Sew the two widths together down the middle.  Sew a simple hem around the outside edge and it's a sheet.  Because the sheet is long enough and wide enough to tuck under the mattress, it's also plenty large enough to be used as a top sheet.  Oh?  You want a pretty border along the top edge of your top sheet so it will match your pillow cases? 

Ok, I can simply cut the length a little less than 3 yards then cut a piece of a different fabric to sew on the end.  Just sew it on with the back side of the border fabric showing on the front side of the sheet.  This is so that when you turn the sheet down, the border faces up like the sheet does.   If you prefer to have a double sided top border, cut it wide enough to fold in half and hem along the sewn edge.  I hope that's clear.  It will make more sense if you visualize it in your mind before sewing.

Hmm... in making one sheet set and pillow cases, I can use up about 14 yards of fabric in about an hour.  If I make two sets that's 28 yards, etc.  Think about it, if you had 3 double beds being used everyday and you make 2 sets of sheets and pillow cases for each bed....   You could be using up 84 yards of fabric in a short time.  You will use even more if you have larger beds in your home.  Now that's a lot of quick stash busting don't ya think?

Storing fabric stash as sheet sets is a whole lot different than trying to store it in a quilting room.  The fabric can still be used for making quilts by simply cutting up the sheet as you would any other fabric.  OR, use the sheets as quilt backing.  It will be washed several times making it very soft in a quilt. 

I'll get my sheet sets made as soon as I can and take some photos.