Reconstructing a Fitted Sheet

Soon after buying Elizabeth's canopy bed I started searching for a nice used mattress set. It wasn't until after Christmas before we found one. The mattress is a pillow top and very big compared to a standard mattress; and my first thought was sheets. How was I going to find sheets to fit such a big mattress?

 I took a queen fitted sheet and placed it on the mattress. It of course was too big but my thinking was to reconstruct this sheet to fit the mattress.

My first step was to pin the corners until the sheet felt snug.

 

Then I trimmed the area with elastic so the sheet would lay flat.

 

Each corner needed to be stitched about 3 1/2 inches from the corner seam; this was then marked with a pencil. 

Once each corner was stitched, and before I trimmed the excess corner fabric, it was time to try the sheet on the mattress.

And, it was too snug!

So glad I waited to trim the corners :o)

It was simple to restitch the corners and the second time the sheet fit better.

 

As soon as I was certain the sheet needed no more altering I trimmed each corner;

And serged the raw edges.

Then I cut the remaining hem and serged once again.

Before adding my elastic to the corners I first measured and marked13-inches from each corner seam on both sides of the seam. This was a total of 26-inches per corner that was to have elastic; which was attached with a zig zag stitch.

Once the elastic was in place I simply folded the edge and topped stitched all around.

This enclosed the elastic as well as formed a hem along the edge.

My reconstructed sheet fits beautifully!

 Now that I know what I'm doing the next sheet should go much faster.

There's no telling how much money I was able to save by using a sheet we already had. Sure am glad I know how to sew.