Found Fabrics - hiding from the heat vol. 2 (crib sheets)

Today, I decided to make some of my favourite things: crib sheets. I don't know why, but I just love making crib sheets. They're simple, pretty quick, and so weirdly rewarding. Ok,  guess I do know why. Anyway, I don't get to make them very often as they take a fair amount of fabric so they aren't really cost-effective to sell; I made so many when Rowan was born that I haven't needed to make more; and there are only so many you can give as gifts....

That being said, today I got to make a set. See, although we have a stack of fitted sheets for the crib, I only ever made one flat sheet and it's flannel. And it's hot here right now. Very hot. And poor Willow, who (like her mum) loves being tucked in at night, has been melting under a blanket. Poor wee thing. So, today, she got a nice set of cotton sheets so I can tuck her in!

No credit to me for the pillowcase (bought) or the quilt (a gift from a wonderful friend)

Tutorial Time!

You will need 3.6m (3.9 yards) of fabric, 1.2m (4') narrow elastic. 

Fitted Sheet:

Take a piece of fabric 70"x45". 45" is a pretty standard width for many fabrics, especially cottons, so this means you don't have to cut the long sides. Huzzah.

Cut 9" squares out of each corner. I do this by folding it in half and in half again, then cutting all the corners at once. 

New cutting mat! Thank you Fabricland Ultimate Sale!

Next, sew the two cut edges together with a 1/4" seam, creating a box corner

I serge my edges; you can zigzag them, pink them or leave them raw.

Finish the raw edges of the sheet. This should only be the two short sides, the long sides (if you had 45" fabric) are selvages and so don't really need to be finished.

Now cut 4 pieces of elastic at 1' each. Put the middle of each piece on the seam in each corner. Sew it down, stretching the elastic fully. 

I like to do this by sewing out from the centre of the elastic, but this means that you do have to sew one side of the elastic blind.

Blind!

 You can also stretch the elastic out fully, then pin it in place.

And there you have it! A fitted sheet!

Because my elastic had no guts (it was crazy soft and stretchy),  I did my 2' on each end as one piece. If you are using regular braided elastic, you'll need to do the 1' pieces

Flat sheet:

Start with another piece of fabric 70"x45" 

Hem one end at 1" (folded in half)

Hem the other end at 3" (fold under 1/2")

And you're done!

Update: Willow is sleeping well tonight! Cotton is a wonderful thing...

Found fabrics - hiding from the heat version

Today was hot. Really hot. Like, my thermometer said 39 degrees hot. I do not like the heat. I am a spring and fall sort of person. I like sweaters and long skirts and being, you know, cozy. I do not like sweltering. It just doesn't work for me.

As such, today the kids and I took refuge in the basement, where it stayed pretty cool all day. I decided to use up some fabric lying around.

First up, a very nice salmon jersey. I think it's a modal blend, but I could be wrong. I've had it for a while. Given the weather, I decided to make a sundress.

I'm not too certain how I feel about it, but Ryan laughed at me when I said that since I always hate everything I make for myself at first. After wearing it all evening, I've noticed that I need to alter it a little. Not hugely, but just a couple of fixes due to the way the fabric wears.

Then I decided to make a new travel change pad for my diaper bag. The one we have is cheap vinyl and came with a different bag and is straight-up falling apart. So I dove into my PUL stash and came up with this:

Folded along stitched fold lines! I know, I'm so clever...

I like it a lot.. It's a top layer of waterproof PUL, with two layers of a heavy cotton underneath. I'm not too worried about making it fully waterproof as we're past the peeing-on-the-change-table phase (I hope). I was going to bind it, but decided to just serge the edges instead. I'm on this kick right now of using four different colors of small spools of thread in my serger, and although it means I have to change the spools every five minutes, I think it looks fun. As a bonus, I'm slowly using up my huge collection of half-used spools of thread!

I also started on a shirt for my dad and some diapers for the wee one. I'll post those when they're done!