written by guest blogger, the fern’s big sister Carla Bissett

I was so excited to get the nursery ready for my first little angel that I raced to the land of fabric and purchased a number of adorable sheeting prints and a pattern for crib sheets.  I merrily went on my crafty way cutting, pinning, elastic-ing and sewing until I had half a dozen complete.  I hurried to the nursery to adorn our bundle-to-be’s bed with pretty pastel polka-dots and posies but to my dismay…. My ‘standard’ crib sheet pattern wasn’t so standard at all!  And what was worse was that my six pack of sheets were too small!

Disheartened and a bit irritated, I stuffed my proportionally challenged bedding into my ‘scrap’ basket and resorted to purchasing appropriately sized sheeting.

Well I’m expecting my second child any day now and this time it’s different.  This time I got it right.

Fitted Crib Sheet

DIRECTIONS:
To make a sheet to fit a standard 52” x 28” crib mattress up to 5” thick, you’ll need:
–       Pre-washed sheeting fabric 66” x 42”
–       Thread
–       Scissors
–       Measuring tape or ruler
–       Pins
–       Approximately 2 yds of 1/8” elastic

1.    Layout your fabric on a flat surface, right side up.
2.    Cut 7” squares out of each corner.
3.    Bring cut edges together for each corner with right sides facing.  Pin and sew with 5/8″ seam.
4.    To form casing for elastic, press ¼” along the end and down each side of your sheet bout 8″.  Press edge in another ¼” and sew close to pressed edge.  Repeat at other end.
5.    Feed elastic through casing, tacking at one edge.  Pull elastic to desired fullness and tack at other end of casing.  Cut off excess elastic.  Repeat at other end.
6.   Press ¼” + ¼” on remaining sides and sew.
7.   Try it on your crib mattress, stand back and appreciate all your hard work.  You did it!

If you have a different size or thickness of mattress you can use the following guide to create you own custom pattern!

Corner Squares
Take the height of your mattress and add 2”.
Length of Fabric
Take the length of your matress and add two times the length of your corner square.
Width of Fabric
Take the width of your matress and add two times the length of your corner square.