Look I know there are probably about seven hundred cot sheet tutes out there, but here's the Max California way ;)

So today, as well as babysitting a 5-month little baby all day, I managed to clean the house ((most of it)) rearrange Vince's room and write a tutorial on sewing fitted cotsheets! SUPERHERO! ((Duh, I'm Batman))

Instead of saying, use this measurement use that measurement, I'm going to try and explain how to do it yourself, because I know all cot mattresses are not alike!

This tutorial is super-duper easy! For novice seamstrixes ((Lol Stacey))!


Get your cott mattress, or measure it. The standard cot mattress size here in Australia ((I think ours is the largest of the standard sizes)) is 130cm length x 70cm width x 13cm depth. You're going to need roughly a little under 2m of fabric for this. The fabric I had wasn't quite long enough so I stitched some contrast red to the top and bottom ((You don't end up seeing it anyway as it turns out!)).



 To get the size of the sheet instead of measuring it, I just laid the fabric on the ground with with the mattress on top of it.



Fold up the sides a little bit. It should cover the depth of the mattress, plus fold over a bit. This much is probably too much ((unless you'll be hemming - then it's probably just right))



Now cut out the corners. You'll be cutting out squares. Don't forget to add seam-allowance on these squares - So the instead of the cuts being level with the mattress edges, it will be one cm extra on both sections. ((Do you need a diagram? Here))







 Fold the corner in half, right sides together, so that the edges you cut are matching up. It's ok if the edges of the sheet don't match up yet, just make sure the point evens out.

Pin and stitch ((and serge/overlock)) along this.




Do this for all of the corners, and overlock around the entire bottom of the sheet. If you're going to hem it, hem it now. I didn't because it gets tucked under the mattress anyway.


Now you'll need some elastic. My little assistants brought it over for me, despite the Jedi Youngling in the background trying to stop him. Mm, the Force is strong in this one.

You can do this two ways. You can stitch elastic all the way around the hem, but I savour my notions like they are gold, so I only use elastic on the corners. Still works exactly the same believe it or not! Stretch and pin the elastic about 15cm eaither side of each corner seam.



Now put it on the mattress

To make a fitted top sheet, pretty much do one of these, cut it in half width-ways. Then you have two and all you have to do is hem the tops!