My Best Sewing Idea. EVER!!

Among the many, many things I love to collect -- two of my favorite things are pithy t-shirts and Damask tablecloths. Now, you may not think these two things go together...BUT YOU WOULD BE WRONG...

I am telling you -- this is the BEST SEWING IDEA I EVER HAD.

The first thing to do is wash your vintage Damask tablecloth and hang it out on the line. This is the most luxurious fabric you can imagine -- and you just might have it sitting in the bottom of a drawer, or stored in a hope chest for 30 years.  FIND THOSE TABLECLOTHS...cut them up. This is a good use for them.

Lay the tablecloth on the top of your naked mattress, to make sure you have the fit right. A Queen size mattress is 60 inches wide and 80 inches long. Twin is 39 x 75...Full is 54 x 75 and King is 76 x 80.

Here's the idea: I wanted to make a fitted sheet, using the Damask for the top of the mattress -- and the t-shirts will be the four sides.

AWESOME...

The damask should be 1" wider than the actual mattress (for seam allowance). You should RIP the Damask...to make sure it is straight and true.

I cut a bunch of random t-shirts...using the pithy sayings I love so much...and just sewed a bunch of them together. I want the sides to be 18" deep.

There were SO Many fun t-shirts to choose from...

I did more or less lay them out, to make sure the colors wouldn't clash...

I just serged the t-shirts together, to form one really long piece

You can see where I'm headed, right??

Here's the best part -- just PLEAT THE T-SHIRTS AT THE CORNERS. Duh. I rounded the corner of the Damask, then did this. SOOO EASY...

I stitched around the sheet, using a Schmetz Stretch needle and a stretch stitch on my sewing machine. I did this TWICE.

The final step was to sew a casing around the t-shirt -- then, use a bodkin to pull a piece of 1/4" elastic all the way around. I wanted it pretty tight...

What a great way to send you child off to college, eh?  Grandma's linen Damask mixed up with their own soccer shirts! THIS IS AN AMAZING SHEET to sleep on.  Really.  If you wanted to buy a linen sheet, it would cost hundreds of dollars.  

And making a fitted sheet is a lot easier than making a t-shirt quilt, people.