Thursday, January 6, 2011

Toddler Bed Sheet Fix


SOO this  post might not apply to Anybody but me, but if you have EVER been woken up at 2 in the morning with the words "MOMMY COME COVER ME UP!!!!" screamed at you, this might be important information for you. 
Recently Emersyn has been upgraded to a toddler bed---because baby boy is gonna need the crib soon (CRAZY).  Now I WISH that she was a great sleeper, but she has always been a BIT of an insomniac.  I can probably count the amount of times she has slept through the night  in the past 2 and a half years on one hand---SERIOUSLY!!!  This is just my latest attempt to keep her in her OWN bed and quiet through the night.....Here goes.
Since TOP sheets are new to her, she tends to continue ending up with a bed like THIS...
THEN she wants to be tucked back in.  SOOOO I decided to add a bit of elastic to the bottom of the to sheet to keep it in place.  WORKED LIKE A CHAMP!!!
What you will need:
40 inches of 1/4 inch elastic
a toddler top sheet
about 25 minutes
BTW: I used THIS tutorial for fitted sheets from MADE to get myself started.  I basically followed her lead, but only on half a sheet.  ANYWAY...here are my steps.

First:  I  cut an 8 inch by 8 inch section out of the bottom two corners of the sheet.  WARNING!!!  Make sure that when you do this your TODDLER is NOWHERE in sight.  Otherwise you may have a full blown freak out because you are cutting Tinkerbell.  Just saying...

Next:  You will be making the pockets on both sides of the bottom of the sheet.  SOOO take the edges, right side together and sew your pocket.  It should look like this.  Cute huh????
I serged off the seams...JUST CAUSE I CAN---YAY!!!!  (did I mention I got my serger??)
THEN:  You wanna measure half way up the side of your sheet.  I did this very scientifically by folding the sheet in half and placing a pin at the half way point.   Then fold over the edge (starting at the pin) to make your elastic casing.  Fold all the way around the end and back to the other pin.  I just tapered off after the pin for looks sake. Iron really well.  I made my casing about 1/2 inch so that I could take a bigger seam (just easier than tiny) and fit my 1/4 inch elastic in. 

After that: Sew all the way around (from pin to pin). This is the easiest hemming ever because your sheet is already hemmed and has no raw edges---yay!!!

Finally: Use a safety pin to insert your elastic into the casing.  I left mine peaking out on either side (and hold on tight) so that I could sew it down.
FINALLY:  Sew two parallel sets of stitches to keep the elastic in place.  I went back and forth five or six times just to be safe.

TA DA!!!  You have a half fitted flat sheet....
How cool is that???  Now I only hope it keeps her little body LOCKED inside ALL NIGHT LONG:)

I tried to get an after picture, but Super Toddler could NOT wait to try out her new big girl bed.


Clearly I left her dirty and bedragled while I worked on this sheet.  I have never claimed to me Super Woman right???

Check it out...the sheet didn't move!!! SUCCESS!!!  Now I am tempted to elasticize the comforter too...just sayin!!!
I REALLY wanna sleep through the night for one more month until ALL sleep stops in our house....wish me luck:)

5 comments:

Marilee said...

You are so crafty...that is a great idea!

Michelle of ilovegreen said...

Hi
this made me laugh out loud.... nearly...don't want to wake the 2 rat bags it took me hours to get to sleep! :)
love the idea, just got to get my toddler to actually go IN her room, never mind actually in the bed x
p.s our 2nd baby was an excellent sleeper for oh about a month,now total shocker as well!
best wishes for a beautiful new baby, such a special time x

Megan said...

what a great idea! My first was a horrible sleeper too(girl), but my second ended up being an amazing sleeper(boy)! Best of luck to you! I hope you get some good sleep before you little boy comes!

5dollarFanatic said...

Totally this is the best idea ever-especially if you have bunkbeds-because this happened so often we had just gone without the top sheet...now I'm thinking I should reintroduce them and this would definitely keep most of the bed together to make it easier for my kids to make their beds in the morning.. I love this idea.

5dollarFanatic said...

What an amazing idea. This would be wondeful for bunkbeds to help my kids to make them up every day. We just haven't used topsheets on them for this same reason. Now I think I should reintroduce them. Thanks for posting this.