FionaJill: Flats to Fitteds.....Sheets that is!

So, I have 4 kids. I have 4 kids aged 7 & below. I have 2 kids who still wet the bed. 1 is only new to being dry at night as she is only 3. The other well, its not a regular occurrence but often enough.
So anyway I have 4 single beds to keep sheets on. Thats a lot of linen when accidents still happen.

Just the last few weeks we have had terrible weather for bed wetting. I have found myself short on sheets. So I thought I would turn some of the top flat sheets of my single bed sheet sets into fitted to help fill out my fitted sheet stash.

Here is how I went about it.

First of all let me say that I have not cut any of my sheets. My kids tend to not keep a top sheet on them at the moment but if they do happen to want a top sheet then I have done these so I can simply unpick my stitches and bobs your uncle the process has been reversed.

So Grab your sheet and lay it out on your single mattress. My kids have a standard hight single mattress so if your game you can skip this bit & just use the measurements I have used and hope for the best.
What you want to do is have the sheet laid out evenly as possible and then at one corner find the spot where the top of the mattress is. Now grab this corner but just the sheet and pinch it up. Hold this spot & take the sheet off the bed. Now while still holding this point bring the corner of the sheet to a point & measure along the edge of the sheet until you are at the point where you marked the top of the mattress would be.

For me this is roughly 35cm

Ok Im sure there is a less complicated way to explain that but its late & my brain doesn't work well at the best of times, remember I have 4 kids.

Now make sure you have the right sides of your sheet facing in. You now want to sew or overlock from from the edge of the sheet to the point which is the top of the mattress.

Now At this point you can either cut off the point of the sheet if you want OR you can tack it to the side as you add your elastic which is what I have done. This way I can remove it all later if I want my flat sheet back again.

So next you want to lay the sheet out so you can fold over your point (if your keeping it).

If not you still want to lay your sheet out so you can mark you elastic placement.
I have placed my elastic roughly 20cm either side of the line I stitched earlier. I think this is plenty. But you may like more.

Now what I did seems I left my corner attached was using a straight stitch sew the flap down. When you reach your elastic placement mark slip your elastic in & do a Zig ZAG stitch remembering to pull the elastic tight as you go all the way to the other end where you have marked your elastic placement to go.