Sewing up my mood

I’m quite a bedding snob.
It’s not really something I’ve ever really thought about, but I’ve always had white percale linen on my bed. I’ve never, ever had pink! Pink is for sissies and I’ve never, ever considered floral. Of course, sometimes, you just have to see something in the right light to find that you might like it…the right light here being that the pink floral cotton sheeting was on sale, and ridiculously discounted for the quality—at around $2 (R34) /metre, which means that it cost me less than $10 to make the duvet cover and less than $6 for the fitted sheet and pillowcases (including the continental pillowcase). Also, it only took me an afternoon to sew it all up.

So I decided to share my afternoon’s achievement with you in the hopes that it’ll inspire someone to tackle a similar task, which is not nearly as difficult as it seems. Afterall, who in h*## sews their own linen?!?! 😝 But really, it’s sooooo rewarding 😜 (tongue-in-cheek).

I bought the cotton online and it was quite exciting to have it delivered and all; I bought a lot, because it was so cheap. Also, I’m going to use the rest of the cotton to make dungarees and a 3 tiered skirt (watch this space.)

The process is quite simple because a duvet cover is simply a large square envelope. The duvet is 200cm by 200cm so I measured the fabric at 200cm wide by 410 cm long. I’ve got a 2 by 2 metre cutting table which helped to make the layout and cutting really easy.

I overlocked the short edges and turned a double 2.5cm hem and then overlocked the sides. The open end needed a 30cm closure on each side, which leaves enough room to tuck the duvet in. I used press studs to close the opening.

The pillow cases are cut to the width of the pillow and double the length plus 20cm for the overlap.

The fitted sheet is measured at 2cm smaller than the width and length of the mattress. To that measure add the depth of the mattress plus 12cm. Cut a square away on each corner to the depth of the mattress plus the 12cm. Next overlock each corner and straight sew to strengthen the seam. Measure a point at 30cm on each side of the corner to mark the extent of the elastic. Sew the elastic in place and hem.

That’s it!
I’m loving my floral linen. Yay!

All images are mine, shot with my iPad and manipulated using ArtStudio