Gone to the Dogs

My decorating has come full circle again. Once upon a time, when I had two little girls in separate rooms, I decided that Monkey could have a nice jungle themed room, and Kitty was in love with puppies so she got the dog themed room. Kitty and I picked out some fabric and I even made her a sheet and pillowcase. But then I took over one of the rooms for a craft room (yes, I am a selfish mother like that) and the two girls got put together. For the longest time, I thought that I was going to decorate their room with the jungle print, but as I was sketching out a window valance, I realized that Monkey was in love with puppies too, and so we are back to the dogs. Since I had only made one sheet before with the puppy print (it has a bunch of sayings relating to dogs like WOOF), and I had a bunch left over, yesterday I made the second sheet so the girls could have matching mattresses.

I used the McCall's M4328 pattern basically. It is pretty easy, just cut some fabric 69" long. If your fabric is more than 45" wide, you would need to trim it, but otherwise there is your base. You fold each corner to a point (45 degree angle) and measure in 9". That is your sew line- 9" up to the top of the triangle. I cut my fabric at the 8 1/2" line and sew with a 1/2" seam allowance. After sewing your corners, hem your bottom edge, leaving a gap to run 3 yards of 1/4" elastic through. Sew elastic together and close hem, Finished. Not difficult, but it does take a little time to hem the whole bottom edge and then to tread the elastic all that way. I am sure there must be tutorials out there with pictures of every step. Mostly, I just wanted to post the measurements that I used so that if I make more I can find it quickly. :)

I already have an idea for the window valance. Unfortunately, it involves a trip to the fabric store, so we shall see how long that takes to get done. Taking children to Jo-Ann's is NOT my favorite activity.