Egyptian Cotton Sheets Help Quick!
“I have an Egyptian Cotton Sheets emergency!” my friend declared as soon as I picked up the phone.
“An emergency? Are you sure you’re not exaggerating?”
“No, it’s a true emergency. See, my mother was at a flea market and saw a great deal (you know how my mother loves deals), and she ended up buying five Egyptian Cotton Sheets.”
“Five individual sheets?”
“Yep, they were all still in the package. The thing is – none of them match. They’re all different sizes. I have no idea what to do with them, but I know that my mother would be crushed if I didn’t make use of them. When can you come over?”
“I’ll be there in half an hour.”
When I got to my friend’s house, I saw she was dealing with a dilemma. However, not one that The Egyptian Cotton Sheets Queen couldn’t handle. First, she did have five Egyptian cotton sheets. All top Egyptian cotton sheets and different sizes. However, all five were all similar shades of green.
“That’s probably why your mother go them for you. She knows you love green.”
“But what am I supposed to do with five sheets?”
“Give me a minute…” I looked around at her apartment and thought about how to use the sheets. The larger one could be tucked under the mattress to make a set for the bed, but what about the others?
My friend is more like her mother than she would like to admit. They are both frugal; they find looking for a bargain to be a fun way to spend a day. This attitude (well, that and a limited budget), led my friend to the local thrift shop when she outfitted her apartment. While I knew that she only chose items that were sturdy and in good shape, she had a mismatched assortment.
An idea occurred to me. She had picked up a used love seat and chair. They were both overstuffed and very comfortable. While she had spent days making sure they were clean, she’d never gotten around to doing anything else with them. Enter the Egyptian cotton sheets.
With a little bit of trial and error, tucking and safety pins, we turned two of the Egyptian cotton sheets into slipcovers for the couch and chair. My friend stepped back and looked at the work critically.
“It’s a bit sloppy around the edges, but I think with a bit of trimming and sewing, we could turn them into real slipcovers.” We agreed to meet back up the next day to finish the job.
We Turn Two Egyptian Cotton Sheets Into Real Slipcovers
The next afternoon, she was ready with her sharp sewing scissor and sewing machine. Carefully, we pinned the Egyptian cotton sheets everywhere and then removed them from the furniture. With careful trimming and sewing, we were able to create slipcovers that fit over the furniture like a glove. Then, using some of the scraps we had cut off, she created ties that pulled the covers tight and added a little bit more decoration.
When we were finished turning two Egyptian cotton sheets into fitted slipcovers, we were ready for food. I volunteered to pick up pizza, and headed out.
The pizza place was next door to dollar store. There was a miscommunication and the pizza wasn’t ready when I arrived, so while I was waiting for the pizza to be ready, I decided to stop into the dollar store.
Tucked into a corner, I found tie on chair covers in a pretty pastel green. Suddenly, I had an idea of what to do with another one of the Egyptian cotton sheets. I purchased four chair pads and went to get the pizza.
My friend gave me a quizzical look when I came in with the pizza in one hand and the dollar store bag hung on my arm. “I found something cool which will I think you will like, plus it gave me an idea for another one of the sheets.”
As we ate our pizza, I showed her the chair pads and explained my idea. “We did full slipcovers for the living room, which I do have to say came out very well. I was thinking about slipcovers for the chairs as well, but not quite the same way. Have you ever seen those covers that slip over just the chair backs?”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“The ones I’m thinking of are out at Christmas time – they’re red and fold over like a Santa cap with a white pom pom.”
She nodded. “Oh, right. I trust you, but please tell me you don’t envision pom poms?”
I laughed. “No, I wasn’t sure whether they would look better with bows to match the living room, or go a bit different and do a tassel. Either way, I think that it should fold over the back and hang down like a ‘V’.”
“A bow would probably be easier, and cheaper, cause I don’t have any tassels on hand and I don’t want to even try making our own.”
“Then bows it is. Do you have any cheap fabric around that we could use as a pattern?”
She thought for a moment. “I’ve got a tee shirt that I was ready to cut up for rags. That might work…” She ran to get it.
A Tee Shirt Patterns Helps Us Transform More Of The Egyptian Cotton Sheets
As it turned out, the tee shirt fit pretty perfectly. She cut off the sleeves and through more cutting and pinning, managed to create a mock up of the finished product. Then it became a matter of carefully slicing open the tee shirt and laying it out on one of the Egyptian cotton sheets as a pattern.
In an effort to smooth the two layers of cotton together, I ended up holding the tee shirt on the sheet while she cut. Before the first cut she thought to add a bit of extra to allow for a hem.
Within an hour, we had turned two more of the Egyptian cotton sheets into four odd looking pieces of fabric. We then called it a night and agreed to get together again the next weekend.
I spent the next couple of days thinking about how we could use all parts of the Egyptian cotton sheets. Egyptian cotton sheets are so wonderful, it would be a shame to throw any scraps away.
The next weekend, I went over her house again to help with what we had decided to call ‘Operation Egyptian Cotton Sheets Transformation.’
“Didn’t you say that you saw some really comfy, but ugly pillows a couple of weeks ago?”
“I did. I really wanted them, but I couldn’t justify it.”
“Wouldn’t you say that a pillow cover is easier than any of the slipcovers we’ve already done?”
“True, it is easier…”
“Perfect! We’ll finish the chair covers and then go pillow shopping.”
Ugly Pillows Get An Egyptian Cotton Sheets Makeover
We pulled out the pieces of Egyptian cotton sheets and pinned them for sewing. It took about an hour and we had the four chair covers. Another half hour and we had added the bows. We stepped back and admired the result. With the seat cushions, the apartment was coming together. The slipcovers for the sofa and chair looked like a perfect fit for the slipcovers for the dining room chairs. All the greens came together. When we used the left over scraps of Egyptian cotton sheets to make pillow covers we would really have the whole apartment pulled together.
We headed out for some food then went to pick up the ugly pillows. We figured that we had enough Egyptian cotton sheets scraps that we could cover 5 pillows. We also stopped at a craft store and picked up zippers for the covers – Teri wanted to be able to remove them to wash occasionally.
When we got back to Teri’s house, we took about an hour and a half to finish the pillow covers out of the Egyptian cotton sheets. Teri tossed two on the couch and put the other three in her bedroom. We had two Egyptian cotton sheets left. I helped Teri make the bed with them – even though they were both top sheets, we were able to make it work. Teri had saved the largest of the Egyptian cotton sheets to use as a bottom sheets. It had enough extra that we could tuck quite a bit under the mattress. Teri had these plastic mattress clamper things that went on the edge of the mattress and held the sheet in place. We then put the last of Egyptian cotton sheets as a top sheet and pulled up the blanket. Teri plumped up the 3 ugly pillows – which were no longer ugly because of the Egyptian cotton sheets covers and put them with her bed pillows against the headboard.
We stepped back, into the bedroom doorway and looked around at the apartment. It all hung together very well. The couch covers, the living room chair covers, the covers on the dining room chairs, the covers on the pillows, and finally on the bed. We grinned at each other. Operation Egyptian Cotton Sheets Transformation was a success.