How To Dress Up Plain White Sheets

Ordinary white sheets are inexpensive, but you can dress them up to look more expensive with some of these suggestions.

You can be on a tight budget but still have beautiful bed sheets. Although ordinary white sheets are inexpensive they can look like a million bucks after you've added a few personal touches to them. Make sure the sheets have been laundered at least once before adding embellishments to them. One inexpensive way of dressing your sheets up is to add a lace border to the top of the flat sheet. Sew or use fabric glue to attach the lace all the way across the top of the sheet, then trim lace neatly on each end. If the lace is the type that just doesn't look neat after being trimmed, hem the sides of the lace before sewing them onto the sheet. You can choose whatever color you want for the lace, then sew matching lace around the edges of the pillowcases. For an ensemble look, use some of the lace for a lampshade or attach some of the lace to your bedroom curtains.

Rubber stamps are very inexpensive and only require a little fabric paint to make impressive decorations on your white sheets. You can choose one stamp, or a set of stamps for making the design. Be sure and purchase fabric paint to keep your design from fading in the wash. Spread the sheet out on a table, dip your rubber stamp in the paint and press down on the sheet. You can do just a border, or make all-over designs. Don't forget to do the same process to your pillowcases or shams. If your curtains are solid, complete the look by stamping them, too.

Embroidery is time-consuming but is an elegant look for your ordinary white sheets. If you have sewing machine that does embroidery, it's easy, but if not, you'll have to hand stitch the lettering. After stenciling the family initials onto the sheet, use embroidery thread to embroider over the letters. The initials can be put on the pillowcases, across the top hem of the flat sheet, or on shams. Choose a color other than white to make the lettering stand out. In place of embroidery thread, you can substitute metallic thread like gold or silver for the lettering. This is a very elegant look for plain white sheets. If you do have a machine that does various patterns, thread the machine with the metallic thread and do a border design for your pillowcases and top sheet edge.

At any fabric store you can purchase panels of material which display a certain theme, such as wolves. These panels are meant for making throw pillows and are cut for that size. They also have regular fabric with nice prints such as flowers or snow scenes. Try purchasing either the panels or the yardage of fabric, then attaching it to your white sheets. You can either cut out some of the designs from the fabric and sew it onto your sheets for a border, or use the whole panel to sew directly onto the pillowcases, leaving the rest of the pillowcases as a border for the new design.

You can combine two or three of these techniques together for an even more impressive sheet set. For example, you can stamp the sheets, then do a metallic border in addition. Or, sew on the panels and then add the lace trim. No matter which combination you choose, your plain white sheets will be plain no more.

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