Fitted bed sheet and method of making same

A fitted sheet for a mattress, or the like, comprising:

• a web of textile material dimensioned to fittingly cover the top, ends, and sides of the mattress with an extreme free edge of said web extending below the lower edge of the mattress and extending generally around the sides and ends of the mattress;
• opposed, spaced-apart sheaths extending along portions of said extreme free edge of said web, one end of each of said sheaths being open;
• resiliently extensible strips located within said sheaths, each strip having one end extending out of the open end of its associated sheath and having another end anchored to the end of said associated sheath opposite the opening;
• and
• means on each of said strips adapted to slide within said sheaths when said strips are in an unstretched condition for releasably attaching each of said resiliently extensible strips to its associated sheath adjacent the opening thereof when the end of said strip extending out of the opening is resiliently extended in said sheath to locate said last mentioned means adjacent the opening of said sheath, whereby employing said last mentioned means to attach said strip to said associated sheath at the opening thereof causes the resiliency of said strip to contract said strip within its associated sheath to gather the corners of the sheet inwardly of the bottom of the mattress and to draw the sheet into fitting engagement with the mattress, said last mentioned means holding each of said strips in an extended, tensioned, configuration in its associated sheath to hold the sheet on the mattress.