Sewing - and knowing when enough is enough

Hmmm - I may have said recently that I had some baby sewing to do - DH's niece is due to be the mommy of a bouncing baby boy soon and in January I said I'd make some crib sheets and receiving blankets for her shower.

Her shower was Feb 26 - I managed to hem around the edges of 3 ! receiving blankets !
4 blankets and 4 crib sheets were in progress and yet that's all I got done. bad, bad Auntie :-(

Anyway, part of the problem is attaching the elastic to the sheets. It shouldn't be a difficult task - but it's killing me. I have a serger WITH and elastic attachment foot and multiple ZZ machines. Testing numerous times with every combination of machines and feet proved completely unsuccessful. It's definitely me and it's completely humbling to admit that for this simple task, I dug through my instruction books and on the Net for help. The instructions are understandable, it's the actual technique of doing that I'm having trouble with.

These NEED to get done and so I did a bit of sewing this weekend. I finished the 4th receiving blanket with a very pretty decorative stitch. I serged the raw edges of 2 of the sheets in preparation for the elastic.

The flannel is not quite wide enough and I've compensated by adding a lengthwise strip down one side of each sheet - didn't want to do this, but the seam probably won't show as it is just the amount needed for the sheet to tuck under the sides of the mattress.

I didn't do this on my first sheet and no way would it be wide enough so last night I undid 2 of the serged ends and added the required strip. No problem with this.

Except then I realized the darn thing was practically going to turn into a patchwork quilt because I needed to add a bit to 2 other short ends as well - thank goodness this is no longer going to be a wrapped gift !!!

DH asked if I wanted to watch a movie last night - I wasn't quite finished in the sewing room so I quickly (see the problem in the phrasing here ?) ran the 2 short pieces through the serger onto the sheet. Yup, they're both wrong - one is misplaced and the other is RS to WS. Actually, my mind in the light of day is telling me I misplaced the second one as well, but I can't check til I get home. In the meantime, everything is wadded up, in a pile on my ironing board where I left them in disgust....but I enjoyed the movie ! LOL

NO PICS of stupidity - only once everything is done.

Oh and there are still no elastics attached yet - if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. I'm trying to gather the elastic to about 50% but just can't get the hang of starting the stitching then stretching the elastic but not the fabric - I suspect it's just practice.