Sew Your Own Sleep Sack
As summer winds down and the nights grow colder here in the Northeast, it’s time to start switching out the summer clothes in the drawers for long sleeved shirts and footsie pajamas. I’ve also been wanting to get a new sleep sack for my little one, but haven’t been able to find a size large at the local store. I’m reluctant to pay shipping charges, and I’m wary of all those fire-retardant chemicals anyway. I thought, “How hard can it be to make my own?” Turns out, it’s really not hard at all! If you have basic sewing skills, you can make a sleep sack in a couple of hours! I’ve outlined the simple steps below.
1. I used a smaller sleep sack as a guide to make my pattern. First I cut the bottom out of a brown paper shopping bag to use as my pattern. I laid the old sleep sack on top of it and traced around it. Then I had Zen lay down on top of it to see how long it needed to be and left a few inches more for her to grow. When I cut the pattern out, I cut 1/2 an inch outside of the line I traced for the seam allowance.
2. Next, I placed the cut-out pattern on top of the fabric. (I couldn’t resist the tie-dye fleece!) Then I pinned it to the fabric and cut around it. I did this twice so that I had 2 identical pieces.
3. Next, I cut down the middle of one piece to make the front and trimmed the neck line into a “V”. Then I sewed the seam on each of the arms and down the insides. Then I sewed on the zipper following the instructions that came with it.
4. Next, I cut a 3-inch strip of fabric to cover the zipper on the inside. This strip also connects the two sides of fabric below the bottom of the zipper, since the zipper is not as long as the sac. First, I folded the strip in half and sewed it together using a zig-zag stich. Then I lined up the strip with the right side of the zipper, pinned it to the inside, starting at the top of zipper and continued all the way to the bottom of the sack. Be sure to pin both sides, below the bottom of the zipper, to the strip. Then I sewed down the length of the strip on only one side of the zipper, then top stiched at the base of the zipper and down both sides, below the bottom of the zipper.
5. Next, I sewed a seam around the arms and neck of the back piece and pinned both pieces together in-side-out. Finally, I stiched the tops of the shoulders together, then around the entire sack. Then, I trimmed around the seam leaving only a 1/4 inch seam allowance. I finished off by using a zig-zag stich and stiching inside the seam allowance around the entire sack and accross shoulder straps – and voilà!