This little precious was waking up too much in the night and I just knew it was because he’d kicked his blankets off and was too cold to sleep. A very simple, 30 minute DIY Baby Sleep Sack was the perfect solution.
First, make the pattern:
Find a sweatshirt and fold in half at center front – trace generously around the body of the sweatshirt, adding about 1/2″ to all sides except center front. (don’t trace the sleeves.)
I measured my baby from the top of his shoulder to the top of his foot and made that the total length, and I made the width at the bottom 2x as wide as the full width of the sweatshirt front piece plus about 2″.
Do the same for the back – the only thing that will be significantly different will be the neckline. It’ll come up a little higher in the back.
Now you’re ready to cut and sew!
SEWING INSTRUCTIONS
**I appliqued a little giraffe on the front for him – if you want to do that, make sure you do the applique before you start sewing any of the pieces together.
1. Sew the shoulder seams.
2. If you didn’t draw the neckline very precisely on your pattern, just open it up and make sure the head opening is big enough – a CD/DVD is the perfect size.
3. Sew the side seams.
You can leave the arm hole unfinished (if you used fleece or a knit the fabric won’t unravel so you don’t have to finish it) or finish it off with bias tape, which you can make very easily:
1/2″ BIAS TAPE
- Cut a strip of fabric 1 3/4″
- Press in half (hot dog style)
- Open up and press each long edge in to the center
- Fold almost in half – leave the edge on top about 1/8″ short of lining up exactly
5. Take the bias tape off and unfold the ends. Pin right sides together (making sure it doesn’t get twisted in the middle) and draw or visualize a diagonal line like is drawn with my pink marker. Sew along that diagonal line, back stitching at beginning and end and press the seam open.
6. Tuck it all back inside and press and you should have the perfect amount of bias tape to cover up the arm hole. Sandwich the arm hole inside the bias tape so the edge of the arm hole touches the center fold of the bias tape.
Pin so the shorter edge of the bias tape is on the right side. Edge stitch right along that edge all the way around.
7. Make a neck band and attach it to the sleep sack using this method.
Little Linus used to wake up early in the morning because all his blankets were long gone and he was cold, but since he started wearing a little sleep sack to bed, he sleeps much better and longer.
It’s a quick 30 minute project that will earn you a few extra minutes of sleep in the morning!
