My daughter loves to sleep using a sleep sack, but they are so expensive! Especially if you want a nice warm, fleece sleep sack. I decided make my own DIY sleep sack instead of buying it. I used a yard of fabric, you might not need this much if you are making a sleep sack for a small baby vs. a toddler, all the materials together came to about $14. You may be able to get your sleep sack even cheaper if you’re better at using coupons than I am!
Materials
- 1 yard fleece fabric (it needs to be 60″ bolt)
- Matching thread
- 20″ zipper
- Old sleep sack (or just refer to a picture of a sleep sack)
How to make the sleep sack
Start by laying out your fabric. You will fold each side of the fabric in with a 4″ overlap. It will look like this:
Now lay down your old sleep sack. The sleep sack I used is a size smaller than what I needed, so I used it for a general outline. Draw the outline of your sleep sack. I added a couple inches to the top and side of the sleep sack, and made it as long as I could so it will last for the maximum amount of time. You can just freehand an outline if you dont have a sleep sack, I would use a t-shirt to help reference the size though.
Cut out your sleep sack. You will have three pieces. Keeping the front pieces in place, remove the back and make lower the front of the neck. Lower it about 2 inches (I forgot to do this and had to fix it later, so my pictures might be a little off, but lowering the neck now is the easy way!)
Adding in your zipper
Now you will add the zipper in. Place the zipper front side down on the right side of one of your front pieces. The middle of the zipper should be two inches from the edge. Make sure the top of the zipper touches the top of the sleep sack. It won’t go all the way to the bottom of the sleep sack, which is fine.
Sew right along the edge of the teeth of your zipper. Fold your fabric over so one half of the zipper is exposed.
Repeat on the other side. Again make sure it is 2 inches away from the edge of the fabric.
Now you will need to join the bottom of the two front pieces together. Match the sides of the sleep sack together. You will sew from the bottom of the zipper to the bottom of the sleep sack. Sew a two inch seam allowance. Make sure the bottom piece of the zipper (the part of the zipper that doesn’t have any teeth on it) is tucked into the seam allowance so it won’t be visible from the outside.
Next, looking at the wrong side of the sleep sack, fold the seam allowance next to your zipper in half.
Sew down the front of your sleep sack, sew 1/4″ away from the zipper on each side.
Putting your sleep sack together
With wrong sides together, sew down the armpit, across the bottom of the sleep sack and up to the opposite armpit.
Now sew each shoulder together.
Lastly, you need to finish off the raw edges of your fabric. Fold the armpits in 1/2″ and sew 1/4′ from the edge. Do the same with the neckline.
Looking for more cozy sewing ideas? Try these reusable hand warmers
