Hello everyone!
I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was perfect! I love spending time at home with my family.
Starting this week, I am working on making Christmas presents for my children. We have a tradition that every Christmas eve, the children get to open one present from the family. That present is always some form of sleepwear. That way the children have nice new pajamas on for all the photos that are taken Christmas morning. My children love their pajamas that I have made each year. Each year I try to do something different for each child, and this year is no exception.
This post is about what I made for Tristan. Tristan is my wonderful 4.5 month old baby who is very wiggly at nights. He does not like to stay under any blankets. To help him keep warm on this cold winter nights, I want to sew him a sleeper sack like I have had for my Girls.

These sacks are wonderful. The baby cannot kick the blanket off of their legs and they do not have any strangulation issues like they would with a big blanket. The only problem with this sleeper is that the one I have is PINK, and my husband will not let me put it on my son!  So I will make Tristan a few sleeper sacks for the winter.
I have a great pattern for small Pajamas for children with legs in it, but I wanted to have the sleeper sack. It is easier to change a diaper with the sleeper sack than some of the full body sleepers. Just purchase the length of zipper you need to change a diaper easily.

The pattern that I used as a guideline was this one. I used the instructions for the sleeves, arm cuffs and collar. The legs I cut out differently so a sack would be made. You can use any simple pattern at home to make this sleeper sack. Just follow the instructions for the top of the pattern, like I did, and cut out the bottom as long and as wide as you need. It is very simple.

This is the sleeper pattern, As you can see, I have not cut out the crotch area or the individual legs to make pant bottoms. I have however gradually extended the pattern from the top arm pit area to the bottom so Tristan will have more room to kick and move his legs around. I cut back and the front in the same fashion, so the bottom with was the same for both sides.

Next I sewed the back pieces together. Everything is sewn at the normal 5/8 sewing seam line. This fleece fabric is thick, so I do not want a large seam for Tristan, so I opened up the seam and sewed each side down, ¼ inch from the seam line. Here is the outside and next photo is the inside of the same seam.

This will help the seam lay completely flat.

Next step is to sew the front right and left side to the back at the shoulder. ** note I double sew each seam for durability. My children are hard on clothing, and this fabric is stretchy. Without the double seam or a narrow zigzag stitch a child could easily rip out a seam.
Next I add in the zipper. I do this before I sew up the sides. It is easier to sew in the zipper with the sides still open.

Start by pinning the right side of the zipper to the right side of the fabric, with the tops matching. The zipper tape should line up with the edge of the fabric. Pin in place.

Use your zipper foot on your sewing machine and sew the zipper in place from the bottom to the top. When you get to the top, where the zipper pull is located, stop and open the zipper up. Open it up past the point where you have already sewn. You will need to keep the needle down to do this and raise your zipper foot.

Once the zipper pull is past the place where you have already sewn, then lower the zipper foot and finished sewing in this side of the zipper. This helps to keep your zipper sewn in straight.

Next step is to open up the zipper from the sleep sack front. Pull back the fabric so the zipper is showing and pin in place. Sew the fabric down. This will help keep the fabric from rolling back into the zipper and getting stuck later.

Use the same technique as before, with the zipper. Opening up the zipper once you get to the top of the zipper.
Great now you are ½ way there!

Join us on Thursday for Part 2!

-Brenda

Tags: baby, christmas, present, sack, sewing, sleeper, zipper