Baby Wearable Blanket Picture Tutorial

Hi All!
So this is my first photo tutorial that I have ever put together so bear with me. I can't take full credit for this - it is a combination of other tutorials I have come across and a lot of trial and error. And mostly I am posting this for my sister who also has a little dude running around who is constantly outgrowing everything!
Since my little dude is still little enough to kick off any blanket we put on him but way too big for all of the sleep sacks I have for him, I decided to tackle making him some new ones. And through a lot of trial and error - I think I have perfected the process.
Good luck! and of course this can be adjusted to really any size you want but for simplicity this pattern makes a wearable blanket / sleeping bag that is a little big for my little dude who is about 31" long and 24 pounds. Hopefully it will take him a little bit before he outgrows these.
Oh and if this seems a little long - don't get overwhelmed by it. I tried to include all of the step so it would be very easy to follow. Overall, I can sew one of these together in about an hour from start to finish.

Step 1:
You will need to obtain 1 yard of Fleece material. I use fleece since it is stretchy, warm, soft, and you can get away with more raw edges which makes this easier and faster to sew together. Other material could be used but the seem allowances would need to be adjusted to accommodate the raw edges.
If you want the sleeping bag to be longer, you can buy more than 1 yard. Wash and dry the fleece to ensure it is clean and pre-shrunk for you.
Lay out on a flat surface and fold in half so you have 2 layers of fleece. This is helpful so when you cut the pattern you only have to cut once and then the front and back will match perfectly.

Step 2:

I made a quick pattern (through some trial and error) using some brown packaging paper. You can use any paper to do this, I just found this is sturdy and holds up well through several uses.
Here is what my rough pattern looks like. I folded it in half to make sure both sides were the same while making the pattern. The dimensions are as
follows: 2" from center of neck hole to edge of shoulder with a 3/4" dip/curve cut in. The shoulders are 5" wide. The Arm Hole is 6" long with a 1" dip/curve cut into it. At the bottom of the arm hole, the 1/2 pattern should be 8" across.
I left the length up to you but the bottom of the sleeping bag can be as wide as the material will allow. I found 24" for total width works well.

Step 3:

Take your pattern and center near the top of your material and pin it into place.

Step 4:

Using a yard stick or other straight edge, mark the bottom center of the bag onto the material.

Using a yard stick or other straight edge, measure your desired width to the bottom of the bag 

and mark both the bottom and the outside bottom edge.

Line up this mark with the bottom side of the arm hole and draw a line connecting.

This will be one side to the sleeping bag.

Repeat for the other side. 

Step 5:

Once this has all been marked, you can now cut out your material.

There is a slight variation at the neck line that you will need to make between the back and the front pieces. For the front, while the pattern is still pinned to the fleeced after it has all been cut you, cut a slit in the pattern of 3.5". Fold the pattern from the edge of the neck hole to this point for both sides. Use this guide to cut out a "V" only on the front piece.

                                                                                         
 
 Step 6:

Once you remove your pattern and are done cutting, your fleece pieces should end up looking like this:

Little Dude was having fun playing under the table while mommy was cutting and sewing away. :)

Step 7:

This is probably the longest and most complicated step - putting in the zipper.

Take your front piece and fold in half with the wrong side facing out. 

Choose the zipper that you want to use and lay it along side the folded edge. 

For mine, I used a 22" long zipper since this is what I had on hand. 

I do have to tuck little dude's legs in but I find its a decent length to use overall.

Line up the top of the zipper with the top of the folded edge.

Flatten the zipper and line up along the folded edge. About 1/2" above the bottom of the zipper, 

I place 2 pins. This helps to mark how far I need to sew.

Take away the zipper and place pins all along the folded edge. Even though the edge is folded, 

I find that by pinning helps to ensure that the center fold stays put.

Sew along the folded edge with a basting stitch. I also use a left justified needle for this to ensure that I have 1/4"+ of edge. Do NOT back stick! These stitches are meant to hold the material in place while the zipper is place and will need to come out later. 

 Sew until you just pass the double pins and stop. 

 Cut along the folded edge until you reach the double pins and stop.

Remove the double pins and lay the piece flat with the two raw edges laying flat as well as pictured.

Attached the zipper. Line up the top of the zipper with the neck hole and seam and pin into place.

 Pin the zipper along the center of the seam all the way to the bottom. 

Attach a zipper foot to your sewing machine and sewing with a center justified needle and a moderate stitch size sew along the front of the zipper seem as shown. Start on the top right side of the zipper. 

 When you reach the bottom, turn and sew back and forth across the bottom just above the bottom of the zipper. Turn and sew up the other side of the zipper. This is how it should look once finished.

Once the zipper is sewn into place, use a seam ripper to rip out the basting seam that you sewed into place along the center of the zipper. Be careful doing this since it is easy to slice into the fleece and make a hole...

Step 8:

Pin together the front and back pieces along the shoulders and sides (with the fronts/right sides facing each other). Sew together leaving the arm holes and neck hole unfinished for the moment. 

Step 9:

Turn the sleeping bag right side out. 

For each arm hole, fold over 1/4" of material and pin into place at both the top and bottom seams to make sure that they line up. 

Sew around the arm hole and repeat for the other arm hole.

Step 10:

For the Neck Hole: Starting at the left zipper top, fold the zipper top over and fold the fleece over that - tucking the zipper end under the fleece and pinning into place. 

 

Pin down 1/4" fold over of fleece all around the neck hole to keep the fleece in place while sewing. 

Sew around the neck hole from the one side to the other.

And now you are done and it should look similar to this:

 Little dude was modeling this sleeping bag for me - wasn't too thrilled at being the model:

and tried to run away:

and then tried to strike a pose:

and then was like "ok mom - is this over yet?":

The finished sleep bags hanging up in little dude's room:

:)

Latest Sewing Project:

My latest big sewing project is a baby quilt for my husband’s brother and his wife. They were just approved to be foster parent and are hoping to soon have a child (between infant and 3 years old) placed with them. They don’t know if they will be given a boy or a girl, but they are excited to be foster parents.
I wanted to do something nice for them since it sort of will be their first little one so I am in the process of making a nice little quilt for them. I chose some pretty gender neutral material from JoAnn Fabrics. I cut so many little triangles and below are some pictures of my progress thus far:

 

I decided to go with a pinwheel/hour glass pattern on the front and so far its turning out pretty well.
I’ll keep you all posted as I get more finished in my spare time (you know - in between watching little Ben and doing dishes and laundry and working).
update - Here is what it looks like all finished! :)

Oh and this is a picture of some of my material stash staring at me begging to be made into something!

Happy Friday all! :)

Happy Mother’s Day!

This was my first official Mother’s Day as a mom! And although I didn’t do really anything that special, it was still a pretty amazing day because I have this amazing little boy in my life!

Even though he was a surprise and slightly unexpected, I honestly cannot imagine having a life without him in it. He gives me so much joy and it’s amazing how much I have grown as a person and in my relationship with God by being a mom. I am starting to understand why they say that children are a gift from God because they truly are.
Ben even got me flowers! Well sort of… I had to take myself to the greenhouse to get them and plant them myself on our porch but still – I got flowers for Mother’s Day! hahaha

It is also a pretty amazing day in that fact that I still have my mom who I nearly lost to breast cancer 5 years ago. Since that time, my mom has become one of my closest friends and I know that she is always there for me and I can talk to her about anything! I love that!

However, there is still some sadness that comes with Mother’s Day as I know so many amazing women who are close and dear to my heart whose deepest wish is to be a mom. I hope and pray that someday God will give them the opportunity to be a mom and experience all the amazing joys that come with it.

The Adventure has all ready begun!

Usually a good story begin in the beginning and gradually unfolds. Well, not this one!
The adventure of my life has all ready begun and so far it has been a pretty terrific ride. Gradually as I go along, I will fill in and share more of what adventures I have all ready had. But for now, I am going to start from where I am in this moment in time.
My latest adventure and current obsession is sewing!
I grew up knowing the basics of sewing and a few years ago, my in-laws gave me a nice Singer Inspiration sewing machine. In theory, this is a pretty nice little machine. In practice....not so much and I have had very little luck with this sewing machine. The tension always seems off, and I always seemed to be spending more time trying to get it to sew a nice line than actually sewing a nice line! And then after cracking 2 bobbin cases in 4 months, I decided it was time for a new sewing machine! Especially since I had ended up just borrowing my next door neighbor's sewing machine and I didn't want to be doing that for forever.
I ended up finding a sweet little basic sewing machine at the Aurora Sewing Center in East Aurora, New York. (oh, a quick shout out to the ladies at the Aurora Sewing Center - they were so kind and helpful and not pushy at all in helping me to determine if my old machine was worth fixing and in helping me pick out a sewing machine that was in my budget and would meet my sewing needs!)

I LOVE my new sewing machine! It works! That in itself is enough to return all the joy to sewing. And even though I have only had it for less than a week, I have all ready been putting it to the test. I have all ready made a sunshade for my little baby Ben's stroller, 2 sleeper sacks for Ben since he is growing like a weed. And I have a bunch more projects piled up on my dinning room table (my makeshift sewing space) ready to go!
As a nice little side note.... the new sewing machine only came with a few basic feet, but the 8 or 9 fancier feet that I had with the old machine also fit on this machine so I'm very happy and excited about that!

Anyways.... The fun is just getting started! :)