Sewing Sleep Sacks for Fynn - Knitting in the Park

My Very First Foray Into Pattern Making for Sewing

It hasn’t been long, but I am if anything, predictable. For this post I’ve gotta hit rewind a bit. Remember back to before the Saga of the Sewing Machine, when I tried my hand at, well hand sewing? The first two projects were sewing sleep sacks for Fynn.

Fynn being such a little ham — This is such a fun age right now!

I had gone to Joann Fabrics and found some cute woodland themed fabric and grabbed a few zippers (which would turn out to be waaay to short). When I got home, I started drafting my first pattern. Yea – great idea Maggie. Why not pick up a new skill and rather than start with a guided adventure, just go rogue?

Designing the Sleep Sacks for Fynn

You can read the initial round of design and what failures I encountered along the way in this blog post. But I’ll leave you the CliffNotes here:

I used one of the sleep sacks that we were gifted as an idea or jumping off point. A big roll of craft paper that I’ve had on hand for, just about forever, was the perfect material for drafting the pattern.

Sewing Sleep Sacks for Fynn — Craft paper to Pattern…and getting half of the pattern upside down…

After some trial and error I got a pattern that I was really happy with…the only problem was that he was growing. So, it was back to the drawing board before I could yet again start sewing sleep sacks for Fynn.

More Trial and Error

While this time I managed to think about the way I laid out the fabric (earlier versions had the print on the front of the sleep sack upside down), I still managed to fail…a bit. In the next version, I made everything a bit bigger: the body and the arms. Which all added up to being way too big.

And of course, I cut not one but two of these way to big versions. I only realized this after sewing the sleep sack for Fynn…Rather than scrap the fabric for the second one, I decided to go ahead with it. To give a picture, the neck is so big that Fynn can free his whole arm. Or when he moves his arm around the sleeves just flail. At least he gets a kick out of it. And the material is a really soft jersey which he seems to love.

New Skills!

I mentioned this in a previous blog, but this was a huge learning curve working with stretchy material like jersey. It required a new needle, new stitches, and loads of curves to practice my sewing.

A Conundrum

Do I make an in between size, or do I just wait for him to grow into these two that we have? Also, some nights we pass out before we get him into these little baby straight jackets. Which raises another question: how many of these sleep contraptions do we really need if he’s not using them on the daily…I mean the nightly?

On to the next project I guess?

Sewing is Helping Though

Part of me is having a rough time with the way things are. I suppose having a baby at the start of the quarantine is catching up with me. With the weather being warm but not too hot, I’d love to be taking Fynn different places but instead it feels like we’re cooped up in the house. He’s cutting his eighth tooth in three weeks, so sleep deprivation is also a thing. And it’s wearing me down.

Knitting is still bugging my shoulder, so I’ve been limited in the amount I can do there as well. I think this might also add to my funk? I don’t know. Maybe its time to start some new sewing projects. Lord knows I have enough material in my basement craft room.

What projects are you working on lately?