Our new bub was a winter baby and I wanted something to keep her warm at night. But, here in the tropics, “winter” isn’t very cold and isn’t very long; I didn’t want to spend money buying a sleep sack that would be used for just a few weeks.
So I made one. Of course! Why not?!
I made it out of a gorgeous 100% wool jumper that I bought second-hand from a local op shop. “Fully Hand Fashioned” and “Made in the UK” – oh I felt like a butcher as I severed the arms from its fluffy woolly body!
After cutting off the arms I opened them up, placed them together, and turned them upside-down.
I made a scoop neck by folding down part of the cuff and securing it with a blanket stitch using Milford Mercer 6ply crotchet thread. Brown buttons were added to the corners and button holes were put in to the cuff of the back sleeve.
Then I joined the two sleeves with a whip stitch down both sides and removed the shoulder part of the sleeves to make the bottom of the sleeping bag.
Tada!
And here it is with the buttons done up.
Not bad for DIY! What do you think?
It was the perfect fit for our 7 pound newborn. I put bub in it at night time for three or four weeks when it was really cold. Then the weather got warmer and she got bigger.
And now this DIY wool sleeping bag is looking for a new home!
If you’re expecting a newborn bub to arrive in winter, or you’re up in the northern hemisphere where it is winter, and would like the DIY wool sleeping bag you see here, all it will cost you is postage. That’s $8.25 Australia-wide or $20.10 (AUD) overseas. The bag measures about 50cm/19inches from top to bottom and would fit a newborn for the first few weeks of life. (And because it is wool, it is hand wash only. Unless you want it to shrink and felt up. I used the body of the jumper as a wool piddle/spew pad and it has shrunk to half its previous size.)
First to comment can take it!
Update! This has been claimed by a wool lover on Facebook.