Campin’ Out with a New Sleepin’ Bag!

When we go camping, we don’t really rough it too much! We have a little camper that we sleep in, with beds, sheets, comforters, heat when it’s cold…. But this weekend we were going to go camping with a real tent and sleeping bags on the ground…. As we were planning this I realized that my son doesn’t even have a sleeping bag. Well, he does now!

The other thing, we’ve been reading a book, Time To Sleep, Sheep the Sheep by Mo Willems. Do you know that one? We absolutely love Mo Willems! Anyway, I could easily get side tracked talking about his books! in this book the animals all go to sleep in sleeping bags under the stars. My son uses a boppy as a pillow, so I was going to make a sleeping bag with a boppy attachment, but he said no he wanted a real pillow like the animals sleeping bags in the Sheep the Sheep book.

So that’s exactly what he got!

A nice warm quilted fleece sleeping bag with a real pillow!

Would you like to make one? I’ll tell you how I did it!

1. Materials:

Background fleece (in mine, the red), 2 yds

Accent fleece (in mine, the outer space pattern), 1 yd

Batting

14×28 pillow

Thread

Scissors

Zipper

Step 2: Cut out all the pieces.

Red Pieces:

(2) 28×42 for the front and back of the mat piece.

(2) 18×16 for the back of the pillow

(1) 6×36 for top of the blanket layer (optional. You can just enlarge the blanket dimensions below)

Outer Space Pieces

(1) 16×28 for the top of the pillow

(1) 38×36 for the blanket layer.

Batting

(1) 28×42

Step 3: Hem the end on the two back pillow pieces. We’re making an envelope style pillow so the back of the pillow will have two overlapping pieces.

Step 4: Sew the pillow pieces to the mat pieces, right sides together.

Step 5: Attach the batting to the back side of either the front or back of the mat. The batting I had on hand was small pieces, so I pinned mine to the back of the back side of the mat. Only add batting below the pillow area.

Step 6: This step is kinda like making a quilt. Put the back and front of the mat together with right sides together and the batting on the outside. Sew all the way around the outside edges (including the pillow), leaving a hole to pull it through. I left about a 8 inch hole. Once you’re done sewing, pull it through the hole.

Step 7: Topstitch around the pillow top, all four sides. Topstitching along the bottom side will secure the batting in place for the mat piece.

Step 8: And back to the quilting. A little bit of quilting on the mat section to keep the batting in place. I quilted mine in about 9 inch squares. If you’re not a quilter, in other words, I just topstitched over the three layers!

Step 9: Time to work on the blanket top! If you want the contrasting top edge, now is the time to sew it on. And I topstitched this seam. I also folded it over and did a little hem at the top. (sorry, forgot to take a picture of this step! I’ll have to add one!).

Step 10. Cut a slit in the blanket top layer. About 4 inches in and almost the whole length of the top. I stopped mine about 8 inches up from the bottom.

Step 11: Sew in the zipper. I used a ‘by the yard’ zipper and then sewed a piece of fleece across the top of one side so that the handle piece doesn’t come off.

Step 12: Pin the top to the mat. Put the right side of the blanket top to the back side of the mat. Pin the bottoms together. The top is wider than the mat. I don’t know about you, but those mummy style sleeping bags make me claustrophobic, so I added a little extra foot room in this one! So, pin the corners, in about 9 inches and in the middle. Then fold the extra over towards the outsides.

Step 13: Sew the top to the mat. I rounded the corners just a tiny bit.

Step 14: Turn the bag right side out. Insert the pillow. And WahLa! You have yourself a sleeping bag!

OK, the truth comes out… We didn’t actually go camping… But one day! And he’s already had fun playing in it in the tent set up in the backyard, so that makes it worth it!

Let me know if  you have any questions! And be sure to upload pictures to my flickr page if you make one yourself!

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