Ottobre! Sleepsack for Mr. D - or Why you should sew slightly tipsy

For my birthday Mr. GothamMom gave me a subscription to Otttobre, but since I could not wait for it to ship from Finland I bought some back issues to get me started. "Well GothamMom your birthday is in August, why did it take you that long to make anything?" Well observant inquisitor...I was chicken; you have to add your own seam allowances, and the clothes look so nice in the book I was worried I was not up to the task.

This is for my 6mo old nephew, Mr. D, younger brother of Mr. H who was the recipient of earlier sleep sacks. One layer sleep sacks from a home drafted pattern. Wow. This one puts those sleepsacks to shame. (and I was SO proud of those!)

This pattern is from Ottobre Winter 5/2006



The Bad
Things I will do differently:

1) I will lengthen the back straps and shorten the front so the snaps are more on the front instead of the tops of the shoulders. I thought I had screwed up the seam allowances, but that is how it looks on in the picture.

2) I will sew the zipper on last, instead of first.

3) I will sew the zipper between the lining and the outer layers. Something I was really kicking myself about until I looked at our super pricey petite bateau ($90) sleep sack and saw that they did not sew the zipper between the two linings either. tsk tsk. Regardless of how the French do it I will sandwich the zipper next time.





The Good
- The Malden Mills fleece is SO soft. Like Butta. Mr. D is super cuddly in it. I used a pretty printed fleece on the outside, a super soft lightweight 100, and then a heavier 100, (maybe 200?) for the lining.

- The 110 size was a good fit on my 6mo old nephew.

- Pattern was easy to cut out and sew



I sewed it in this order:

1) I put the zipper on first. I will not do that again. The only other thing I have sewn a zipper in is a wetbag, and this sleepsack that I came up with on my own, where the zipper is down the middle of the front. Both of those projects I put the zipper on first. I never even thought that I should do it differently for this one.

2) Put the front pieces together with right sides facing, and sewed a 1/4 inch seam starting on the top side, up and over the straps, across the neck and to the other side. Repeated with the back.

3) Then I laid out the sleep sack so I could serge the rest of sleepsack in one fell swoop. I put the outside lining right sides together and serged them starting at the bottom of the zipper, then followed it across the bottom and up the side. Without stopping I continued to serge the right sides together of the lining, down the side and across the bottom. I left several inches open at the end to flip it inside out.

I figured out how to serge it like that after a glass of wine and hanging out on the sofa staring at the sleep sack. I did have a moment of panic while turning it right side out, that I had just sewn the whole thing wrong, but to my delight it worked out!

4) I then sewed up the opening in the lining with a stretch zigzag on my sewing machine. I could have done a pretty hidden seam by hand, but come on. This is for a baby to grow out of in a few months, and it was the lining......


Next?
I would love to make with with velour outer and knit inner. I found some great velour for a friend's baby, but not the knit inner yet, I am looking for stars in the lavender family......Any suggestions?