Our little guy is not that big a fan of sleeping bags. They prevent him from standing, walking, and most of all running. Something had to be done.
The answer? Take a Hema sleeping bag, and convert them into sleeping trousers as follows:
- Measure the lenght of your toddler’s leg on the inside. This is the hardest part of the whole hack.
- Take that lenght, and add some extra centimeters to allow movement. 5 to 10 centimeters should do the trick.
- Indicate the leg lenght on your sleeping back, measuring from the bottom.
- Measure the lenght of your toddler’s back.
- Indicate that lenght on your sleeping bag, measuring from the top of the neck. Make sure that the indicated leg lenght is not higher than the indicated back lenght, or your sleeping trousers won’t fit. If this is the case, you’ll need a bigger sized sleeping bag.
- Draw your cutting line on your sleeping back, as if the zipper would go all the way down.
- Cut from the bottom up until the indicated point.
- Secure your zipper by sewing through the bottom.
- Cut the zipper.
- Pin the inside leg seams on top of each other. Make sure to pin the sipper in between the seams as well.
- Sew the inside seams, starting at the bottom of one leg and going all the way to the bottom of the other leg, securing your zipper as you go along.
Finished!
Want to go the extra mile? To make walking with sleeping trousers easier, you can open up the bottom seam of both legs, so your toddler can put his feet through. Use ribbing to finish the hole. You can do so as follows:
- Rip up 11 centimeters from the bottom seam of each leg, starting from the inside. This leaves you with a hole that has 22 centimeters circumference. Double-check whether your toddler’s feet fit through the hole.
- Cut 2 pieces of ribbing with the following measurements: 18.5 centimeters wide and 12 centimeters high.
- Fold in half along the width, than fold in half again across the lenght.
- Sew the sides on top of each other, using a 1 centimeter seam.
- On your sleeping trousers, divide the foot opening in 4 and indicate these parts on your fabric.
- Measure the width of your ribbing and divide by in 4, indicating these parts on your ribbing.
- Pin your ribbing on the legs, good sides facing each other.
- Sew.
Finished!
