Pinterest Craft Wednesday- Stuffed Animal Sleeping Bags: My First Tutorial

This week, my kids are really into camping.  We went on our first tent camping expedition last weekend, and they are already planning our next trip.  I have several camping-themed ideas saved on my summer activities Pinterest board, and I have been wanting to try out making this stuffed animal sleeping bag idea for awhile now.  While it's not a craft that the kids can make completely themselves, they can help choose fabric and measure their camping buddies, and older kids may be ale to help with the sewing, too.  When I clicked back through the pin to the original source of the photo, I found that it leads to a pattern from Flossie Teacakes.  Since this is something we wanted to make today while it was raining, I thought I'd try my hand at making it up as I went along.  Here's a little tutorial, inspired by the photo on Pinterest, if you'd like to make one (or several!) of your own.

Materials:
1/2 yard total fabric (I used scraps)
1/4 yard batting
(these measurements are very generous and will vary depending on the buddy you are sewing for)

Measuring:
Measure the length and width of the stuffed animal you are sewing a sleeping bag for.  Add two inches to the length and two to four inches to the width (more or less depending on how big and fluffy your buddy is) to give the finished measurements.  You want it to fit snugly but still lay flat when occupied!

Cutting:
-  Cut two rectangles of the finished length and width as determined above for the back of the sleeping bag.
-  Cut another two rectangles of the same width but three inches shorter in length for the front of the sleeping bag. (If your back rectangle is 10"x8", cut your front one 7"x8")

I used two different prints for each sleeping bag, so I cut one back and one front rectangle from each fabric.

Test out your width before proceeding to make sure your animal has some wiggle room.

-  Cut a 10" square for the binding. Cut it once on the diagonal, and then cut it diagonally into 1.5" strips.

-  Cut one rectangle of batting the same size as the sleeping bag back, and another rectangle the same size as the sleeping bag front.

All the pieces for one sleeping bag: two fronts, two backs, two battings, and binding strips

Sewing:

-  Sandwich the batting between the backs and fronts.  Pin if you'd like.

-  Sew vertical lines about 3/4" apart to quilt the back pieces together.  Repeat with the front.  I used my walking foot with the little guide foot.  It made it super easy!

Quilting the pieces together

A quilted front

-  If you used two different prints, decide which you want to be showing on the front side.  I mixed mine up for some contrast.

-Sew the binding strips end-to-end to create one long piece.

-Cut a piece of binding the width of the front of the sleeping bag.

-Sew the binding onto the front (the shorter piece), rights sides together, using a quarter inch seam allowance.  Then hand stitch the back of the binding, just as you would single-fold binding on a quilt.

-Trim the edges of the binding flush with the rest of the sleeping bag.  Line up the front piece with the bottom of the back piece and pin in place.

-Using a small cup, trace a curve on each corner and trim.

After the corners are trimmed...almost done!

-Pin binding to sleeping bag front, right sides together.  Trim off excess binding.

-Sew binding to front of sleeping bag with a quarter inch seam allowance.

Binding sewn on front

 - Hand stitch binding to back of the sleeping bag, as you would when binding a quilt.

Ta-Da!  You are finished!

I now have two happy campers.