My sister in law and I were talking and both mentioned that our babies need sleeping bags for the upcoming winter. I’ve been wanting to make one for a while, but could never decide on what materials to use. I don’t like the idea of polar fleece as I get very sweaty in it, and my thoughts were the same for polyester batting. Wool batting was a nice idea, but it’s so expensive!

I then had a brainwave to use an old woollen blanket for the batting. I did some googling and found that many resourceful ladies use them for quilt batting, so thought ‘why not?’. Hubby’s Aunty had a heap of them at the holiday house, so I managed to score some for free! After washing twice in warm water to get any shrinkage out of the way, off I went. I used the same method that I followed for making my Summer sleep sacks, but first I overlocked the blanket batting to the lining pieces. I then treated them as one piece.

We managed to make 2 sleeping bags each out of 2 blankets and there was enough leftover for me to recover the ironing board. This was a great upcycling project as I also used some flannelette sheets for the lining and outer of the bags.

My approach to testing the tog rating of the new bag was very scientific. I stuck one arm in Roman’s old grobag, which I know is 2.5tog and stuck the other arm in the new bag. After about 15 minutes, I decided they were equally as toasty, so therefore the new bag is about 2.5tog.

To make a sleeping bag for your baby, follow my tutorial here. For great results, I also recommend cutting the lining pieces slightly smaller so that they sit flat inside the grobag. Also, make sure you grade your seams.

The only thing I’m wondering about is how long they’ll take to dry after a wash, but I’ve got two, so it should be ok.

25/05/2012 – These sleeping bags have been getting a very good work out and are wearing well. I’ve had no trouble with the wool shrinking and they don’t take as long to dry as I thought. 1 day inside out, 1 day right side out. I don’t find they get a musty smell either, so really happy with these. I’d recommend making one if you need a Winter weight sleeping bag.