Easy Doll Sleeping Bag Tutorial

The little sleeping bags are perfect for dolls or stuffed animals! It is so much fun to shop at the DollarTree.com and pick up little stuffed animals for only one dollar, these would be perfect to make for Christmas stocking stuffers. Enjoy the tutorial.

Easy Doll Sleeping Bag Tutorial

Today I am going to share another one of my older tutorials that I have updated. I am sure many of you have never seen it as it was originally posted in 2011!

Wow, where does the time go? I don’t know whether to call this a doll tutorial or a stuffed animal sleeping bag tutorial, I guess it just doesn’t matter.

You can make the sleeping bags from quilt scraps using the strip piecing method or just choose a couple of fat quarters for really fast sleeping bags.

Fabric:

• Cut an 8-by-12-inch piece of your front fabric, backing fabric, and batting.
• Cut a 5½ inch x 9-inch piece of your front fabric, backing fabric, and batting – (this is bigger so you can put a tuck in it to make more room for the doll).
• Cut 2½” strips to use for the binding.

Batting:

This is the perfect time to use up scraps of batting. Be sure and use an old rotary cutter blade when trimming batting as it really seems to dull the blade.

I like to straighten the pieces and then butt them up and zigzag them together using a wide and long stitch.

The first sleeping bag was done with just plain pieces of fabric instead of strip piecing.

Sewing:

• Layer your fabrics as shown – backing the wrong side up with batting on top and then your front fabric on top.
• Quilt as desired, I just did some simple straight-line stitches about one inch apart.
• Do this to both sections.

• Cut a piece of binding 2 1/2 inches by 9 inches.
• Fold it in half lengthwise and sew to the top of the quilted front piece (9-inch width) using a ¼” seam allowance – fold over and topstitch. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this but you can see it in the other photos.

Next, put a pin in the center of the front and back and pin, then pull the sides up to match and pin as shown.

Press down on the center and make 2 little tucks so that it lies flat.

Stitch to hold in place.

Binding:

• Cut binding to go around the sleeping bag. You will need approximately 2½” x 36″. If you are using fat quarters, just add strips together for the binding.
• Fold the binding in half and press.
• Attach to the backside of the sleeping bag joining the ends.
• Fold over to the front and topstitch.

Here is what it looks like so far.

• Fold the top down 3 inches to form the pillow, stitch down both sides along the binding.
• Fill the pillow with stuffing.

Topstitch on the binding to enclose the pillow stuffing.

Your finished sleeping bag!

This size holds a bear or a Beanie Baby.

Make a strip-pieced sleeping bag:

Grab your fabric scraps and make a little strip pieced sleeping bag for your stuffed animals or dolls using a Quilt As You Go Method QAYG.

Fabric:

• Cut an 8-by-12-inch piece of your backing fabric and batting.
• Cut a 5½ inch x 9-inch piece of your backing fabric and batting – (this is bigger so you can put a tuck in it to make more room for the doll).
• Cut 2½” strips to use for the binding.
• Layout your backing and batting and then sew the strips right side up on the top of your sleeping bag at an angle.
• Your fabrics will be quilted – as you go.
• Trim pieces.

When I made the first strip pieced sleeping bag, I just turned down the top ¼ inch, topstitched it, folded it down 3 inches, and stuffed some batting in.

It was a fast and easy way to make a pillow.

• Add your binding using 2½” strips again.
• Pin on the top piece to the bottom piece and then add the binding around 3 sides.

Doing it this way meant that the ends weren’t finished and I had to do a little bit of hand stitching. I prefer doing the pillow the way I showed in the beginning.

Need a bigger sleeping bag?

Read the directions and then if you have a bigger doll just adjust the size.

The easiest way is to lay a piece of fabric over your doll and see how much fabric is taken up by the girth of the doll – you don’t want to make a sleeping bag that your little animals or doll can’t squeeze into! Also, make sure that the length is okay.

When I made the purple sleeping bag – I made it 15 inches long instead of 12 inches.

See the difference in the sizes?

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and if you make one I would love to see it!

Get a PDF of this tutorial.

Download a PDF of this tutorial – if you already subscribe to my newsletter you can just sign in to my resource library and you’ll find it.

A couple of years ago I did another doll sleeping bag tutorial that is a little faster and easier to make.

Be sure to check out the Updated Sleeping Bag tutorial!

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