Woollen Sleeping Bag

Hi,

I hope you clever ladies can help a wanna-be seamstress like me :-)
I have dabbled with a sewing machine in my teens making simple wrap style hippie tops & skirts. But in the last 10 years or so, my sewing experience has been limited to sewing curtains on a couple of occasions. I do have a sewing machine, though.

And now I wanna make a sleeping bag for DD. I really like the idea of the MerinoKids woollen bags, but they're way too expensive for me ($160.00).

My MIL who's a hobby quilter has made me a couple of fleece bags with sleeves, but DD gets really sweaty in them. Not too hot, just too sweaty as they don't seem to wick the moisture away. So I wanna make one with natural fabrics.

MIL has a "Kwik Sew" pattern for a bag without sleeves (which is what I want) and i found a really simple looking set of instructions here:
Jan Andrea at home on the web
if you have other great patterns, please let me know.

My main question is: do you have any idea where I can find a soft 100% wool knit fabric I could use? I went to Spotlight Ashmore with MIL but all they had was either polyester polar fleece or cotton flanelette. My idea is to use a wool knit as a lining and then to use a cotton outer.

Alternatively, I was thinking of using 2 layers of cotton with some wool wadding inbetween. Sort of like a quilt. Is that way too ambitious???

Any ideas & tips are greatly appreciated.
Sasa

try googling 'dr flannel' see if thats what your after

To be honest, I have a lot of trouble finding the fabrics I really want to use in Spotlight, especially when it comes to natural, good qualty ones - so I've actually bought off the internet a couple of times, and have been happy so far! it takes a bit of searching, but there are some nice sites out there that may have what you're looking for.

Thanks for your help, Helly & AJP. I have found a website called Country Bumpkin that seems to have that Doctor's Flannel and also some wool/cashmere velour and wool blanketing. It's just hard to decide which to use without touching it... I'm not sure if the Doctor's Flannel is going to be warm enough and with the wool blanketing, I'm concerned it might be too thick & warm.
Helly, could you give me the addresses or names of some of th sites you like? If that is even allowed here...

I'll keep you updated about my progress.

Alex

I am going to make some natural sleeping bags for my bub - I have a simple sleeveless Burda pattern and instead of poly batting (as in many of the commercial brands and as recommended in the pattern) am aiming to use wool batting (from my local quilt shop) or a cotton batting that has been fire retardant sprayed that I will need to order off the net (remember 100% cotton fabrics tend to have a high fire danger so also be careful what outer fabrics you choose). I think it would be difficult to find a soft wool jersey (aka the merinokids bags) and if you did, it would probably be expensive so best bet would be to buy a pattern that makes the bag liek a quilted one and use a natural batting. I have a pattern for the fleece bags too (single layer of fabric) but am making those with the pram slit for next winter as the fleece is fine when out in the cold air. In bed it would probably sweat alot and I am not fond of unnatural fibres in bedding due to the SIDS risk being increased in winter with overheating. (My nephew died of SIDS which lead me to look at all the stats and more babies die in winter due to being too rugged up - synthetic fabrics don't breathe like natural ones so they will always be my preference in the cot).