Cuddle Sleeping Bag & Tips by Monkey Do

Hi everyone! I'm Katy and you can usually find me blogging about quilts and stuff over at Monkey Do.  Today I'm here on the Shannon Cuddle™ blog to talk a little about why I love Cuddle™ fabric and, as someone that usually sews with quilting cottons, share my experiences and tips.

My whole family - we are big Cuddle fans - I love to use it to back quilts because it adds extra warmth, it's soft and cuddly and when it's quilted it adds an amazing textural quality to the quilt. It washes well, it doesn't shrink so there's no need to pre-wash and once you get your head around it behaving a little differently when you're using it you will become a huge fan. Cuddle does shed a bit, so that's the first thing you need to get your head around. A bit like when you unroll a jelly roll - there's lots of little bits, but they brush off your clothes easily and you can just sweep them up off the floor or vacuum them away. And it's a bit stretchy, so pins are your friends. Obviously it has a nap - like velveteen - so you don't want to sew it upside down and have the fibres running the wrong way when you're stroking it. Think of the way an animal's fur lays - stroke it the right way and it's lovely and soft, stroke it the wrong way and it feels wrong. Same with Cuddle, but without the teeth and risk of getting bitten for rubbing your cat up the wrong way.

With quilting, the 1/4" seam is key, but with Cuddle I like to make sure I'm using a bigger seam allowance. I don't follow any rules here (because I'm a fly by the seat of my pants girl) but I use the 1/2" mark on the sewing machine and use that.

This year, for the holiday period, I made my youngest a new sleeping bag. Despite having 4 quilts on his bed he has always insisted on sleeping in a bag we made together when he was 3. He's now 8 and that bag is a little snug, so it was high time we made a new one.

I used 4 yards of Snow Man Cuddle in Red from Snow Day, a Shannon Studio Collection. I cut it into 2 lengths of 2 yards, folded each piece in half and sewed down the sides so that there were 2 bag shaped pieces (like making a simple drawstring bag). On the lining piece I left a gap along the bottom, about 8 inches or so, to turn the bag right way out. I then popped the outer piece into the lining piece (right sides together and sewed around the top of the bag, securing them together, pulled the outer through the hole in the lining and then machine stitched that bit up. I was going to take step by step photos but that proved tricky because my 8 yr old was too impatient.

He is now the happiest little happy bug in the world, because his new sleeping bag fits him (it also fits me, it's really nice and big) and mama is happy because it meant we did some sewing together.

Oh, and I should mention that the biggest problem with Cuddle is your pets will try and claim it as their own. I should probably make Fatty his own Cuddle bed, shouldn't I?