When sewing for a little one in merino here at HQ we always challenge ourselves to get as much out of one metre of fabric as possible. In this week's pattern review we managed to stick to it, just! We made little Eli (5 months) a Lowland Kids Snap Sleeper and a 1x1 metre wrap in one of the five beautiful new ZQ Premium Merino colours that have just arrived — Bottle. Thank you Sophie for letting us dress your little lad! Read on for our full review below.
Pattern Review
Lowlands Kids — Snap Sleeper
Founded by Shalayne Janis Monson after the successful launch of her first PJ pattern back in 2018, Lowland Kids stick to three main criteria for all their patterns — comfy clothes kids will actually want to wear, modern shapes, and no fluff, easy-to-follow instructions. We think they’ve nailed all three! Lowlands pattern collection now boasts over 100 styles and if we're honest it took us some time to pick something for little Eli! With many parents (and many opinions!) at The Fabric Store HQ, we finally settled on the very cute, and very practical Snap Sleeper.
This advanced beginner to intermediate pattern comes with a whole host of edits like covered hands and feet or regular cuffs and with or without a gusset. The size range covers prem to 5 years. We chose size 3-6 months for Eli (5 months old) and went with regular cuffs and the gusset as we knew Eli would be in a nappy. We cut our 1x1m wrap out of our new ZQ Premium Merino colourway - Bottle first and then used the remainder of the metre of cut to squeeze in the sleeper. For this pattern, we also used Fusible Interfacing - Stretch Weft / White (approx. 8cm x 50cm), 9 metal snaps, a snap fastener tool and 4 spools of matching Gütermann Sew-All Thread.
We sewed this Snap Sleeper on our 4 thread overlocker/serger so needed to add a further 4mm to the 6mm seam allowance as our overlocker stitches at just under 1cm. If you are using an overlocker we'd recommend checking how wide your overlocker stitches are before cutting your pattern.
The instructions were a breeze to follow with coloured pictures of the steps alongside the written instructions. Lowlands Kids also include helpful advice on how to measure for the best fit and an illustration of how to grade between sizes — a clever addition for anyone who finds their little one is measuring across a few sizes. We thought the difficulty level of advanced-beginner to intermediate was appropriate as sewing a small garment like this in knit can be a little fiddly, especially the tiny cuffs and neckband!
The Snap Sleeper is available in PDF format only, from Lowland Kids here.
Fabric Used
ZQ Premium Merino - Bottle
Bottle is one of the five new hues added this week to our popular ZQ merino range! All five new colours are now in stores and online — from top to bottom Daffodil, Cornflower, River, Bottle, and Fuchsia. These new additions bring our entire ZQ Merino collection up to 41 colours! Browse the full colour range here, online.
The Snap Sleeper fit Eli like a dream, how cute is he! If this post has inspired you to sew this pattern, we'd love you to share your project with us. Use #TheFabricStore over on Instagram and TikTok, we're following along!