A Skeleton Mermaid Tail Snuggle Sack, For She Who Contains Multitudes

 

A few years ago, I sewed each of the kids one of those snuggle sacks that were super trendy at the moment. You know the ones that are like lap blankets but also sleeping bags... sleeping bags for your legs, I guess? They're perfect for all those times when you want a comfy blanket but you also want your hands free for snacks and a book.

I used two layers of thick fleece for my snuggle snacks, and Matt made the patterns for me. Will got a giant fleece shark, complete with a pelvic fin and both dorsal fins, and large enough that she could use it as a sleeping bag, if she wants. It's quite amusing to walk through the family room and see her kicked back reading on the couch, half-consumed by a giant fleece shark.

Syd got a mermaid tail (it was the Year of Mermaids, you might recall), but I purposefully made hers a little shorter, because you obviously can't be swallowed up to your smile by a mermaid tail! It can go up to the small of your back, max--any further and people wouldn't glimpse you and accidentally assume that you're a real mermaid. So Syd's mermaid tail snuggle sack was perfectly Syd-sized, with mermaid scale fleece on the outside, and she looked like a real mermaid that whole winter every time she wore it.

And then she hit a growth spurt, and by the next winter her mermaid tail snuggle sack was about a foot too short.

Back when I sewed those first snuggle sacks, I'd had another idea for a snuggle sack that wasn't quite right for my littler kid who loved mermaids sincerely and intensely, nor for my bigger kid who liked dark stuff, but liked sharks even better.

It turned out, though, that my other idea was absolutely perfect for a kid who has grown up a few years and now loves both mermaids AND dark stuff.

Finally, the world is ready for my skeleton mermaid tail snuggle sack!

But first, Matt had to make me a pattern. Have you ever imagined the skeletal structure of a mermaid? It looks, I assure you, exactly like this:

You only have to draw one half of your mermaid's spine, then trace and cut it on the fold:

After that, the snuggle sack is the easiest of builds--WAY easier than that dang shark! I copied Syd's original mermaid tail pattern onto black fleece, added a couple of feet to the top to accommodate that growth spurt, then appliqued the skeleton onto the front piece before sewing it together:

So. Much. APPLIQUE!

The inside lining of the skeleton tail is stash red fleece, because that's the inside color of mermaids, of course!

I LOVE how Syd's skeleton mermaid tail snuggle sack turned out:

It's cozy and warm and makes you feel like a mermaid without being, you know, twee or cringe or whatever word the kids are using these days.