ADDING A SNAP CHANNEL
My little Lily doesn’t love having her back legs lifted to get into her 4-leg PJs, so I worked on this hack to allow the back legs to open and close! Making it super easy to dress. I love using plastic fasteners, they’re also known as Kam Snaps. They’re commonly used in baby onesies and you can usually buy them at any fabric/sewing/craft store. You will also need the fastening tool.
The concept for this hack can be modified for other options too like buttons, velcro or even a zip. But my personal preference is the snaps, I think they’re super easy and discrete. See the below photos for the finished look 🙂
HOW TO…
Sew up the PJs as per the instructions EXCEPT don’t:
- sew the back legs closed (Step 4, seam C and D from the instructions)
- add the back leg cuffs or (Step 8, only do the front cuffs)
- hem the back part of the body (Step 11)
Instead, follow these instructions:
1. Once you’ve constructed the front half of the pyjamas, you will add on the back leg cuffs. Do this by firstly opening up your back leg piece and unfolding your back leg cuff. Refold your leg cuff long ways and pin it to the bottom of your open leg piece (right sides together). Sew the cuff on.
2. Now you’re going to cut 4 snap reinforcement panels. The reason for this is that you need extra width in the leg piece so that the overlapping doesn’t cause the leg piece to get tighter. You also need the panels to be two layers so they snaps are secure. If you’ve used plastic fasteners before this should be familiar to you. Measure at the points demonstrated in the diagram to the right. Mine measured at 18cm. So I then made a paper pattern, I wanted my panels to be 2cm wide when finished. They need to be folded over so the fabric is 2 layers thick – this makes the snaps nice and secure. Therefore the fabric pieces need to be 5cm wide (inc. 5mm seam allowance). I cut out 4 of these panels, two per leg.
For each of your 4 panels, fold up one edge 5mm and sew in place. This will give you a neat bottom edge.
Now fold your panel in half, lengthways. Pin it to the edge of your open leg piece (the same spot where you measured the length in step 2). Do this for all 4 open edges on the back legs. Sew along the white dotted line.
The last step is to add your plastic fasteners. If you haven’t used them before, have a practice on a thick piece of scrap fabric. See below for how I laid out my snaps.
Congratulations, you’ve finished your snap hack!