Ten Years of the Baby Snap Sack® {Part 1}

By Carson Davis

The story behind a decade of stylish comfort, quality, and ingenuity {Part 1}

If you examine a Baby Snap Sack® wearable sleeping bag from The Milk & Honey Co. today, you’ll notice innovative design features and expert craftsmanship. The dual zipper system makes for easy middle-of-the-night diaper changes and temperature regulation. The adjustable shoulder and chest snaps allow the sleeping bag to fit your growing baby from three months to three years. The carefully chosen colors and meticulous attention to detail make the sleeping bag a beautiful addition to your baby’s nursery.

But when designer Susan Isler created the first Baby Snap Sack® in 2008, she did not intend to start a business. She didn't even know how to sew.

The idea for a wearable down-filled baby sleeping bag was born of necessity. A year earlier, Susan's infant daughter had become tangled in a traditional baby blanket during the night, and Susan woke abruptly to the sound of her muffled cries. Susan's daughter was unharmed, but the incident prompted her to begin using safer wearable baby sleeping bags (also known as sleep sacks) instead of blankets for her babies.

Over the next year, Susan's husband built a cozy home nestled in the mountains of North Carolina for their growing family, and they relied on a wood stove for heat. Once the fire went out, the night chill crept in. Everyone in Susan's family slept under cozy down blankets, but Susan knew she needed a safe option for her newborn that provided more warmth than standard sleep sacks made with cotton or fleece. She began an extensive search to find a wearable baby sleeping bag filled with down.

Susan found a only a couple options online for down-filled baby sleeping bags, but they were pricey and were sold in multiple sizes. She calculated it would be cost prohibitive buy a new one every few months as her baby grew, so Susan decided to make one instead with materials she already had: a repurposed high thread count sateen bed sheet and an unused down pillow. She sketched a rough pattern on the bed sheet, pulled an inherited sewing machine out of a closet, and dusted it off. Her previous sewing experience consisted of a brief lesson at age eight, in which her mother taught her how to thread a sewing machine. After several hours of trial and error, she had the machine humming, and the first Baby Snap Sack® was underway.

continued in {Part 2}