I have been asked by quite a few people if I would share how I make baby leggings for Jeanine so I thought I'd share on the blog. I was shown by my best friend Lauren, who also told me that there are myriad other online tutorials on how to make them, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. This project takes about 15 minutes start to finish, using a pair of knee high adult socks.
Start with these:
I buy this kind, but any knee high socks will do:
Hey look! It's about 3:05pm!
Take your socks, individually or one on top of the other, and cut off the foot, just above the heel and straight across. You can use a rotary or scissors, doesn't matter.
You will be using these, don't toss them!
Take the foot of the sock, one on top of the other or individually, and cut off the toe, straight across, as close as you can to the toe but before any sort of flaring or tapering of the end of the sock begins.
Turn them over now and cut off the heel side, straight across, and again before any sort tapering off or flaring out of the material. You want the middle part of the foot of the sock to be as straight as possible.
Here's what's left, not too much waste from one pair of socks if you ask me! Go ahead and toss these parts, you won't be needing them.
Here's the foot part of the sock, soon to be a cuff. Mine does flare out a bit, but because my socks were so stretchy and soft, it didn't really matter. With a structured sock you don't want this to happen.
Grab the middle of the cuff and fold one side in, so that the "right" side is still out and the edges match up cleanly.
Insert your leg portion into the cuff and match up the edges as perfectly as you can. You probably want to work gently and quickly as the edges of some socks ravel terribly and need to be finished off soon!
Pin the 3 layers (2 from the cuff and 1 from the leg part) together as shown, all the way around.
Sew all the way around using a straight stitch or zigzag (if you really need to prevent a lot of ravelling, use a zigzag). Trim your threads and flip the cuff outward!
Here's your finished product! A cute new pair of baby leggings for your favorite little model ;-P Generally they work best with the original cuff at the top, but if they fit your child better the other way, go for it! For pre/early crawlers with chubby thighs, if you sew your cuff on with a zig-zag stitch, they'll stretch further and you could use them longer.
I buy this kind, but any knee high socks will do:Hey look! It's about 3:05pm!Take your socks, individually or one on top of the other, and cut off the foot, just above the heel and straight across. You can use a rotary or scissors, doesn't matter.You will be using these, don't toss them!Take the foot of the sock, one on top of the other or individually, and cut off the toe, straight across, as close as you can to the toe but before any sort of flaring or tapering of the end of the sock begins.Turn them over now and cut off the heel side, straight across, and again before any sort tapering off or flaring out of the material. You want the middle part of the foot of the sock to be as straight as possible.Here's what's left, not too much waste from one pair of socks if you ask me! Go ahead and toss these parts, you won't be needing them.Here's the foot part of the sock, soon to be a cuff. Mine does flare out a bit, but because my socks were so stretchy and soft, it didn't really matter. With a structured sock you don't want this to happen.Grab the middle of the cuff and fold one side in, so that the "right" side is still out and the edges match up cleanly.Insert your leg portion into the cuff and match up the edges as perfectly as you can. You probably want to work gently and quickly as the edges of some socks ravel terribly and need to be finished off soon!Pin the 3 layers (2 from the cuff and 1 from the leg part) together as shown, all the way around.Sew all the way around using a straight stitch or zigzag (if you really need to prevent a lot of ravelling, use a zigzag). Trim your threads and flip the cuff outward!Here's your finished product! A cute new pair of baby leggings for your favorite little model ;-P Generally they work best with the original cuff at the top, but if they fit your child better the other way, go for it! For pre/early crawlers with chubby thighs, if you sew your cuff on with a zig-zag stitch, they'll stretch further and you could use them longer.She's wearing them opposite ways, so you could see they work either side up:
My handmade cuff side is down on this one, and I like it best that way on her:
And look, it only took me less than 15 minutes!
