I was so impressed with results of my Baby Legwarmers in 5 minutes for $3.50 project that I got to thinking about all those lovely stripy and patterned socks and how stretchy and forgiving they were to sew.
I came up with a crazy idea, and what do you know …
…It worked!
So here it is …
5 MINUTE BABY AND TODDLER LEGGINGS
This project is very easy and takes about 5 minutes to make. You will need one pair of adult knee high socks and some 6mm elastic (I used clear swimwear elastic but I am absolutely sure that standard braided elastic would work just perfectly).
There was a sale on socks so I got a few different sorts to test out – This lot (8 pairs) cost just over $15
Step 1: Pick a pair of socks and cut the toe section off as shown
Cut the toe section off your chosen socks(both of them)
Step 2: Cut along the centre sole of the sock (where it is folded) from where you have cut the toe off to the centre of the heal section as shown.
Cut straight down the sole of the socks (again, both of them)
Step 3: Turn one sock inside out then insert the other sock (the one that is still right side out) inside the first sock and line up the cut edges as shown in the picture
Put one sock inside the other and line up the cut edges
Step 4: Sew (using a zigzag stitch) or overlock around the seam that will become the crotch seam – leave the top (where you cut the toe off) open. Then you should have something that looks like the pic below.
Sew the crotch seam
Step 5: Sew (using a zigzag stitch) or overlock your elastic to the inside upper edge of your leggings (the open edge)
Gently stretch the elastic as you sew it on, no a lot, just enough to counteract the sewing machine stretching your fabric out as you sew.
Note: If you are using your overlocker for this part, make sure that the cutting blade is disabled and that you have adjusted the differential feed so that the stitching will still allow the fabric to stretch right out after you have finished. On my overlocker a setting of 1 is considered standard and I used a setting of 0.75. You need to remember to stretch your elastic gently as well, as mentioned above.
Sew your elastic to the upper edge while gently stretching
Step 6: Fold the the edge with the elastic sewn to it to the inside and zig zag around the edge. This will create a neat and finished edge as shown.
Fold the elastic in and zig zag the top edge
The finished top edge
Now you are finished – One pair of baby leggings in 5 minutes (you will notice in the picture below that the top is a bit wobbly – this is what happens if you don’t stretch your elastic enough. it doesn’t really matter because they are still snug when they are on bubs)
The finished leggings
One thing I did think is that these would probably not fit that well over a cloth nappy, so I tried some using mens size 11-13 dress and sports socks – these give more room in the top part although the legs are shorter – more like 7/8 leggings. Check out the results below
Mens dress sock leggings
Mens sports socks leggings
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