Baby Leggings to wear under skirts and dresses...

This weekend Old Navy had an extra 30% off all of their clearance items.  I maaay have broken down and bought an adorable purple skirt and purple shirt for my little ladybug.  :-)  I may also have broken down and got myself a dress and two tank tops... but at $5 for a dress and 1.50 for tank tops you can't justify saying no!  Annnnyways... this post is not about my super duper ADORABLE dress... it is about baby leggings. 

I wanted to dress my little Ladybug in her purple outfit with some leggings.  However, she did not have purple leggings... enter the problem.  So I thought about it and remembered I had saved a tutorial on how to make toddler leggings here at Shwin and Shwin.  In remembering this I wondered if I had any purple material I could use to make some leggings.  So, I headed up to my closet and... enter the solution!  In my closet I found an old purple long sleeve t-shirt that I haven't worn in about two years... so guess what... it got chopped up and turned into baby leggings.  It was easy and really only took me about a half hour to make my baby leggings. 

Here is how I did it...

Supplies:

• An old long sleeve t-shirt
• A good fitting diaper cover
• A pair of good fitting leggings
• Scissors
• Pins
• Tape measure
• Elastic
• A sewing machine

Step one:

  Using your child's good fitting leggings measure from the ankle to the crotch.  This is the measurement you will use for making the legs of your leggings. For the leggings I made it was 9.5 inches.  These were for 9 month size. 

Step two:

   Lay out your old long sleeve t-shirt.  Measure up each sleeve (from the cuff) the measurement you got in step one... sooo for me it was 9.5 inches.  Then cut.  I did not draw a line or anything, but I suppose if you wanted to be really precise you could draw a line before you cut. 



Step three:

   After cutting off your arms (which will now be your legs) lay them aside.  using the side of the shirt pin on your good fitting diaper cover.  Make sure you allow about a quarter of an inch in seam allowance around the diaper cover.  (In other words... don't cut right next to it but a little bit away from it to give room for your seams.)  Make sure that as you are cutting you stretch out the top elastic of your cover or your new piece of fabric will not be too small... been there... done that!   Hopefully the pic will explain this step better...lol!



Step four:

   After cutting out your "diaper cover" sew the crotch seam and the side seam.  If you cut your piece using the side of the shirt you should only have one side seam to sew...yay! :-)



Step five:

  Turn your legs (old sleeves) right side out.  Place them inside the diaper cover you just made (the diaper cover is still wrong side out).  Pin the raw edge of your leg opening around the raw edge of your leg opening... does that make sense?  Make sure you pin so that the seam for the leg will face the inside of your pants... like between the legs.  I had to stretch my sleeve a little to get it to match the diaper cover but that's okay.  Now sew it together.  :-)  Repeat for the second leg.

This is just to show you how to place it in... you will need to make sure the raw edges are even when you pin and sew... :-)

Step six: 

   Almost done...seeee isn't this quick!    now turn the whole thing right side out.  Measure the pair of leggings that fit to find out how much elastic you need.  I just took my leggings and measured across the top with them not stretched out.   It turned out that for the 9 month size I needed 16 inches of elastic. 

Step seven:

  Creating the casing for the elastic.  Fold down the top edge of your new pants so that the width is a little bit more than the width of your elastic.  Pin this all the way around the top of your new pants.  Sew right next to the raw edge.  Make sure that you leave an opening about a half inch wide so you can put your elastic in. (Sorry I don't have a picture for this part... I got too excited becasuse they were almost done!)

Step eight:

  Thread your elastic into your pants.  The best way to do this... the way my mom taught me :-)... is to attach a safety pin to one end and thread it through.  Watch your other end that it does not go all the way into your casing. ;-)  After your elastic is threaded through, overlap the ends and sew them together.  Then sew up the hole that you used to add your elastic. 

Step nine:

  Put on a baby or toddler with a skirt or dress and think about how adorable they look and how those leggings were free (or really cheap) to make! :-)



Now... don't worry if they look a little funky when you are done... mine do... see:

Sorry for the sideways-ness... I can't figure out how to turn it.



That is why I said they are to wear under a skirt or dress... that way no one will see the funky-ness!

Happy Sewing! :-)