Leggings!

I posted this picture on Instagram/facebook a few days ago saying that I was in the middle of making baby girl some leggings out of women's socks.



I got a bunch of questions about how I did it and how they turned out, so I figured I'd post about it here and maybe it would be useful to someone. :) Disclaimer: I am not a professional seamstress, or even a very good one. lol Someone who sews well would probably look at my methods and just shake their head. BUT, the good news is that if I can do it, so can you! :)

I found packages of super cute knee-high socks at Goodwill and couldn't pass them up. I knew they would make super cute leggings for Ellie. Plus, at $5 for a pack of 3, you can't beat that price.

I tried this concept once before using THIS tutorial, but I didn't like the waist band, so I wanted to change it up a little. I also couldn't sew the "soles" of the socks together this time or the legs would be too long. I used THIS tutorial for some ideas on how to make a few changes, and we were in business!

 I started by cutting off the toes of the socks. Where you cut the socks will depend on the measurements of your little girl. I used a pair of leggings that I already have as my guide and ended up cutting them to be 15 inches long.



After that, I cut a slit down one side of each sock (again, measurements will vary, but I made my cut 7 inches). With one pair that I made, I tried to cut it so that the heel of the socks would end up on the bum of the leggings. It started getting too complicated though, and let's face it, I'm lazy. So I gave up, but it's something you might consider when cutting your socks.



Pin the socks together around the slits you made, right sides together.





Sew where you pinned using a straight stitch.



Zig-zag stitch along your seams and around the top edge of the leggings.



Cut a piece of elastic and sew the ends together. Again, I went back to an existing pair of leggings to determine the length of my elastic. Remember to add about an inch for overlapping the elastic to sew it together. I cut my elastic 15 inches.



(By the way, I got my 1 inch colored elastic at Joann Fabric. I was excited to see that they actually had some because they didn't when I looked a few months ago. They actually had a pretty good selection of colors, too.)

Attach the elastic to the top of the leggings using a zig-zag stitch (so that it can still stretch). There is a great tutorial for attaching an elastic waistband HERE.



That's it!

Here's a pair being worn by my little model, who climbed up to the counter to steal a muffin. Stinker.





Busted!



Here's another pair:



A view of the whole thing:



You can see from the wrinkles that she has plenty of room in them. She's pretty skinny, but I think there would still be enough room for babies with a little more chub. :)



So there you go... quick and easy leggings!