make your own baby legs (legwarmers)

These were a bunch of knee high socks I bought last Fall, intending them for one of my younger girls to wear to school, but they were misplaced until recently, so I decided to put them to better use and make something for the new baby since I am due in the Winter after all. So baby legs they will be. (These will fit both babies and older children alike as I have made these for my 5 & 9 year old and they love them, so these are not limited to just babies!)  I found a great selection at Smith's Marketplace in a 2-pack in the girl's section for $8. I have also found that there were more knee high socks with prints and colors that would work for boys in the womens section as opposed to the girls, so make sure and look if you want to make some for your little guy.

 

You can use a serger or a sewing machine to make these, and they are totally easy and work up incredibly fast.

Materials:

-1 pair of knee high socks

-serger or sewing machine

-thread

-a pair of sharp scissors

Ok, let's start. First, pick out a pair of either girls or womens knee high socks, they both work just as well for this.

 Lay them out flat and cut off the foot just before the "bend" starts, cutting them straight across.

Next, cut off the rounded end at the top where the toes go. Try to keep the rectangular portion in the middle about the same size as the other.

 It should look something like this when you're done. The rectangular piece you cut out from the foot portion will become your cuff.

 

 Take the cuff piece and fold it inward onto itself, in half, wrong sides together, matching the raw cut edges up with each other. You want the right sides of the print facing out. It should look something like this.

 Slip the cuff over the cut edge of the sock, making sure that the raw edges from both the cuff and the sock match up.

 See, the sock is inside the cuff, and you just slide it up to the raw edge and even them up as best you can.

  Here are the raw edges of both the sock and cuff lined up.

 I don't even bother to pin them, I find it easier not to when I serge/sew them, but you can pin them if it makes it easier for you, it really doesn't matter.

 Here they are, all ready to be serged or sewn. I did one of these with my serger and one with my sewing machine so that you can see an example of both.

 I just hold the edges together and run it through the serger all the way around.

 And here it is, all done. I know it looks like the edges are all stretched and ruffled from being serged, but once the cuffs are turned out, it doesn't matter. And after being washed once, it looks even better, so don't sweat it.

  I stitched this one on my sewing machine using a simple zig zag stitch. I kept the aligned raw edges close to the edge of my presser foot for a guide and stitched it all the way around.

  Here it is all all stitched, and it looks pretty similar to the serged one, doesn't it, and it too seems a bit ruffled after being sewn. Also not a big deal.

  Turn the cuffs up and you have a great little pair of baby legs for your little one that took you all of 10 minutes to make.

 Here is a close up of both cuffs. Can you tell which one was sewn with a serger and which one was sewn with a sewing machine? Neither can I.

 So there you are. Easy as can be.

 Now go crazy and make a bunch more. It took me less than 30 minutes to cut and serge all of these, and just like that I had 9 pairs of baby legs.

  Like I said, they're incredibly fast and easy to make.

And just for a reference, the last three pairs of baby legs on the end at the right were all made from women's knee socks (gray with rainbow pinstripes, navy & white stripe with green edge, and gray & white stripe with pink edge). The first 6 (starting from the left) were all made from knee socks from the girls section.

*Variation*-You can also use a pair of tights to make baby legs if you would like. Just cut off the foot portion the same as you would if using a knee high sock, except you will need to cut a second piece about the same size as the first cuff from somewhere on the leg portion of the tights to make a second cuff for each baby leg. So you will then sew a cuff to each end to finish them off since the tights don't have a pre-finished edge like the socks do. This is a great way to use up outgrown tights you might already have on hand.