DIY baby leggings

when i first saw baby leggings, i must admit, i was kind of turned off. they just seemed cheesy and not my style, BUT after having a baby i have decided i like the darn things. they are super useful! reason #1) some days (most days) my baby has gone through about 500 outfits and by the end of it, i'm not always in the mood to keep switching out pants. reason #2) it's been so darn hot outside that i wouldn't dare put little miss in anything more than a onesie. unfortunately a onesie isn't enough once we get in to air conditioning so i just slip on these little suckers and i don't even have to take her out of her car seat! then they slip right back off after we leave. HANDY! reason #3) once the bubbs starts to crawl, these guys will protect her chubby little knees.
...plus they're cute.

anywho, babylegs are kinda pricey ($12 apiece) so i made my own. they cost me $0.62 and it took me ten minutes to make them. hello nap time craft! wanna try? here's how:

you will need:
a pair of socks
scissors
a sewing machine

1. find yourself an awesome pair of socks on sale for $0.62 (or i guess you can pay full price. whatever.)

2. cut the leg part from the foot part. if you have really long socks, feel free to cut the leg portion shorter to fit your child's legs. i like the leggings to have a little extra length to bunch up a bit but not so much that it looks silly.

3. cut off the heel and toe so that you just have the foot tube left

*the next couple steps are the tricky ones so i'll try to explain them as clearly as possible.*
4. the foot tube part is the part that will eventually be the ankle cuff on the leggings. as you can see, this piece is too big to stay tight around a baby's ankle so we have to trim off some of the excess fabric. we aren't changing the direction of the tube, just making it thinner. so trim up the side of the tube as much as you think will make them tight enough on your child (making sure to add enough room for the seam allowance). i trimmed off maybe an inch? hopefully the picture helps.

5. next we're just going to seal up the tube again now that it's thinner. do this by turning the right sides together-hotdog style (anybody else get this reference?) and then sew up the seam using a zigzag stitch. i used a zigzag stitch because i wanted them to still stretch and elastic thread scares me.

6. turn the tube right side out. see! same as before, only thinner. yay!

7. now you are going to need to fold the tube in half inside of itself forming the cuff. i know that doesn't make sense but this photo should be pretty clear. if you have any questions about this (or any of the steps) just ask me in the comments.

8. take the long leg piece of your sock that you cut off in step 2 and insert it into the cuff making sure to line up all of the raw edges. the leg is wider than the cuff so it will be pinched a bit. that's normal.

9. ok this is the hardest part. i'll admit, i scratched my head for a bit before i figured out a way to do this. you have to sew the cuff on to the leg but it's pretty little so it's hard to maneuver through a sewing machine. you can do this one of two ways. you can pin the cuff to the leg (stretch the cuff to make up for the difference in the widths and then pin) and then feed it through your sewing machine. OR (what i did) if your sewing machine has a removable piece at the base (technical term=extension table) take that puppy off and squeeze your leg and cuff around the base. this takes care of the stretching for you and keeps all three layers of fabric nice and tight so you can see your sewing. again, zigzag stitch.

10. pull your leggings off the sewing machine and turn the cuffs out. there you have it! $0.62 baby leggings in ten minutes!