Sewing Project #2

For some time, I've been coveting a few different styles of baby leg warmers (Babylegs & Huggalugs). But I was also too much of a cheapskate to pay $12-$15/pair, especially when I wasn't sure how they'd fit or even if E would wear them. So I started searching around on Ebay for used ones and discovered that there were a lot of people selling what seemed to be homemade versions. At first, I was confused. They were obviously not handknit, but they were being sold as homemade. I almost bought a pair of Halloween striped legwarmers, but still balked at paying the $10.

A few days later, I was at Target and saw women's knee socks that were the exact same patterns as a lot of the ones I'd seen on Ebay, and a lightbulb went off. Of course! I could just cut off the foot and make my own. I searched around online for directions, but didn't find anything detailed enough. I figured, screw it, I'll just give it a shot and if it doesn't work, I'm only out four bucks. Here is my first effort:

Not exactly professional looking. I'll admit though, I pretty much did it the laziest and most generic way possible. I cut off the foot, just above the heel, folded it over twice, and then did a zigzag stitch around. I discovered that it's pretty freaking hard to keep your seam allowance even when you're trying to sew in a teeny tiny circle. Also, because of where I cut the leg, there was a little bit of flare which became more pronounced after I sewed it down, and they ended up being pretty wide. After trying them on E, I realized that even with her fat little thighs, there was no way they were going to stay up. I thought about just cutting them again beneath the flare, but I worried that then they'd be too short.

Then by coincidence I came across these instructions on a moms board that I'm on, which are absolutely fantastic. This method uses the discarded foot to make an actual cuff, which ends up being the bottom instead of the top. And being the anal retentive person that I am, I of course took out the trusty old seam ripper, spent waaaayyy too much time undoing my work, and tried again. The second try is pictured at left. They're still not as perfect as I'd like (not that anything ever is) as again, it was really hard to keep the seams straight. But the stripes match up for the most part, so I'm happy enough with it. Oh, I should note thought that I did take another lazy shortcut, and instead of cutting the foot and re-sewing it to make the cuff more narrow, I just left it as is. When I tried this new and improved version on E, I did notice that when she's standing, they have a tendency to slip down over her feet. But she still seems to like them.

Ta-daa!