Leggings are a wardrobe essential when you are under a year old. I have attempted a few different styles, but I am finally happy with this one I have come up with and I have already made several pairs to team up with t-shirts and vests. It is for ages 3-6 months and should take around half an hour. You can use the pattern to create a romper over on a separate post here.
I have used a few different jerseys from my collection and also some I found in my stash that I bought when my now 4 year old was a baby. In this tutorial I have used grey and white cloud jersey which is organic cotton. You can make a pair of leggings in a fat quarter of jersey making these less than £2.50 to make!
The jersey is from the Craft Cotton Company and is a dream to work with. I have made clothes for the whole family with it and it has been really popular with all my customers. I have been loaned a Janome 6234XL overlocker which I have been taking full advantage of. I have not got a lot of experience with overlockers, using just one before. It has been really easy to get it up and running and I have sewn up at least 4 pairs of leggings and several rompers in a very short space of time compared to what I could achieve on my regular sewing machine.
YOU WILL NEED
Overlocker (or sewing machine)
Pattern
Rotary Cutter and Mat
Pins
Pattern Weights
METHOD
1. Cut out your pattern. You can pair this pattern up with the romper to save you printing lots of pages. To print, save the picture and copy it into word, make it fit a full a4 sheet. There is a 1" guide to check when it is printed. You will need:
x2 cut on the fold
x2 14.5cm squares (cuffs)
x1 40cm x 14cm (waistband)
I have taken a picture of how I have cut the fabric to show you how I got this out of one fat quarter. I have used the small amount that was left to make reusable wipes (mini tutorial at the end of this post).
2. Batch sew the following, all with right sides together using a 3/8th seam allowance throughout.
Front and back legs
Waistband, short sides together
Cuffs with sides together
3. Fold the cuffs and waistband in half horizontally, wrong sides together. Now fold them in half and half again to work out where the centre point is and use a dissolvable pen or notch to mark it. Do the same with the leggings. You can just about work out a pink mark on mine below.
4. Now pin the waistband to the leggings matching up these 4 markers. It won't fit and will look a bit odd, don't panic.
5. Sew the waistband, pulling and easing them as you go, avoiding folds. Repeat the same process with the cuffs.
The leggings are complete! It was a wonderful coincidence that these leggings coordinate so well with the Peter Rabbit quilt, you can find the pattern for the quilt here. For more free tutorials, new fabric arrivals and special offers, you can sign up to my mailing list.
I mentioned the reusable wipes I made with the leftovers. It is very satisfying to have used every last scrap. I have tried a few different methods to make these. I have tried jersey on both sides with some bamboo wadding in the centre. I found the jersey slipped too much when using it on both sides. This time I tried jersey on one side and fleece on the other. I often use regular fleece from The Range to back quilts, so I have lots of offcuts. I have layered them up roughly and taken advantage of the overlocker to trim the edges for me. If you are using a zig zag or overedge stitch, you will need to neaten your edges first.
Simply sew all the way around. Go slowly around the corners, lifting your foot when you need to, to round off the edges. Leave a long enough tail so that you can sew it in afterwards.
They certainly aren't perfect but they are ideal reusable wipes for nappy changes. I try to use cloth nappies at least a few times a day (and biodegradable ones when I don't) so they just go in the wash with the nappies.
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