T-Shirt to Baby Leggings

I posted this picture on Instagram awhile ago and had a lot of requests for how I made these leggings. Rather than trying to type it out on my phone (I am so horrible at it), I figured I would tell you how on this here blog. My pictures aren't very good and I am no sewer, but making these is pretty easy, so hopefully you can understand this little tutorial!

How to turn your t-shirts into baby leggings: 

1. Start with an old t-shirt. I used t-shirts that were either too small or too big, or had small holes or stains that I could work around. Choose shirts with a little stretch so they can cover those chubby baby thighs.

 2. Cut your shirts along the side seams and around the sleeves so you have two pieces like those above. Set the sleeves aside to use for your baby hats (tutorial coming soon!)

3. Fold each piece in half, being careful to line up the bottom seam, which will become the bottom of your leggings.

 4. Line up your pattern with the bottom of the leggings on the bottom of your shirt and the long straight side on the fold of the fabric.
        *I made my own pattern from some baby leggings I already had using the method found on this tutorial. The only difference is you don't need to add any length on the bottom of your pattern because you won't be sewing a seam on the leg openings since you are using the hem of your shirt.
        * If you don't already have leggings that you can trace, I found some free, printable patterns here. If you want to use the hem of your t-shirt as the leg opening (one less sewing step!), then you can cut off about 3/4 inch from the bottom of your pattern.

5. Repeat for the other piece of fabric so you have two pieces that look like this. Lay the two pieces right sides together, being careful to line up the edges

6. Pin the top sides together (you know its the top because it doesn't have the seam). Sew along each side, about a 1/4 inch in.
        * to sew these leggings I used a double needle. It allows for more stretch and nice looking seams. If you don't have a double needle you can do a zig-zag stitch which will also allow for some stretch.
        * also, lengthening your stitch on your machine will help your fabric not to stretch out as much while you are sewing it. Experiment on scraps so you can decide what will work best for your particular fabric. My machine starts out at a 2.5 and I upped it to a 4.5.

7.  Now flip your leggings around, lining up the seams you just sewed (so it looks like a pair of leggings) and pin all the way around the bottom, unsewed part. Make sure you line up the bottom edges as well as the seams at the crotch. Start sewing at one end and sew one big seam all the way to the other edge, about a 1/4 inch in. And remember to backstitch! I am the worst at remembering to do that.

8. Now fold over the top of your leggings 1 1/4 inch and pin. But pin on the inside so that you can flip them inside out and sew along the outside.

 9. Now flip your leggings inside out so that the right side is facing out now. Sew around the top leaving an inch of space from the top. Also, leave about an inch of unsewed space so you can thread your elastic through. If you sew on the right side with the double needle I think it looks much nicer than if you were to do a zig zag or straight stitch.

See the double needled seam looks nice! Also notice the space I left for threading the elastic through. Make sure you backstitch on either side of that space.

10. Turn your leggings back inside out and thread your elastic through. I ran out of my 3/4 inch elastic and was too lazy to go buy more so I just used this tiny one. But I liked how the 3/4 inch looked better so if you have to buy some anyway, get that size. 

I just cut the elastic the width of my leggings times two and then added a half inch or so. Thread it through the hole you left and then overlap the elastic by about an inch or inch and a half. 

Then sew the two ends of your elastic together. For this part I learned the hard way that my double needle couldn't handle the thickness of the elastic. So I switched over to a single needle to sew my elastic together as well as finish off the leggings.

11. Once you've sewn your elastic together pop it back inside and finish sewing the top seam together- just sewing the hole closed. Look how horrible mine looks. I'm kind of embarrassed to even post this picture. I have a serious fault that I am not a perfectionist at all in my sewing. But I figure I will just have this be the back of the leggings and no one will ever see it :)

 Ta-da! You're finished! Once I did one pair of leggings and figured it all out, they went so quickly, especially if you use the same color thread on all of them! Hopefully this tutorial makes sense and I explained each step enough! Good luck and happy sewing. Also I won't blame you if you start turning all your clothes (even the ones you wear) into leggings. I might have gotten carried away too.