These are one of my favorite sewing projects because they’re quick, easy enough for the newest of beginners & don’t require going to a fabric store. All you’ll need are a pair of women’s socks & in less than 10 minutes you’ll have a pair stylish legwarmers for your little one. GOSH I love instant gratification!
(side notes- 1, you can click on any photo to enlarge it & 2, this is by no means an original idea of mine, there are TONS of sock to legwarmer tutorials floating around but this is my way)
It really REALLLY is that easy, the only part that might trip you up at first is to make sure you’re not stretching the sock while you stitch around the cuff. Just be aware and make an effort not to pull it as your stitching. Oh, also using a small zigzag stitch seems to work best since it has a bit of give to it.
Have fun!
I first tried some last week. Love to make these now. And funny…my problem was stretching while stitching. Practice makes perfect. Super cute and fun to make!
I'm just amazed at what cool socks you have!
A great tutorial – thanks! I paid $14 for my son's ones a while back… now I can make a bunch and give them away as baby gifts for a fraction of the cost!
They look so simple. My little one loves to run around in her diaper so I think I need to make some now that it is getting cold.
I can never find any cool socks at walmart 🙁
Looked in the girls dept, womens dept..
Will have to look again tomorrow ..want to make some !
This might be a dumb question but if your sock has a directional print then when you put the cuff on how do you keep the print from being upside down?
three pairs of socks currently in the sewing queue awaiting their turn! Thanks!
Thank you. This makes it SO simple! I can't wait to make some for my little girl.
Felicia, that's a great question and one I had to learn the hard way!
You're right, a print that can only go in one direction will not work in the tutorial I gave but there is something you can do…
Take a look at the skull socks that are all the way on the right of the photo. Notice that the top of those are actually the cuff that's already on the socks. In the tutorial that would've been the bottom of the legwarmers but to keep the print right side up I made that the top and then made the bottom cuff much smaller than what I did in the tutorial. Make sense? It's so hard to type this without a visual, I hope it makes sense.
The only bad thing is you can't pull them up above the knee unless your little had pencil legs. They definitley wouldn't make it over Sam's chunkster thighs! But they are good for below the knee legwarmers.
Hope that helps!
That totally makes sense, I was just trying to figure out if I was seeing it wrong. My littles still has bird legs but I keep hoping she will get some meat on her thighs.
I absolutely love your blog. I really appreciate how honest you are about dealing with the ups and downs of being a mom. I just had my second 4 months ago and it's been a rough road. I feel like there are all these super perfect moms out there writing…or at least that's what they want you to believe 🙂 And you are really someone I can identify with.
I was listening to your husband for the last year or 2 until until I became a stay at homer and had no idea this was your blog until I was mid way thru reading the whole thing! Baby Sam is gorgeous!
Crazy question – about how many inches are the baby legs in full? Thanks!!!
Hmm, well they're really whatever length the socks are. I usually use knee highs but she does have a few pairs that are made a of crew length socks too! Those are just better for scrunching down verses the full up to the knee length that kneehighs make. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm babbling nonsense…
I just had a baby and she was born with a club foot. To fix it the doctors use the Ponseti method which requires a lot of casts. I needed something for her legs…. and cant afford to spend 10 dollars a pop on leg warmers. Thank you for this DYI project. You saved my hide!!!! What a blessing this is.
Hi! Just wanted to say that I love your blog & I especially like this project for Easter. I’ve featured you on my blog here:
http://delicious-ambiguity-nennyk.blogspot.com/2010/03/easter-gift-ideas-for-toddlers.html
I hope you’ll stop by & check out my blog. You can get my new featured button on the top left hand side of my blog. I also have a McLinky party called Tot Tuesdays if you'd like to join.
Cheers, Jenn
I finally got around to making these baby legs and they turned out sooo cute. I just wanted to say thanks for the tutorial and I linked you up to my blog http://thetotis.blogspot.com so some other bloggers could use your tutorial. Good luck with your second pregnancy! I can't wait to see what you make for baby #2!
Sooo cute, thanks for this great tutorial. I just finished my first pair of leg warmers and they look great!!! I'll be running to Target tomorrow for some more knee highs.
Thanks again, Aleese
Target has great socks now for about $2. I made some for a birthday present today about 45 min before we left. So easy. I used a zig-zag/straight combo stitch that gave some stretch but still left a nice seam. Love this idea!
I have been wanting to try making leg warmers from socks for such a long time–has I known how truely easy it was I would have done it a long time ago! Thanks for the super easy-to-follow tutorial. Theses will be great to wear under her Halloween costume! Now if only I had read the part about not stretching out the sock as I sew BEFORE I sewed…
⊰♥⊱ ⊰♥⊱ Very smart! I love this. I'm going to do this until my fingers are sore! Thanks for sharing the tut. ⊰♥⊱ ⊰♥⊱
I just made 2 pairs tonight…so cute! However, my husband won't allow my little guy wear them…can't figure that one out! Oh well, friends, neices, cousins will benefit from his loss!
So cute! I have 2 boys, and 1 in 8 months old and just starting to crawl….and we just moved into a house with wood floors. I was thinking of getting some legwarmers for him because his little knees get so red! I would love to see if this would work for him 🙂
im super new to sewing im talking pillow case new but my friend is having a baby soon and i love the babylegs my daughter still wears them @3 soo i was wondering can i use my reg thread or do i need stretchy thread?
I love these! just finished my first pair…and they are cute, cute, CUTE!
I did however, have a problem with the fabric rolling and stretching while I was sewing them. Any ideas on how to make them not do that? I’m very new to this whole sewing thing and any ideas are welcomed.
Thanks for the great tutorial!!!
I have a baby coming in November and it is extremely snowy and cold during that month where I’m from. I want to make sure that these would fit a brand new infant. Would I need to get something different than women’s socks, or do you think that Women’s socks would fit a newborn snug enough?
I’m so glad you asked! No, unless your newborn has mega monster thighs they will fall right down. A friend of mine had a teeny baby girl & I found that if I made the legwarmers from girl’s (or young boys) department socks (longer ones, not anklets) they were small enough for newborn legs. Let me know how it works out, congrats on your little snow baby!