Upcycle: Baby Leggings

Since I recently rediscovered my love for sewing, I needed to refresh my skills.  One of the first things I made were these baby leggings.    I took out one of my gazillion old work t-shirts. I traced around a pair of leggings that I knew fit well and began cutting.

One thing I learned was to measure repeatedly before cutting.   I looked at the pants I had cut out and thought that it looked way too big so just hacked a few inches off the top.  Big mistake!   When I tried it on my girl, it only covered half of her butt.  Oops!   So then I had to fix my error.  I cut the collar off  the shirt and used it as my waistband.  I had to make a dart on each side to make it fit. I cut a little slit in the back of the collar and threaded elastic through it, and then hand sewed the hole closed. Using the collar as the waistband worked great and even gave the pants a tag so I knew which side was the back.  In the end, the extra line gave the pants some character, so it all worked out.  

The other problem I had with these pants is that the front had a little pouch which looked a little funny. I'm not sure exactly how that happened.  Anyone have any tips on how to avoid the "front butt"?

I used the bottom of the t-shirt for my hem.  Using the hem that was already there gave it a nice finished look and saved time too.  As an added touch I cut out a heart from another shirt and appliqued it on.

If you want to make your own baby leggings, check out this tutorial.
 Super Simple Baby Leggings by Make it and Love it
Just be a little more careful then I was.  :)

Even though they didn't turn out perfect, I did learn a lot, and they make comfy play pants.  I think that's what upcycling is all about. It gives you a chance to practice without feeling bad about wasting expensive fabric if you mess up.   I was able to take an unusable t-shirt and was able to create a cute little pair of leggings.

Upcycle: Striped Shirt to Dress

I recently went through my donate pile and found this Abercrombie and Fitch striped shirt.  It was originally an off the shoulder style shirt that had grown too small for me.  I'd like to think  that the shirt got smaller, not that I got bigger.  :)  I rescued it from my pile because it reminded me of a post that I pinned from Make it  and Love it.

T-Shirt into Dress with Braided Collar by Make it Love it

I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the before.

• First, I took the shirt, cut off the bottom 2 stripes so that I could use the original hem.  I gathered it to the width I wanted it. 
•  Next, I also took off the sleeves so I could use the original hem from them also.  I changed the width of the sleeves from adult size to kid's size. 
• I then laid out the rest of the shirt and cut it to the size I wanted.  I used a dress that fit her to help me estimate. 
• I sewed the body pieces together.
• Then I attached the sleeves and the ruffle.
• Finally, I then made some darts in the front collar to make it less off the shoulder.

In the end, the only resemblance it had to the Make it and Love it dress was that it was striped.   Once I started, I realized that there was no where enough fabric to make the braided part of the collar, so I decided to make it the way I wanted instead.

I had to resew some of my seams later because I had never really sewed with knits before.  Check out this post to see some tips on knits.

I think the dress came out rather cute.   It's a fun and comfy, little play dress for my baby girl.