My daughter's newborn baby was too long for the newborn clothes - the leggings she had been given didn't reach her ankles. So I thought I'd have a go at making her some bigger leggings.
I was pretty happy with the results, will definitely make some more. To find out how to make these easy little leggings, read on.
I used the free PDF and tutorial from Andreas Notebook, in 3-6 months. (It also comes in 6-9 months and 9-12 month sizes. And there are also larger versions available on a paid for basis.) Many thanks to her for her free pattern. They fit Ada well, at 6 weeks. (But don't assume that the pattern comes up small - it's just that Ada come out long! Well, her father is 6'3".)
Andrea does give a tutorial, but I think my method is easier, especially if you are an amateur like me. As the side seam is completely straight, I think it's easier to stick the back and front pattern pieces together and just cut them as one piece. I think this is what Andrea meant to happen originally, but her instructions do contain one important mistake (you may find my comment at the bottom of her page) - so I think it's better to stick to putting the back and front pieces together in the pattern, you don't need to overlap them. Feel free to follow my instructions below for making up.
I started with an adult vest which I was very bored with. To be honest, I don't wear a lot of vests now, at my age. It was still in good condition, and still had a good stretch in it. It had a logo from a cruise line on it which I wanted to avoid, but that wasn't difficult. Here's the pattern laid on the vest. I like trousers and pants and knickers patterns which have the back crutch seam longer than the front seam, that's how we are shaped, so this worked well for me! By laying the pattern on both layers of the vest, I could cut out both legs at once.
You'll see that I had to avoid the neckline, but, as I was happy to use the existing vest hem as the hem of the leggings, it didn't matter that my pattern slightly overlapped the bottom. The very bottom would be forming the hem anyway. Here's what I was left with:
The first thing I did was to add some trim to the outside of the bottom of the legs. I had a couple of small lengths of some pale blue elastic lace which I used. This not only looked decorative, but gave a bit more 'fit', because I slightly stretched the elastic as I sewed it to the hems. As the elastic goes back to its starting shape, so it pulls in the hems bottoms a little. But they still stretch enough to get little feet in. I didn't photograph this step, but you can see the finished result of the elastic lace below. You could sew the lace elastic on at the end, but it's less fiddly to do it first. You could also add some plainer elastic if making these for a boy.
The next thing to do was sew up the inside leg seams, right sides together. I used a small zigzag so as to allow the material to stretch a little. You can probably see the zigzag stitching in the picture below. I then turned one leg the right way out, and put that leg inside the one which was still inside out. Then I sewed the crutch seam all the way from the front waist to the back waist (or vice versa - it doesn't matter!) If that sounds confusing, look at this picture! These can now be turned over the right way out, so you have two separate legs rather than one inside the other.
Finally, I made a little waistband, by turning in less than a quarter of an inch, and then about 5/8"-3/4". I sewed it round apart from a couple of inches (and also added a little ribbon tag to indicate the back). Then I threaded some soft half inch elastic to the baby's waist measurement (which from memory was about 16-17"). That was overlapped by about an inch and sewn together, then the gap in the waistband was sewn up.
All in all, these took about half an hour to make. I didn't do any fancy finishing of the seams, as this knit fabric doesn't fray.
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