Make your own baby leg & arm warmers! « Everything Your Mama Made & More

Make your own baby leg & arm warmers!

January 21, 2008

As a single mom of 3 under the age of 3 I am always looking to save money by figuring out how to make those neat pricey things that everyone has gotta have! I LOVE baby legs, but with 7.5 month old twin girls at $12-$15 a pair it adds up fast. So I came up with a tutorial to share on my blog for free with other moms just like me.

This is a quick inexpensive project that anyone can do! The socks in the tutorial below were $1 at Walmart, but Target & the dollar store are great places to get them as well. I have found them ranging from $1-$4 depending on length & where you get them. These are harder to get between easter & back to school shopping (late spring & summer months) because its just to warm so most people don’t want to buy socks!!! Here is a picture of my identical twin girls (7 months at the time) in their matching ones of course. They are a GREAT alternative to tights, making diaper changes much easier. They are warmer & much more durable & can also double as arm warmers to give a warm layered look to your favorite t-shirts for girls & boys of all ages.

Supplies…

Womens tube socks (6m-6yr) or Womens crew socks (0-18m)

Sewing machine or needle & thread

Scissors

Pins
STEP 1: First cut the socks into sections as pictured below. You will toss the heel & toe scraps, but keep the bottom of the foot. Note: for this tutorial I am working with crew socks, but the process is the same as with tube socks.

STEP 2: Take the section remaining from the foot & you want to fold it inside of itself as pictured below. You should have the nice side of the sock on the outside & inside with a fold on one end & both raw edges on the other.

STEP 3: Stick the long section of the sock inside your newly created tube. This would give you 3 raw edges on the side we are going to sew, the other side will have the folded edge & the finished edge that was originally the top of the sock. If you have a pattern such as stripes or argyle as I used you may try to get them to line up. Once you are happy with the positioning pin together. Make sure to pin just 3 layers, not all 6 or you won’t have a hole to stick your little ones leg through when you are finished.

STEP 4: Time to Sew! Set the stitch length on your sewing machine to 4 (longest stitch), this will allow the most stretch. If the long straight stitch just doesn’t stretch enough for you can also us a narrow zig zag stitch… width at 2 & length at 3. You want to stretch the pinned side over the arm of your sewing machine & sew a straight stitch all the way around. If you can’t get it to stretch over then you can use what ever method you use to sew circles normally, or you can simply stitch it together with a needle & thread the old fashion way.

STEP 5 (OPTIONAL): Your finished seam should look similar to this. For a cleaner more professional look you can use pinking sheers, a zigzag stitch, or serge the seam for extra strength & to prevent unraveling.

Then simply fold the trim down (putting the seam inside) & TADA… a baby & toddler leg warmer simply make another one & test them out on the nearest happy child!

If you have any questions, found a mistake OR would like pictures of baby leg & arm warmers YOU made with my tutorial added to the gallery then please email me so I can continue to improve the tutorial.

Entry Filed under: Babies & Kids, Sewing, Tutorials. Tags: arm, baby, babylegs, free, leg, legs, pattern, sew, Sewing, socks, toddler, tutorial, twins, warmers.

22 Comments Add your own

1. smithmott | January 22, 2008 at 12:39 am

What a great idea! I trying to think if anyone I know has a baby right now I can make these for.
2. zstitches | January 24, 2008 at 3:53 am

Cute! I really like the 60’s dress you made, too, it’s adorable.

One suggestion: Sew the seam with a medium-length and medium-width zigzag stitch so it is a stretchy seam; a straight-stitched seam could have the stitches pop if it gets stretched a bit too much putting it on the baby.
3. zstitches | January 24, 2008 at 4:01 am

(By the way, I guess if I’m posting as a stranger it would be more polite to introduce myself — I’m Zina, a mom of 4 in Utah who loves to sew. I found your website while surfing the “sewing” tag on WordPress.)
4. easytoentertain | January 28, 2008 at 11:01 pm

wooo…finally found a few pairs of socks that should work at the dollar store! will have to email you a pic of them all when i am done!
5. Crystal | February 9, 2008 at 4:26 am

Thank you so much for posting this!! We are expecting our first baby (girl) in March 2008….I’ve been looking online and these are super expensive (in my opinion)!! I just made 2 pairs and I have a whole bag full of socks that I bought today! Including the pattern that your little ones have one!! THANK YOU!!!
6. Christy | February 16, 2008 at 5:10 am

I’m so glad I found this. I’ve always wanted a pair for my son but I always thought the price was a bit expensive for me. I can’t wait to try it out! Thank you so much for posting this. Btw, your girls are adorable in their matching socks!
7. Ursula | February 18, 2008 at 4:09 pm

I just love the baby leg warmers, but like a lot of moms I just don’t want to spend the money ($10-$15) a pair for them, It’s so fun to go looking for socks now. and I am having a son next tuesday and he is going to have tons of these to match all his cloth diapers, I just can’t wait. Now I have to make a bunch for my b/g twins that are 2.
Thanks a bunch, and congrads on your super cute g/g twins.
Twin Mama from Ohio
8. Jessica | February 22, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Thanks for the tutorial with PICTURES! I had heard of “baby legs” and I saw them recently in our Target store, but $12 was way too much to spend. I have a ton of crew sock that I probably won’t wear that I could use to practice on and see what fits my little boy. I know they always have $1 socks in the $1 thing at Target, too. They usually have ones for different holidays as well!
9. Samantha | February 24, 2008 at 3:36 am

This is a great tutorial. I went out yesterday and found a bunch of cute socks for $0.89 a pair and sat down this afternoon and made 6 pair in under 30 minutes for under $5. Thanks for the lesson I will be cheking out more of your stuff.
10. LittleLovables | February 27, 2008 at 7:17 am

I just bought some expensive ones for my son. These are so cute, thanks for making the tutorial!
11. Martha | February 28, 2008 at 7:37 pm

Thank you for posting such a great tutorial! The directions were so easy to follow. I have an 8 yr old and a 2 yr old. The 8 yr old will enjoy these for arm warmers and the 2 yr old will wear them under dresses. I can’t wait to make more.
12. A-Bear | March 7, 2008 at 4:23 am

THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting the pictures. We received the cutest pair of Baby Legs as a gift for our baby, and I love them. I just googled them to see about getting more and couldn’t believe they cost $10-$15. So I’m now adding socks to my shopping list as you make this look easy enough for even me to try to make some. Thank you!! I’m so excited to try out your instructions.
13. A-Bear | March 7, 2008 at 4:49 am

Yippeeeeeee! I was tempted to run out to the store to get some socks, BUT it’s late and I’m tired and so instead I grabbed some from my drawer to see if I could do this. YAY!!! Although I only had crew socks, I cut and sewed them in no time and can’t wait to go buy some tube socks to make more of these. Thanks for the great instructions and affordable way to make these baby leg warmers. Thank you!!
14. A-Bear | March 9, 2008 at 12:27 pm

Here are my creations from yesterday. I’ve got the bug, not sure if this picture will show itself here, but I’ll try. Thanks again:

[IMG]http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg9/jedaryn02/BabyLegWarmers_1_1-1.jpg[/IMG]
15. A-Bear | March 9, 2008 at 12:54 pm

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg9/jedaryn02/BabyLegWarmers_1_1-1.jpg

hopefully that link works, but if not, I still really enjoyed making them and can’t believe how easy they were to make. Yay!!
16. Sarah | May 19, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Does anyone know of a good place to buy cute knee socks? I checked WalMart & Target but not much luck - maybe it’s a seasonal thing…
17. Bridget | May 24, 2008 at 11:39 am

Thanks for the great tutorial! I love baby legs but I’m too cheap to buy them and with baby girl #5 on the way I’m definately going to make some.
18. Amber | May 24, 2008 at 10:19 pm

I’m wondering the same thing - where do you find such great deals on cute socks? I can’t find anything for less than $7 or $8 a pair…except plain athletic socks…
19. Cathy | June 2, 2008 at 8:30 am

Thanks for the great tutorial. So easy to make…I love the “babylegs” I have made so far!!
20. haylee | June 9, 2008 at 4:42 pm

i love the legings that are rell cute and the babies
21. Katie | June 12, 2008 at 3:50 pm

I am printing this up and taking it to my first sewing class. these look soooo easy!!! Thank you so much for this tutorial
22. annaboo2006 | July 8, 2008 at 5:27 am

thanks for the tutorial - just what my son needed! Great!

Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed