Frugal Upcycled Leg Warmers

Many thanks for participating in this little mystery!

Those of you who emailed me about the upcycle project all said you did not know, but were curious to find out.

Noel, who left a comment here on the blog, had a lot of guesses as to what I created from a sweater that I purchased for the closures for another project (and there was a "hint" in a picture of Ava from a few days ago)... Leg Warmers!

 

 

Making leg warmers from the sleeves of sweaters is very easy. Without looking a process up online, I was able to think of three ways to approach the project.  The picture below shows Ava wearing her leg warmers when we were at Lake Erie last Sunday, which, believe me, was a wickedly cold day. Her leg warmers sure came in handy during the times we were out of the car.
 

 

 



 

Travel the steps that I took to make Ava's leg warmers with me.

 

 



 1. Cut off sleeve at the under arm junction. Place the cut sleeve on the other sleeve to get them both the same size. The cut edge is the top of the leg warmer and the cuff of the sleeve is the ankle. Since it is already finished off, all we have to work on is the top. Sweet!

 

2. If the knit seems like it will ravel easy,  use a zigzag stitch or finish the edges with an overlock machine.



 

3. I used yarn to finish the top edge. Can you believe that I had just *1* skein of yarn that matched up exactly? How cool is that? :)



 

 

 

4. Using a crochet hook and going into the fabric about 1/4 inch, I made a foundation row of single crochet stitches.

 

5. Next I crocheted a simple shell pattern by slip-stitching the first and last single crochet together, then single crocheted the next stitch, skip a stitch, 5 double crochet in the next single crochet, skip a stitch, single crochet in next stitch, skip a stitch, 5 double crochet in the next stitch and so forth until I came to the end. I could have driven myself crazy and done the math as to how many single crochets I needed in the foundation row, but I went on faith that it would work out, which it pretty much did. I had to fudge the stitches a bit on the last shell, but since this is for a kid wear during play and since I began in the inside seam, it doesn't show up.

 

 

6. To keep the leg warmers up, I had several options. I chose to sew a row of elastic near the top. If I were to do this again, I would move the elastic down a bit and maybe sew on two rows. If you use this method, remember that elastic stretches when it is sewn directly on a garment, so make it a bit smaller.I also found the center of the leg warmer and matched it with the center of the elastic to make sure it was sewn on evenly. You have to go slow on this step and it helps tremendously to set your machine on "needle down" if it is available.

 

7. At this point, the leg warmer is functional and you could be done. But why don't we add a fun element? After all, playing outside is all about having winter fun :)   For Ava's leg warmers, I crocheted a cord by making a chain as long as I thought would look nice tied into a bow with enough length left over for tassels. I made the tassels by wrapping yarn around a business card (mine, of course!).  When the tassel (or pom-pom if you decide to make it fuller) is done, slip a length of yarn inside it using a darning needle, pull the loops together and tie off. Then slip your scissors along the top of the loops and cut. At this point you may want to shape up the tassel or pompom by giving it a "hair cut" :)
 

 

 8.Using a darning needle or crochet hook, bring one of the ends that you used to tie off the tassel through the last stitch on the cord. Then tie off again and trim, if necessary. I used a needle and regular thread to sew the cord to the outside edge of the leg warmer.




9. This picture depicts beginning and end product.

 

 

There are several other ways that this project could be created. for instance, on the pair of leg warmers that I made for myself from a man's wool sweater. Instead of sewing the elastic directly on the leg warmer, I folded the top of the leg warmer over and made a casing for the elastic. Since this would have put the back of the shell edge on the front, I crocheted it with wrong side facing.

 

 

I love wearing leg warmers because they are light weight and easy to put on and off. In most retail stores the price starts at 10 bucks (if they are on sale) or more, usually they are around 15 to 25 dollars. I paid $3.00 for the sweater that I made Ava's leg warmers from, and I still have sweater fabric to make other projects, PLUS the closures for the Big Project that I am making that includes the embroidered skirt. I am hoping to make that project this week. Meanwhile, keep guessing as to what it is!

 

 

Marcheta *frugalista