Thursday, November 6, 2008

Repurposing sweaters into pants for babies/toddlers

Repurposing sweaters into pants for babies/toddlers.

The best thing about wool pants is that you don't need a diaper cover as well. Great for nighttime!

You have two choices plain sweater or gently felted sweater. I tend to use gently felted sweaters because I find they work better as diaper covers and it is when a sweater goes from functional to too small for wearing and needs to be repurposed.


Gently felted women's size small lambswool sweater




Lay sweater flat with sleeve extended.
Slice off both sleeves vertically in the same place at the armpit .
Lay sleeves flat side by side. If the sleeves taper (most do) put the taper on the inside.




Now take a pair of pants that fit your baby - not snugly - and copy the rise - measure down from the waist to the crotch and cut the inside edges of your sweater arms/legs to that point then cut down another 3 cm so you have room to do a waist band.



Turn the sleeves inside out and sew around the U of the crotch with good sides together - first a running stitch then go back and reinforce it with a zigzag on the machine or blanketstitch by hand.

Fold back the top and make a casing either for elastic or a knitchain tie (fingerknit or icord) Feed that through and you're good to go.


The final product on sad sick baby...


What to do with the remaining sweater body? Well it can repurposed into MANY things but if you need more diapercovers here's a pattern I've held onto since 1998! By Phan:

Butt Sweaters are easy to make without a pattern. Felt a recycled soft 100% wool sweater by washing in hot water and drying two times. Once your sweater is felted, cut off the sleeve cuffs (just a few inches of them if they’re really long) and the neckline (from a crewneck) and save these. Cut 2 big triangles from the front and back of the sweater, with the waistband of the sweater being one side, and the point being up near the neck. Fold the corners so the point is in the middle and meets the waistband. The waistband of the sweater will be the soaker’s waistband. Sew from the waistband down about halfway on each side. This will connect the 3 points, and leave leg holes. Sew the cuffs in the leg holes as you would any standard sleeve. Trim the leg hole seams if needed. Cut the neckband in half and sew the ends of each half together so you have two circles. Sew these into the leg holes of the second soaker.

Done!

6 comments:

skylark said...

Impressive... you're a genius!

Anonymous said...

I am so impressed too. Poor Sam...he looks sick

Anonymous said...

Maybe that wool sweater is itchy on his legs.Just thinking about wool sweaters makes me feel itchy. But the sweater pants are ingenious indeed.

Anonymous said...

Do you take blogging requests Mudmama? I'd love for you to do a post about what one might do with a brick of beeswax that one purchased on impulse.

Oma said...

Mud Mama ... you must be very busy getting the house ready for re-sale. I miss your blog posts.

Zoom: I have been collected pine cones and would, if I had that brick of beeswax, dip some into melted pools of it to make wonderful fire starters. Whee did you buy it? Is it expensive?

Anonymous said...

Whoa... That makes me wish I could sew. Too cool!