So it's about time that I finished another t-shirt project from my pile of 20 T-shirts.
I am not sure when it occurred to me to sew them together as leggings but this striped pattern emerged and before you know it I was humming "We're off to see the Wizard", dreaming of flying monkey's and poppy's.
I really should have taken this picture with red shoes :-)
I started with just the sleeves of these two men's t-shirts.
Step 1 - Starting at the bottom of the sleeve I cut two inch wide strips plus seam allowances.
Step 2 - You can see how they fit together pretty well as I worked my way up each sleeve alternating colors. I didn't bother to make them match perfectly since they stretch but if I did it again I would make the pieces fit together better before sewing them together.
Step 3 - I decided to hand bast them together with the seams to the outside.
Step 4 - Then they were machine sewn and the seams were top stitched to hold them open and flat. For along time they laid around in this semi finished leg warmer stage while I pondered how to finish them.
And then one day......
I found these at the thrift store. They matched the darker grey I was using almost perfectly and they were way too small for me to wear as gauchos but perfect to make the top of my leggings complete.
Step 5 - To measure the length I needed to cut of the gauchos I started with a black pare of leggings from my closet and lined up the bottom hem with my striped leg warmers and then measured the inseam that was left.
Step 6 - Then I made that same measurement on the gauchos.
Step 7- I used an L square to mark my cutting line and then repeated the process on the other leg.
Step 8 - As you can see the gauchos that were now shorts did not match up to the leggings very well. So I needed to adjust the out seam.
Step 9 - With the shorts turned wrong side out I used a curved ruler to marked the the bottom to match the size of the legging and then drew a smooth curve back to the side seam. Machine sewed and trimmed the seams.
Step 10 - With wrong sides together I sewed the leggings to the shorts, stitched down the seams and the project was complete.
You can see what I mean about matching the size of the stripes better because my leggings are a little crinkly.
But they don't look too bad once you have them on.
Happy Crafting
:-)
