Easy Peasy Bloomers

I'm BACK!  Sorry for the long break.  It was a busy one, filled with visitors, trips out of town, and exceptional weather.  And, due the the warm front that headed our direction, it was time to break out the shorts and skirts for a few days.  My daughter loves to wear skirts in the spring and summer, and once upon a time I was near obsessive about finding my daughter some bloomers.  As any of you with girl will know, after 24 mos. they rarely sell dresses with bloomers attached.  But seeing as most kids in 2T and up still want to wear dresses to romp around in and need some diaper or undie coverage.  I couldn't find any, so i started making them.  Lots of them.  I thought, I should sell them, because I know other people have this problem.  That idea lasted for about a month, and i realized that they aren't cost effectvie item to sell.  Anyhoo. . . long story short.  Now that my daugther is getting older, I still want her to have bloomers on, but she is too old for the frilly ones i used to make.  I found a great way to reuse her old tattered end of the winter leggings to make great big girl bloomers.  I love how comfy they are, how they are snug against her leg, and how they make great summer pajama shorts too!

 

WHAT YOU NEED:

A pair of old knit leggings

(ours are usually, like these, really stained and beyond salvage for any younger kids use)

Scissors

Sewing Machine

HOW YOU DO IT:

First measure how long you want the bloomers to be, i just eyeball it, and cut the legs off of your leggings.

Set aside the top of the leggings, that now look like shorts.  With the bottom leg pieces, cut the hem off the bottom, and then cut the legs open, so they lay flat.  Cut each leg into 4 1-1/2 inch strips.

Sew 4 of the strips together, end to end.  And repeat with the other 4, so you have two long, uneven looking strips.  (when you are doing this part, if your leggings are particularly ratty (like mine were), you could use the wrong side, if they are solid color, or cut your strips around the dirty knees or any holes. 

Now your ready to make some ruffles for the bottom of the bloomers.  Take one strip and fold it in half, so the seams are inside the ruffle.  Line the raw edge of the ruffle up with the raw end of the shorts (you don't need to turn the shorts inside out, sew the ruffle to the top and then it will fold down when you are done so the raw edge is on the inside).  Start one inch from the end of the strip and start bunching and sewing.  Just make sure you are only bunching the ruffle, and not the shorts underneath.

When you are about on inch from where you started sewing, stop.  Pull the shorts away from the machine and cut off any extra fabric, leaving one inch loose on this end as well, so like the picture you now have unsewn fabric on both the start and end of the ruffle and a small space left to sew it to the shorts.  unfold those two loose ends and place the wrong sides together.  This will feel a little akward, but it's pretty quick when you get the hang of it. 

 

Sew the wrongs sides of the ruffle ends together and fold them back in line with the rest of the ruffle.

Once you have folded it back line the raw edge of the ruffle up with the raw edge of the shorts and bunch it together to fit in the space you have left, to finish it off.  Repeat all these steps on the other leg openining. 

Voila!  Easy Peasy (as my kindergartener would say) bloomers.  Here are the ones I have made this way.  It takes no time at all and you can make them in all different lengths to fit what you need!

So go out and enjoy the spring air and the playgrounds, because now you're covered ;).