Tuesday, December 6, 2011

{Knee Warmer Tutorial}

I love boots.
I wear my one brown pair that I got from Old Navy the year before last for $4.50 at least 3 times a week.
I know.  I need more.

I saw these photos on Pinterest and fell. in. love:

Looove the sock thing.
Problem- my boots are rather snug.  I don't think I can fit socks over leggings in there.  So, I decided to make some faux socks out of old sweaters, a.k.a "Knee Warmers".

Here is how:

First, grab an old sweater.  We are going to take advantage of those already-sewn side seams and finished edges.  It's practically impossible to "hem" cable knit. 

I already cut off the sleeves and neck
Measure your knee area and subtract a few inches- the sweater material is going to stretch.  My legs/knees were about 13 inches, so I cut my warmers to be 10 inches in width (5 shown in the picture because the sweater is folded in half).  Cut two total, one out of each side edge of the sweater:


In order to have nice, finished edges on the inside of your warmers, we are going to sew french seams.
Don't freak out.  They are super easy.  With wrong sides together (I know, that seems wrong- it's not), sew a 1/4in seam down the side (I serged it).

Flip them inside out and, along that same side, sew a 3/8 in (or larger) seam.  This will "encase" that previous seam.

Flip right side out again.  Tada! 

Now, all we need to do is finished that bottom edge we cut (the other edge should have been the already-finished edge of the sweater).  I serged them (and used tan thread so you can see), but you can zig zag them.



Sweet!  Put them on right before boots, leave the zig zagged edge down in your boot, like this:

I look like I have the chubbiest legs ever!  Hmmm... need to work harder on that!

Loooooove it, even though it looks totally homeless under neath.  Haha.

4 comments:

  1. Ha! I love that you said it looks totally homeless underneath! One day recently my sister saw me and complimented my outfit (I was wearing tall socks that stuck out of my tall boots over my leggings like this. Then I took off the boots awhile later and she felt the need to mention that what looked great with the boots on looked somewhat less than great once the boots were off! She had a point. :) Great idea!

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  2. ummm love. LOVE LOVE LOVE. now I just wish I had an old sweater. I am kinda bad about not keeping ANYTHING once I know I am done wearing it. BOOO...

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  3. a great idea and a lovely blog

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  4. I'm wondering if I can just cut the feet off DH's old socks, zigzag the cut edge and wear underneath my boot-cut jeans b/c my legs are always cold with 1 layer of denim and the wind coming up the wide legs?

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