T-shirts to Baby Pants

I saw this tutorial for turning a long-sleeved shirt into leggings from Make It and Love It (one of my favorite crafty blogs as far as user-friendly, stuff-I-would-actually-make-and-use tutorials goes) and really wanted to make some for the big O. Unfortunately, I got rid of all the extra clothes we never wore a few months ago, so I went to DI and picked up some fun t-shirts for cheap. (I bought small girls' shirts to use instead of adult-sized shirts since I wanted the sleeves to fit her little baby legs.) I really had no idea what I was doing, but I decided to just take the plunge.

First off, I decided I'd save that tutorial idea for a few minutes and try making this cute little girl's t-shirt into a one-piece suit for the big O. Things were going fairly well until I messed up on the neckline/ sleeves and, well, basically ruined it.

This picture was taken after I had cut it apart. It started out as one piece.

Can you see how teeny tiny those sleeves got? The only thing in the house I could find that could actually wear this shirt was one of Bryan's old money stuffed animals.
(It is now quite the stylish monkey, if I do say so myself.)

So, like I said, I cut the shirt and pants apart and decided to just make O a cute little pair of pants. To do that I sewed a scrap of elastic right to the top edge of the pants.

Only problem is: there's not much room for her bum.

Still, I think they look pretty stylin' as leggings and under a dress, who's ever going to know?
(Ya know, except for everyone reading my blog.)


Next, I decided I'd actually follow those great instructions I found.
This attempt turned out much better.

Except that I overestimated on how long the pant legs should be. Oops!

I was going to cut them off and make them the right length, but then I decided that they were pretty cute all scrunched up like this and they'd keep her a lot warmer this way too. And I'm doing everything I can to keep this little girl warm. It already started snowing yesterday!

Oh, and when I was talking to my friend this evening she mentioned this post and how she wanted to make some pants for her little one who's coming soon and I told her a secret that I forgot to share with the rest of you. Instead of using regular elastic in this pair of pants I used old hair elastics. My hair is super thick, so I am always over-stretching my hair elastics. Instead of throwing them away, I've been saving them with the idea that I'd find a use for them sooner or later. Use found! To make the elastic band for O's pants I cut two stretched-out hair elastics together by going over them a ton of times (I've found this is easiest with a zig-zag stitch). Then I threaded the elastic through the pants, sewed the other ends of the hair elastics together the same way, and then finished sewing up the pants. It works great! I was a little worried at first that it might not be so comfortable, but then I remembered- duh!- she wear's diapers where the elastic is. What does she care? She doesn't. Happy recycling!

P.S. I made these pants a week or so ago and the big O wears them all the time. I've completely replaced her little baby tights with these since they're so much warmer. Success!