15 Minute Upcycled Longies

My 15 minute Longie pants tute:

Step 1: Find a 100% wool sweater at the G-Dub

Step 2: Mutter and grumble about how all the sweaters are acrylic now-a-days. Ask your child "Doesn't anyone use real wool anymore?" as he stares blankly at you.

Step 3: Cut off the arms of the sweater at the shoulder seam, leaving the wrist cuffs intact. Keep the torso of the sweater for another project.

Step 4: Use a good-fitting pair of pants to determine the length and rise, then trim the crotch to shape, leaving a seam allowance. The arms don't appear to be wide enough in this pic, but the sweatpants don't stretch, and the wool pants will.


Step 5: Turn one sleeve inside out and slide the right-side-out sleeve inside the inside-out sleeve, lining up the crotch. Turning only the one outer sleeve inside out will ensure that you have right sides facing each other. Pin along the semi-circle/crotch.

Step 6: Sew along the semi-circle, then pull the leg out.

Step 7: Measure out elastic for the waist

Step 8: Fold down waist leaving a tube for elastic. Sew 1/2 way around the waist, run out of thread on your bobbin, rethread, and get distracted by House MD on tv.

Step 9: Focus! Almost done! Sew the rest of the way around the waist band leaving a small opening to thread the elastic

Step 10: Thread elastic through, sew the ends together, and finish off the seam.

Step 11: Turn right-side-out and marvel at how handy you have become!

Optional Step: Sew patches on the knees for your crawler. I didn't get there yet.
For cloth diaper longies: Lanolize these, air dry, and they will double as a cloth diaper cover and pants. Yay multi-purpose!

Action shots:

See the nice built-in cuffs? Lovely.

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Fluffy Butt

Is there anything more squeezable than a baby's squishy little butt? If I didn't have to worry about little puddles and pooh, then I would let that adorable little tush roam free! Who doesn't love to be naked? Sadly, I have to rein in the urge to let my little guy frolic in his birthday suit and cover that adorable little butt with paper, plastic, and chemicals. Oh, wait a minute, that's not right! I want to cover that precious little butt in something natural, breathable, reusable, comfortable.

I really don't get why more people dont use cloth diapers, especially with so many people trying to be more "green." I just cant justify adding 7,000 disposable diapers PER CHILD to landfills when I know how easy and how much cheaper it is to use cloth instead. I did the math the other day and it cost us roughly $100 to buy cloth diapers and covers. If we used Pampers disposables, on average we would spend that same amount in a month! Don't forget, I can re-use our cloth on a second baby, or re-sell them. Ever tried to re-sell a used disposable?

Something else that really bothers me about disposables is the whole "stay dry" feature that allows you to leave your baby in a wet diaper for hours before the baby "feels" wet. I don't really care if the baby "feels" dry, the fact is that if they are wet then there is urine trapped in that diaper next to their skin, and no air flow. It drives me crazy when I see a baby with a loaded disposable diaper sagging to their knees. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! No wonder so many babies have issues with diaper rash.

I think it's important to say that we have used disposables, and it is convenient to just chuck them in the garbage when they are used, but I can't get past the fact that 1/4 of the time we use them, Mama has the pleasure of changing the sheets and outfit in addition to the diaper. Ugh!

I will just stick with my good ol' trusty (and inexpensive) unbleached cotton Little Lions prefold seconds diapers and used OS Wonder Wraps or handmade wool soakers courtesy of Auntie Rachael. Besides, who can resist such a cute tush?