This here is a tutorial for leg warmers influenced by spats. I made these up for my partner in the Mini 13 Days of Halloween swap. Since I had to make 2 (as she has 2 feet) I snapped photos of what I did for the 1st one so I wouldn’t forget when I got to the 2nd one. Since I had the pics, I figured why not make a photo tutorial?
So, on to business.
You’ll need fabric, interfacing, eyelets (small grommets) and inserting supplies, ribbon/something for laces as well as the usual measuring tape, pins, etc.
First off, decide how tall you want your creation. Measure from where it will hit down to where the bottom will be. Then measure around your leg where the top will be. If you’re going to adjust where they’ll hit once they’re done (like if you want the top of your foot covered differently depending on if you’re wearing heels or flats) take both measurements.
These directions use a 1/4 inch seam allowance.
Add seam allowances to the top and bottom of the height measurement but SUBTRACT about 1/2 inch from the smallest width measurement and make a pattern piece. It will be a rectangle or square. Mark “cut 4” on it and label it “body”. Don’t worry, you won’t be peeking out and your circulation won’t be cut off. More on that in a sec.
Next, make another pattern piece that is the same height as the previous one but 2 inches wide. Mark it “cut 4” and label it “strip”.
Compare your smallest width measurement with the largest. Subtract to find the difference. Make 1 more pattern piece that is about 2” shorter in height and double PLUS about 3 inches the difference in width. If you aren’t planning on adjusting the height make this piece about 6-7 inches wide. Mark “cut 2” and label it “flap”. This piece is like the tongue on your shoe. It fills in the gap under the laces between the sides of the body so you won’t peek out and your circulation won’t be cut off.
Now pick out your fabric and chop out your pieces! I used a knit but wovens are better. Splatter painting the black fabric with silver is optional
Take your flap piece and fold it in half so you keep the height but halve the width. Sew up the edges but leave an opening in the height edge. Turn right-side out:
Take your strip pieces and interface. Then finish 1 height length side on each with a narrow hem, serge, or other finishing method. If you’re using knit, you don’t have to do this but I wanted the finished look:
Next, take your flap and pin it to the finished side of 1 of the strips so the flap is against the right (non-interfaced) side of the strip. Pin it about 1 inch from the top, so the bottom has more open space. Sew, making sure the opening in the flap gets closed:
Lay the flap+side piece to 1 of the body pieces (this will be the lining) so the interfacing is against the right side of the fabric. You will need to flip the flap away from the edge:
Lay the other strip to the other side of the body lining piece, also matching raw edges so the interfacing side is against the right side of the fabric. Lay the right side of the remaining body piece on top of the pieces and pin around edges:
Sew, leaving an opening to turn right side out after trimming corners. Slip-stitch opening closed.
Put in your eyelets! I spaced mine about 2” apart...
on both sides:
Now make the other one and lace em up! You can lace all the way from top to bottom or leave the bottom one free to cover more foot.
If you’re very nervous they won’t fit your swap partner you can leave the strings extra-long so she can wrap them around
Hope this can be of use to someone!
