Easy Upcycled Felted Cashmere Baby Legwarmers

Can I tell you how much I love wool felt? More specifically, I love felting wool sweaters that I find at thrift stores. I love buying them, felting them, and then shoving them all into this big bag that I have set aside for my ever growing collection of felted wool thrift store sweaters. You could say I am a collector of felted wool and cashmere thrift store sweaters. But the collection is becoming unwieldy and my house, for some reason, isn't getting any bigger. So I need to start making some stuff with these sweaters. Last spring, I made a bunch of felted wool bunnies as baby gifts for friends. I opened the bag last night with plans to make another, for another new babe I know, but instead I decided to try something else. I picked out the softest, pinkest, cashmeriest sweater of the bunch, and made myself some baby legwarmers. Well, they're not for me, actually. They're for this baby called Elodie. But anyway. It was so easy to do, I almost feel like you can figure it out without me telling you how. But, okay, I will.

First I cut the sleeves of of the sweater. After I cut out the seam the fabric was about 6.5" wide. The cuffs will be the ankle cuffs of the leg warmers. I cut the length to 9". These may be a little long for infants under a year, but they'll grown into them in no time.

Next I cut the seam out of the sleeve, turned the sleeve inside out, and pinned the edges. Then I sewed each one with a quarter(ish) of an inch seam allowance.

Finally, I turned the raw edges down, pinned them into place, and sewed a hem.

I turned them right side out, et Voila! These things are about 3 1/2" across lying flat, (though the cashmere still has plenty of stretch to it) and are intended as size 6-12 months. Probably they'll last a lot longer than that, since they have lots of room to grow in the length in particular.

UPDATE 11/20/11
I had to add this picture of Elodie modeling her new leg warmers. Super adorable!