Leg warmers are an interesting accessory





Leg and leg warmers are quick and inexpensive. In addition, you will not buy "consumer goods", like everyone else, but show your individuality and imagination in this wardrobe item. Is this part of the toilet really necessary, and is it possible to do it yourself? Fans of creating beautiful and original things this article will be especially useful.

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What are leggings and what are they with?

Leg warmers are an interesting accessory of women's clothing for the street. It appeared back in the 19th century, was sewn from leather or cloth, worn over shoes. A variety of leggings are gaiters (side buttons). For a long time, this type of clothing was most often used by athletes, dancers, travelers - he warmed his leg muscles, which is useful for stretch marks and other physical exertion. Today leggings are the number one attribute in aerobics, football, ballet and even tourism.

At the end of the twentieth century, leggings became a popular style element in casual street wear. They do not go out of fashion to this day. You can wear them with shoes, ankle boots, ankle boots, sports shoes. You can wear them on tights, over jeans or sweatpants. Leg warmers can be very diverse: knitted and crocheted, plain and colorful, elegant and sporty.

Any fashionista needs to have at least a couple in her wardrobe. Of course, it is not difficult to buy leg warmers on your hands or feet, but it is better to try to do them yourself. Is it so hard? About all the basic and simplest ways to create such an element of a fashionable bow, we will describe below.

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How to make leggings quickly and without needles?

How to make your own leggings if you do not have knitting skills? The fastest and cheapest way to get homemade leggings, avoiding knitting, is to cut off the sleeves of an old sweater. To do this, we take unnecessary knitted clothes with sleeves, and then simply cut off these sleeves.

But, of course, a sweater (sweater or other) should have suitable sleeves: they should be straight, tight knit. Any flashlights, flared models, loose openwork knitting will not work for us.

Important! It is very good if these sleeves have cuffs in the form of an elastic band. Do not forget to inspect the old sweater for holes from the moth.

Procedure:

1. To get started, decide what length you need. To do this, measure the distance from the popliteal fossa to the bottom of the lower leg with a centimeter.
2. Now lay this length on the sleeve, not forgetting to add a couple of centimeters to the hem.
3. Lay the sweater on a table or other flat surface, and then with the tailor's scissors evenly, carefully cut the sleeve parallel to the cuff.

Thus, you have almost ready-made leg warmers in your hands. It remains only to process the edges: you need to make sure that the loops do not open, and the leggings stay on your foot and do not slip. There are several ways to do this.

The method of processing edges No. 1:

1. On a sewing machine, you should sew a hem with a zigzag stitch. She will not pull it off and will not let the loops open. Select the threads to match the knitwear.
2. To prevent your leggings from slipping while walking, insert an elastic band. It can be a linen gum or a Hungarian.
3. Bend the edge 1.5-2 cm, lay a seam. Insert the elastic band inside this crease, sew the ends together. It is necessary if you like to wear leggings so that they fit your leg tightly.
4. If a tight fixation is not needed, then you can skip the gum thread on top. These are sold in sewing goods and come in different colors and thicknesses. It will be necessary to lay it in 1-2 rows so that the top of the product shrinks a little. Such an elastic band will be enough to wear leg warmers in an assembled form, a sort of accordion.

Important! Similarly, you can process the lower edge, if there was no elastic band.

The method of processing edges No. 2:

1. You can, as in the first case, process the edge with a zigzag line, but you do not need to twist it.
2. In order to keep the leggings on, you need to lay a decorative lace 1-2 cm from the top. You will pull it as far as necessary and tie it with a bow.
3. If you can, then you can crochet the edge of the leggings. To do this, select the yarn of the desired color, knit 2-3 rows in a circle with a half-column.
4. You can add a rubber band to the yarn, then the top of the product will be better fixed on the leg.
5. If you want to add romanticism to leggings, you can tie a lapel in the form of a wavy frill.

Important! If you turned sleeves from a sweater of thin elastic knitting into leggings, then you don’t need to do an elastic band, otherwise you will get a noticeable seal. In this case, it is enough to process the edge with a zigzag or overlock.

You can also decorate leggings with something: sew a series of buttons, embroider a pattern with woolen threads, add rhinestones, applique, add tassels or pompoms to the ties.

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Sewing a leg warmer

Leg warmers can also be sewn. For winter, you can take faux fur, fleece, wool knitwear, for spring-autumn, take a thinner fabric. It is desirable that it was not loose and easy to use.

Important! Usually a 1 meter cut is enough for the leggings.

Procedure:

• First, take measurements of the legs: measure the lower leg, the widest part of the calf and the circumference of the leg under the knee.
• Now measure the length from the popliteal fossa to the middle of the calf, from this place to the bottom of the lower leg.
• Cut out a rectangle from the fabric: the length should be equal to the length of the leg from the knee to the bone, and the width should be equal to the circumference of the calf, plus do not forget to add 1.5 cm to the seams.
• In order for this blank to take the form of a leg, you need to sew on elastic bands. Sew the pieces of linen under the knee, in the middle and on the lower leg.

Important! Remember to stretch the elastic while sewing.

• Now it remains only to sew the edges, trim the excess and, perhaps, decorate new leggings with something.

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DIY knitting needles

Knitted needles with knitting needles do not take much time, especially if the knitting is done without a complex pattern. Just do it in a day or two. This is much easier than knitting socks - there is no need to think about the toe and heel.

Preparation for work:

• Yarn for this wardrobe item will need up to 300 grams. Choose color, composition and thickness to your taste.

Important! From a thicker thread, the product knits faster, with a thin yarn, sit at work a little longer.

• Seamless leggings are knitted on five knitting needles, and those that need to be sewn on two.

Important! Choose the number of knitting needles according to the thickness of the yarn. Usually the manufacturer recommends the number of knitting needles on the label of a skein of thread.

• In order to get the correct number of loops, tie a small rectangle, for example, 5x3 cm, and calculate how many loops are in 1 cm.
• Knit leggings usually from top to bottom, so measure the circumference of the leg under the knee, multiply the resulting length by the number of loops in one centimeter.

Important! Calculations are carried out similarly to the following example: in 1 cm of knitting - 3 loops, and leg circumference - 35 cm. Multiply 3x35 and get 105 loops. If you will knit some patterns, then usually the knitting pattern indicates which number should be a multiple of the number of loops. So you can adjust it.

• For knitting a leggings, choose patterns in which the product will be elastic, keep its shape well, that is, loose knitting and lace will not work.

In knitting magazines, on needlewoman’s sites, you can find a lot of patterns with patterns (rhombuses, braids) and choose what you like, and we will offer a couple of options as an example - simpler and more complicated.

Garter & Hosiery

This is the easiest way to tie your leggings with your own hands if you are still new to this useful business. For these primitive patterns, you only need to be able to knit the front and back loops.

Stockinet:

• Dial the desired number of loops (how to calculate - described above).
• Now decide whether your future leggings will be seamless or with a seam:
  1. In the first case, you need to equally distribute the loops on four knitting needles. Accordingly - the number of loops typed should be a multiple of four.
  2. In the second, arm yourself with a pair of knitting needles of the right size, and the number of loops should be a multiple of two.
• You can tie the gum first. It will help the leggings to grasp the leg more tightly and prevent them from sliding down (with hosiery, the edge of the product can curl into a flagellum). It can be 3-5 cm. To do this, alternately knit 1 facial loop and one wrong loop. After that, proceed to stocking.

Important! This knitting is one-sided, that is, one side will be connected by the front surface, and the other side will be seamy.

• In order for the leggings to acquire the desired shape, you need to add loops to the level of the middle of the calf. This is done at the beginning and at the end of the row (for 2 knitting needles) or through the row (for 5 knitting needles).
• When you pass the widest place in knitting, begin to decrease the number of loops in the reverse order.
• At the end of knitting, when you reach the desired length, you can simply close the loops, or you can also tie a small elastic band (depending on how you like to wear them).
• If you knit on 2 knitting needles, sew the product.

Garter stitch

This pattern is dense and holds its shape well. It is two-sided, since it looks the same on both sides:

• To begin, we collect the desired number of loops.

Important! With garter stitching, the edge does not twist into the roller. So you can not knit an elastic band, but simply add elastic yarn-elastic to the yarn and so knit several upper rows, but you can leave it for all knitting.

• The shawl pattern is simple: all the loops of each row are knitted with facial ones.
• As in the first case, until the middle of the calf we add loops at the beginning and at the end of the row, and then decrease in the reverse order, passing the widest place.

Spit Pattern

Such a pattern will make the leggings more elegant, but the level of complexity of knitting is higher. For beginners, it will be difficult at first, but after a dozen rows you will remember the pattern and things will go faster. The following is an example with simple narrow braids:

1. To begin, dial the loops and knit an elastic band of the desired length.
2. Now you need to place the pattern correctly. To do this, find the middle of knitting and count 8 loops on both sides. Mark the edges with knots or markers (small plastic or metal rings, pins that mark the right places in the knitting). In addition, you will need an extra spoke.
3. Scheme:
   • 1st row - 4 and. p. (purl loops), 8 l. (facial) then 4 and. P.;
   • 2nd row (and all the rest are even) - according to the drawing;
   • 3rd row - 4 and. n., 4 l. p. remove on an additional knitting needle and move forward, knit 4 liters. item and 4 l. item with an extra knitting needle, then 4 and. P.;
   • 5th and 7th rows - according to the drawing;
   • 9th row - repeat the scheme of the 3rd row.
4. Knit the last row of faces and close, or you can knit a small elastic band.
5. To decorate, we offer to decorate the braids with beads (sew them into the “dimples” between the weaves). Pearl beads will look beautiful and will suit any clothes and shoes.

Important! If you are good at knitting needles, you can knit leggings with color patterns. For the cold season, Scandinavian (Norwegian) ornaments are perfect. The classic version is black and white leggings with a snowflake pattern. You can easily find the scheme on the Internet.

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What yarn is better to knit leggings with knitting needles?

Now in stores there is such a variety of yarn that just your eyes run up.What yarn is better to choose? There are several recommendations, listening to which you can facilitate your choice.

• For the choice of color, tips will definitely be inappropriate - this is for everyone to decide, taking into account their preferences and clothing style. The only thing to note is that if you knit leggings with a color pattern, then pick up hanks of the same manufacturer, one thickness, one series. Then the pattern will be uniform.
• The thickness of the yarn can also be different:
  1. For winter leggings, choose a thicker thread, with mohair, Angora wool.
  2. For fall and spring, take thinner.
• If you knit for children or you yourself react negatively to woolen products, get special children's yarn. It is pleasant to the body and has a wide variety of shades.
• To knit a warmer, the yarn must be elastic, otherwise it will not fit well, the product will slide down formlessly.

Important! Woolen thread is more elastic than cotton.

Best yarn

There are a lot of manufacturers of yarn:

• Especially popular are Turkish firms Alize, Yarn Art, Gazzal and others. They are good in quality and inexpensive in price.
• European manufacturers will be more expensive, but quality will be higher.
• Not the best option would be Chinese yarn of an inexpensive segment - although it is elastic, it uses a lot of synthetics, and the dye can fade.

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Stock footage

Undoubtedly, this garment is quite interesting and practical, so it will be useful for everyone to have at least a couple in their closet. If you could not find a suitable option among the assortment offered by the stores, then you can always make the right model yourself. Leg warmers, knitted with their own needles, look spectacular and beautiful, will ideally sit on your legs or arms. If you do not want to toil with knitting needles, then do a simplified action - use an old sweater, as described above. With great confidence, you can argue that you will like this part of the wardrobe, and you will again and again experiment with mating and new ideas regarding its creation.