bike shorts from leggings...

OK...those of you with little girls out there....how many of your girls like to wear leggings??  My hand is raised.   Now, how many of those leggings get stained up and holes in them before they are outgrown??  My hand is raised again.  Little Bit likes to play, and she likes to play hard! 

One day I was going through her clothes and had three pair of leggings in the get rid of pile because 2 were badly stained and 1 had a hole in the knee.  I also realized that my daughter loves to wear skirts all year round and at school they are sitting on the floor, climbing on the playground...and to be honest who really wants to show off their underpants?!  ;)  Well instead of buying a bunch of bike shorts to wear under her skirts, I just cut the stained/hole part off the leggings and had instant bike shorts! 

Here were one pair of the stained leggings.  I started off my laying them out flat on my cutting mat.

Then I folded one leg on top of the other so they were even. 

Then I laid my straight edge above the stained part and used my rotary cutter...swoop and done!

Tada....and since they are knit you don't even have to hem!  They will roll a little bit but it just makes them even cuter.  Plus they are under a dress or skirt and hardly seen. 

It is getting cooler and leggings are starting to be worn.  Remember not to throw out those holey/stained ones....chop them off and create some bike shorts for next summer!