Footed Jammies fixed

My family has been incredibly blessed. We have friends and family that take the cake on generosity. When I found out that the twins I was pregnant with were both boys we were a little shocked. I figured one of the was bound to be a girl. Nope. Such was not the case. LOL. So those 15 tubs of clothing I had socked away from my daughter were pretty much useless to me. I went through it and pulled all the gender neutral stuff, but that was maybe 1% of everything that I had saved. Probably less then that actually. So with the news of the babies being boys, I divvied up the clothes and passed them down to other people who were having baby girls or had larger little girls that the clothes fit. And in came all the goodies from the friends and family that had little boys!! Oh my gosh it was almost overwhelming! We received so much and we have been eternally grateful for it. The cost of formula alone for these two was a kick in the balls. It hurt the pocketbook that much. (And before anyone jumps on the "why didn't you breastfeed?" bandwagon. I did. I tried. my udders didn't make enough for even 1 baby, let alone two little piggies.) Just recently my boys have started to walk and before that I didn't think much of it. The feet of those awesome jammies. Well they weren't using the feet much since they were not walking but now that they are.....They need traction! Ha. On the carpet they are fine but on tile or laminate flooring.....its like watching a deer skate across a pond in winter. So upon inspection of some of the hand me down pajamas, in the larger sizes, the bottoms of the feet are all worn out, with holes, or the grippy stuff missing.

Being who I am I decided to fix that. There is nothing wrong with the jammies. And who likes having their toe go through a hole? No one. So this is a tutorial for replacing the bottom of the footed pajamas :-) I hope someone out there finds it useful, and can salvage used and loved jammies :-)

Now on with the show.....er....SEW!

Here is what you will need.
Jammies with holy feet.
No slip grippy fabric 1/4 yard (you will probably find it in the utility fabric section)
Sewing machine
Thread (Does not have to be color coordinated with the clothing)
Scissors (an itty bitty pair and a large pair for cutting fabric)
Seam Ripper
Pins (careful you don't poke yourself. I always seem to)
Paper (not pictured)
Pen (Not pictured)

Here is a close up of the grippy fabric I used

Step 1.)
Turn your jammies wrong side out. You need to be able to get to the raw edge and seam.

Step 2.)
Slide one edge of your tiny scissors between the thread and the fabric and begin to snip the THREAD. (DO NOT CUT THE FABRIC) You can use your seam ripper for this but I found the scissors to be easiest.

Step 3.)
Once you have clipped the threads all the way around the foot, spread the edges of the fabric appart. You will see stitches about 1/4 inch in. Use your seam ripper and separate the two pieces of fabric. The toughest part of this will be where the manufacture backed stitched to lock the threads in place. The stitches are super tight and can be hard to get your seam ripper under. Just take your time and you will be able to get them all out.

Just showing where they backstitched to lock the stitches. You will usually see it on the heel of foot.

Step 4.) Once you have the bottom separated from the pajamas, lay it out flat on a piece of paper and trace around it. Make sure to lay it out as flat as you can.

Step 5.) now cut out your pattern piece. When I did this it looked like the heel was slightly wider then the toe. But I don't think it was, which I realized afterwards. You can mark the heel on the pattern if you want.

Step 6.) Trace your pattern onto the back of the grippy fabric.

Step 7.) Now pin the grippy fabric to your jammies (Right sides together)! Make sure to do both feet. Try not to poke yourself. I always seem to!

Step 8.) Now to sew! Sew around the foot with a 1/4 seam allowance. Take your pins out before your needle goes over them. If the needle strikes the pin, then it can bend or even break.

Step 9.) Once you have done the first line of stitches you are going to do a zig-zag stitch. This will help hold everything together. Once you have done the zig-zag stitch do another row of straight stitches ( about a 1/8 inch seam allowance. You want the two rows of straight stitches to right on the edge of the zig zags. If you have a surger you could just surge it after the first set of straight stitches and be done. But I do not have one so this was my best option. 

Step 10.) Before you turn the feet right side out make sure you cut all loose threads. You do not want these to wrap around your kiddos toes! You have been warned.

And here are the new feet! My lil man was actually wearing these today. He had great traction on our slippery floors. I hope this tutorial will help out anyone who has this kind of hand me down issue. I know for myself it has kept a few sets of pajamas in circulation that otherwise may have been thrown out, or never worn.

More then One use!

If you have young kids, and I mean like crawling and attempting to walk, you know all the great paraphernalia that comes with them. And this time I am not talking about gear. I'm talking SNACKS. I swear my boys are eating us out of house and home. I honestly think one of them eats more then I do in a day; and times that by 2! My boys were also on formula, cause lets be honest, I made skim milk and not much of it when they were born (same issue I had with my eldest). So we had formula tubs coming out our ears (those were the plastic flip top kind but that's a different project!) Even now they are on a toddler transition formula, cause I feel they still need that extra something, so we have the cans from that, oh and coffee cans! Their crunchy snacks come in a can too.....and we do not have curb side recycling, so me going into town 20 minutes to the recycling center with two toddlers is just not happening! So what's a momma to do?? Improvise and upcycle! I actually found a use for all of these containers that, would otherwise, have gone straight into my garbage can. And the bonus is that my boys LOVE it. So here's what you need!

Leftover cans from formula or snack: These cans are cardboard with a plastic lid for resealing and have a metal bottom. Save the lids someplace cause you can use these cans over and over for dry snacks, toys, etc...
Paint: Use any kind of craft paint. The darker the color the easier it will cover any words on the cans. The liquitex paint is actually an acrylic art paint. More expensive per tube but awesome coverage.
paintbrush: Use a wide brush. Covers faster and easier and your done that much faster.
fine grit sandpaper (this is for the slick silver cans. These are the coffee cans and the toddler transition formula. Basically if the can under the wrapper is silver, your gonna have to sand it otherwise the paint will NOT stick to the can. And yes I found that out the hard way so you don't have to!)

Here's the final result. I haven't gotten all of them painted, as you can see, but I did get some of them. We play games. I hide toys in the cans and I ask them to bring me whichever color can. They are young but its a start on color identification. We also flip them over and use them as drums! Music appreciation! They also enjoy turning them over and banging them on the floor. I have herd so much squealing and laughter over these cans. I love it! And at the end of the day I just make a pyramid out of them and tuck them in a low traffic spot.

So there it is! Garbage to toys. Who knew?