leg warmers

Here is a tutorial on backpacking leg warmers!
My legs are generally the coldest part of my body, so before our trip to Ice Lakes I whipped up some light weight backpacking leg warmers to match our light weight backpacking quilt!

I started with a rectangle a few inches taller than I wanted my finished legwarmers to be and about 5-6 inches wider than the circumference of my calf. (The above rectangle is sideways: as tall as calf circumference and as wide as I wanted them tall....)

I layered synthetic down insulation, nylon fabric, a folded 2-inch-wide nylon strip with a button hole (to be a channel for the elastic), and netting in such a way that after sewn and turned right side out...everything would be in the right spot. (you can see the folded 2-inch-wide piece sticking up slightly in the above photo).

After I checked that everything was in the right place, I sewed the opposite side (ankle side) together.
Then, trim everything, turn inside out, and sew quilting lines (I did two) to keep insulation in place.
Then, I threaded elastic through the channel, tacked it down on both ends, pulled a loop of it out through the button hole, and attached a toggle.

Then, I carefully sewed up the side seam using a french seam, or "double" seam (sew each seam twice, first with the seam on the outside of the garment, trim, turn inside out, and then sew the second seam with enough allowance to include your trimmed first seam...does that make sense?). The french seam is great for outdoor wear because it is strong and leaves no unfinished edges.

The top:

The bottom:
***Would have been better with a channel for elastic at the bottom as well, to keep the edge above my shoe, out of the mud.

Add zip-off pants...and, Taaa-Daaa...Insta-Scout!

That is one (funny-looking) warm scout!