During the cold Winter months, I like putting Roman in footed pyjamas. I know his toes will stay nice and warm. I get cold feet so I feel like he will too. Now that he’s in a size 2, they’re hard to come by. He has a pair with fold over cuffs that are genius, so I’ve been studying them. Luckily, it’s really easy to add them to a pair of pyjama pants so that any pair can have footies on them!
These cuffs can also be used to put fold over mittens onto the sleeve of pyjamas for little ones. The good thing is, when your child grows out of the footies, just unfold them and you have a long pair of pyjama pants due to the nice long cuffs.
Fold Over Cuffs for Mittens or Footies
You’ll need:
A pair of pyjama pants*
Ribbing or cotton lycra
Sewing supplies
Measure the length of the bottom of your babies foot (or shoe if your little one is asleep). Add 5 cm (2″). (For mittens add 1 inch.) Double this to get your length. My measurement was 32 cm (11 + 5 x 2). Cut 2 rectangles this length and the width of cuff you need. The width should be slightly less than the width of the hem you are adding the cuff to.** My measurement was 9 cm.
Cut 2 rectangles for the fold over cuff. Use the same width as above and 1.5 x length you calculated. (For mittens, I would almost double the length.) My measurement was 48 cm. All my pieces are laid out above.
Fold the long pieces in half lengthwise, right side out. Fold the short pieces in half lengthwise, right side in. Then, fold up the end of the longer pieces up so that they are the same length as the short pieces.
Put the folded piece inside the short piece with the raw edges all up the same way.
Stitch up both sides. Turn right way out.
Feel free to play with them just to make sure they work. Genius! This got me thinking I should put some mittens on a top for really cold days when I’m out walking with the pram.
Now attach the cuffs to the pants the way you usually do and with the fold to the back.
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*If you want to make a pair of pyjama pants, then I’d recommend the Sleeping Johns pattern from ‘Growing Up Sew Liberated’ made up in a knit of some sort. Just add the cuffs to the unfinished bottoms of the pants. If you’re using a pair of already finished pyjama pants, just cut off the hem first.
**The hem of my pants was 10cm wide, so I cut my cuff pieces 9cm wide. Once sewn up, the cuffs are about 7cm wide. If the pants you are using have quite loose fitting legs, then you may need to measure around your babies foot to get a good width measurement. The cuffs should be reasonably snug.
Dara Weyna says
Fantastic idea!!! I might be able to tackle a pair or two before winter comes.
Laura says
Love this idea for my boys and your tutorial makes it seem really easy. I think it might have made my brain hurt to work this out. I always used to get very cold feet – until I was first pregnant, since then I’ve had the opposite problem, very odd.
Anne Maskell says
This is a wonderful idea. I’ll be making some jammies for my granddaughter with these cuffs for fall and winter! I especially like the mittens on the top idea. It is so hard to keep mittens on their little hands, I think this is the perfect solution!
Sew Set says
Thank you so much for uploading this into SewSet, it is a fantastic tutorial! I had featured it as one of today’s top patterns.
Thank you again!
– Jess, SewSet.com
Rachel B says
Hi! I was wondering if you could help me a bit with this. I’m new-ish to sewing, so it might be that I misunderstood, but I made the two footies and they seem SO LONG. What were the exact dimensions of your rectangles before assembling?
Thanks, and I really appreciate the extra help.
-Rachel
thingsforboys says
Hi Rachel – my short pieces were 32cm x 9cm and the long ones were 48cm x 9cm. They do look long when made up but they are designed to go down the ankle and cover the foot, so they do look a little funny. If you look at the finished pants in the last pic, the stripey fabric is pretty much the correct length for pants, but then has the cuff added on. Hope that helps.
LilyAnth says
Just came across this. Very nice. I want to make some for myself too!
Anonymous says
I tried to make the mitten, but when I had sown up the edges and turned the piece out I couldn’t my hand all the way through. Can you clarify how to fold an tuck the long piece?
Thanks for the extra help.
thingsforboys says
Have you turned it ‘right way out’ correctly? The end with the raw edges should have raw pieces on each side.
Brooke says
Have you thought of turning this into a video tutorial? I am very interested in making these but cannot seem to follow the written directions.. Thank you!
abby says
Hi Brooke, a video tutorial would be great, but unfortunately I don’t have the spare 4 or so hours it would take to make one. Poor Ted is teething.
Rachel says
Do you think it would be possible to do these with fleece instead of ribbing/Lycra?
abby says
If you mean polar fleece (polyester fluffy somewhat stretchy stuff) then I think that would work. I would make them a little bit bigger since they wont stretch as much. I’d also make sure they were folded how you want them before you put them on the child, since it might be hard to flip the cuffs on their feet. Hope that helps.
Michele says
I’ve looked everywhere for a tutorial/video to add fold over cuff to pjs. I felt like I shrunk gold when I cam across your tutorial. I am a visual learner and hope you might consider doing a video of your instructions. I just can’t seem to get the results from the pictures on the tutorial as the orange is too difficult to see just how the rectangles go together to form the cuffs. I also tried to copy a fold over cuff from a fly squirrel pj that you can buy from Sleeping Baby website I saw on Shark Tank but think your instructions would be easier to follow as I would have to take the pj cuffs apart to try to figure it out. The cuffs on the pjs I believe are a little different than the instructions for yours. I hope you will consider doing a video of the foldover cuffs and maybe use a different fabric for the piece you “tuck in” so it is easier to see what I am doing wrong. (I can see by the comments that I am not the only one having difficulties) Thank you so much.
abby @ thingsforboys says
Hi Michele, a video tutorial would be great, but unfortunately I don’t have the spare 4 or so hours it would take to make one, unless you want to come and babysit my boys?! lol!
Mandie says
babysitting in turn of a video would be wonderful! I think you’re a bit far from Kuwait though 🙂 thank you for the FREE tutorial I’m going to try and work it out.
Abby Rudakov says
Sadly Kuwait is a bit far! Good luck with the tutorial.
Kate says
Love the tutorial! Thank you so much for taking the time to put it together. I can’t imagine how much extra work it took. I made 2 pairs over the weekend.
i took a photo but can’t seem to find a place to insert it. Oh well. Thank you again.
abby says
thanks for stopping by to comment Kate. Glad you found the tutorial so helpful!
Jennifer says
Just what we needed! We got a pair of hand me down pjs with folding feet and Mr. 3 is OBSESSED with them. I was all set to figure out my own pattern when I found yours! He helped me sew them and put them on right away.
abby says
Excellent! Glad it helped. I still wear mine in winter!
Rosey66 says
Hi would love to be able to use this pattern but I think it would be easier to follow if u used different coloured fabrics to see the whole picture. A video would also be a lot better.
Joan Asencio says
hi can you pls make a video showing how to do this??? My brain can’t understand this 😭thank you
Abby Rudakov says
I wish I had the time! If you want to come and mind the boys for a day I can get on it…lol!
Kristi says
I’ve sewed a lot of baby patterns and outfits and this has me stumped! I can’t seem to follow the directions/photos provided. Can you do another post using different colors of fabrics so see where I’m going wrong?
Jan Johnson says
I can’t seem to get this right 🤷♀️It would be awesome if you had a utube video
Abby Rudakov says
I wish I had the time to make one! Fingers crosses you sort it out xx
Susie says
I having a bit of a hard time understanding it, is the short piece folded as well?
Abby Rudakov says
Yes, in the first step, the short pieces are folded in half lengthwise, right sides in. The long pieces are also folded in half (right sides out) and then folded again to the same length as the short pieces.
Mandie says
I’ve been studying the pictures a bit more and I finally got it! Thank you SOO much for this! My friends’ babies are going to be very warm and snuggly.
Abby Rudakov says
Fantastic!
Trish says
For those having trouble with the instructions, I was getting it wrong just at the last step of turning it. The trick when you turn it is to only turn 1 outside layer, which will reveal the fold over mitt. If you turn two layers then it all ends up looking wrong with the cuff in the middle or no opening at all. I was stumped at this point for longer than I care to admit! 😆 Thanks for the tutorial. It was exactly what I needed for my nearly 4 year old who loves ‘hiding toes’!
Abby Rudakov says
thanks for the tip Trish. Glad you liked the tutorial.
Vanessa says
YESSSSSSS!!!! I have loved Bond’s Wondersuits for my third son and at $25 a pop, I’m so THRILLED to have your tutorial to help me out as a much more affordable Plan B. Thank you so very much for sharing. 🙂
Abby Rudakov says
thanks for your comment Vanessa. Wondersuits are too cute aren’t they?! Happy sewing!
Shavone Wesley says
I don’t understand the part of taking tucking the foldover piece inside of the short piece? I can’t picture this step. Am I just flipping the folded part over and on top of the short piece?
Abby Rudakov says
You are picking up the folded-over piece and putting it on top of the unfolded short piece. Then the bottom half of the short piece is folded up to cover the folded-over piece. Hope that helps.
Claire says
Hi, Just wanted to thank you very much for this wonderful tutorial! I just finished adding mittens to two of my baby’s PJs, and it was a breeze. She scratches her face sooo much that I found jammies with mittens wonderful when I received two pairs as a gift, but was left horrified by their price when I wanted to buy the next size up. I was certain I could sew them myself and add them to a regular pair of her PJs, and your tutorial just helped me do so successfully. Thanks a million!
Abby Rudakov says
thanks so much for your comment Claire! I’m so glad you found the tutorial helpful.