knit longies/shorties for a newbie to CDing

[bubsmom]

Not sure if this belongs here in in the CD section since it is a little of both. I will post it over there as well. So a friend of mine is expecting in July and in an attempt to kill 2 birds with one stone I am trying to use up my excessive yarn stash and make gifts for her and the the little one. When mine wear little I did not use cloth so I am not very familiar with what is useful or not. My thought is to use the wool I have on hand and make a few newborn soakers and then make some longies/shorties in larger sizes. Since this is a summer baby it is hard to tell when he/she will be needing shorts or pants. Does anyone have any good patterns out there for longies with removable legs? I decided against roll up legs since if it is mid summer I think it would be too much bulk on the thighs. I want to be practical with this and make items that will get a lot of use and not just something that looks cute but isn't too great functionally. Any suggestions on how much of what sizes I should plan on making her to give her a helpful start? Thank you.

[iowaorganic]

Here is what I am doing...  I am having a june baby and am making size small shorties- just because that is what I like :)  Then I would probably do size medium longies.  That will get her a long ways...  Make sure to use NON super wash wool of course.  I use picky pants pattern- it is awesome.  I have used the top of that pattern and make it isn't a cover by winging it- but I really just love the shorties :)  You have a lucky lucky friend!

ETA- how about making a couple pairs of coordinating baby legs to go with?  I love those things- If you google tutorials- there is one out there where you take a pair of ladies knee socks and cut the leg off and then cut a bottom band out of the foot and sew it on- they are awesome- cheap and easy and super cute!

[bubsmom]

Thank you this is very helpful. Thanks for the recommendation for the babylegs. I thought about that before but completly forgot until now.

[Casha'sMommy]

OP- For a newborn, you can knit a wool sack. They're similar to the cotton sacks one might have for a lo.

Also, wool breathes very well so no need to worry about the babe being too warm in the wool. NB need to be kept warm for some time anyway as they cannot regulate their own body temperature.

As for longies/shorties, my favorite, and what seemed the most simple for me, was the pimp my longies pattern. I just checked and the pattern is still on her blog.

IME, nb poop tends to get all over covers and while it's easy to wash off of wool using a little water and spot clean lanolin bar soap they still need dry time. This was always problematic for me and we didn't get much use from wool longies for our dc. I did get a bit of use from the sacks, although, I had several so the dry time from spot cleaning wasn't a big deal. We started to get a lot of use from longies and shorties around the 3-6-9 month marks, when baby poo isn't quite so runny. Maybe make one item in a few sizes?