These Bees Knees pants are an easy DIY project you can complete in just a few minutes. Great for beginners and experienced Cricut users alike. This one is very cheap or even free if you already have Iron on Vinyl & a pair of leggings at home!
Today I had an epiphany. I don’t know where it came from, but I am so glad it came!
I whipped up these super dang cute “bee’s knees” leggings for my 4 year old today, and I can’t get enough of them!
She liked them too. 🙂
I love projects like these that are completed in under 30 minutes. Heat transfer vinyl (also called iron on vinyl) is so much fun, it’s definitely my go to vinyl. Plus, I haven’t pulled out my Cricut machine in a while so this was just the craft I was looking for.
These are a great upcycling project for thrifted leggings, as well as an awesome and unique gift idea. You can make these bees knees pants with any size of leggings pants. I might have to make another pair for my soon to be newborn.
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Before we start I want to let you know about this cute clipart.
These super cute bee’s knees images come from my “Honey Bee Cut Files” pack on Etsy! I am giving two of them to you today for free because I loved these leggings so much I just couldn’t keep them to myself.
The Honey Bee Cut Files pack comes with SVGs and PNGs of 6 bee themed images for all your crafting needs.
These are perfect for vinyl crafts like we are doing today, as well as any other crafts you might want to do on your Cricut or Silhouette machines.
- Birthday Party Decorations & Invitations
- Card Making
- Scrapbooking
- Wall decals
- Whatever you want!
It means so much to me when you favorite my items and my Etsy shop, so head on over there.
Lets get to the craft!
Items you will need for this project:
- Cricut or other Vinyl Cutter
- 1 Pair of Toddler Leggings
- A measuring tape
- Yellow Heat Transfer Vinyl (here is the only brand I use)
- Scissors
- A weeding tool
- Iron
How to make the cutest Bee’s Knees pants
Step 1: Measuring the pants or leggings
You need to measure the pants in two places.
First, lay the pants flat on a table and measure or approximate the placement of the knee. If you have your toddler around, it might help to have her try them on.
If you have to guess on the knee placement, I recommend making them a little bit lower than you might think they should be, since they can grow into them a bit as they grow taller.
Once you have the knee placement, you need to measure the width of the pants at the knee. This will help you determine the size of design you can cut.
My 4 year old’s leggings allowed me to cut about a 3.5 inch wide image. Make sure to leave about a quarter or half inch of margin on both sides of the vinyl so it doesn’t touch the side seams.
Step 2. Preparing the cut image
Download the cut images by click on the images below and saving them to your computer, or by purchasing the 6-pack of SVG files from my Etsy shop.
Upload the images into Cricut design space and save them as a cut image.
Add the images to your canvas and size them according to the measurement you decided on in the last step.
Step 3. Cutting the vinyl
Load the vinyl with the shiny side down into your machine. Make sure the cut settings are set to “Mirror” so that the images cut backwards.
(You always want to cut heat transfer vinyl mirrored, on the wrong side of the vinyl so that when you flip it over to iron it on, it is readable!)
Cut the vinyl and weed it.
Make sure to get around those little letters, sometimes the vinyl sticks there.
Step 4. Ironing on the design
After you have weeded the vinyl designs, place them onto the knees of the pants. Make sure they are on the correct legs. 🙂
Iron the vinyl according to the directions for your specific vinyl.
Peel the backing off, and take 7000 pictures and do a happy dance! You’re done!
Maybe its just because I have a serious thing for bees… and yellow… but I am obsessing over this project.
When you try it out, I want to see how it looks! Leave a comment below or follow me on instagram to share your results!
And, make sure to check out my other cute vinyl clothing upcycle: a Vintage Rabbit T Shirt Refashion
I made these designs using an image I altered from freepik.com.
