So we have made our muslin and adjusted our paper patterns, now its time to sew them up!
Get your sewing area ready by using a stretch sewing needle and either the lightning bolt stitch, a long zigzag or your overlocker. I prefer to use the lightning bolt stitch then finish my seams with a 4-thrread overlocker stitch (I have had stitches bust when I first started sewing by using a straight stitch and its the last thing I need when I am at the gym!). Also if you have a walking foot for your machine it will help a lot with a wriggly knit fabric.
Fitting as you sew.
I’m a big fan of fitting as you sew. With pants this means I will sew my crotch seams, inner leg seams then baste my outer leg seams. This way I can have a try on and see if I need to take them in/let the out or refine the fit in any other way without having to unpick either serging or the lightning bolt stitch (I have done it in the past and it takes ages!)
So here I’m having my first fitting. Pretty good, but I have some bagginess around my knees and the centre back seam needs to be taken in too.
So I pin the excess out (you can thread baste if you prefer).
I’m adding a yoga waistband to these pants. While I have them on I measure and decide I want the waistband to be 3″ high so I cut a length of 6.5″ (double the height plus seam allowance) and roughly my waist measurement.
I wrap this around, making sure it’s nice and snug and pin mark it
Here I have cut the waistband down to the length I’d like, folded it long ways and stitch up the short side where I have it pinned.
Give it a quick press and double it over. You can baste the open edge together if you’d like now.
Mark the waitband into quarters with pins and then pin it onto the pants, lining up the pins with the sides, front and back.
Stretch it out as you sew, finish the edges and then a quick press. You don’t have to press (I know a lot of people don’t sewing as its knit fabrics) but it helps the seams sit nicely.
I’m doing a twin needle hem on these pants, I like to use steam a seam to hold it in position and use my walking foot to help sew it up.
Finished pants!
Suzy your instructions are inspirational – I think I might make some.Where in Australia can you buy supplex please ?
Hi Perabo, I’ve bought Supplex before from fabric.com (they don’t have any in stock at the moment though). GJ’s discount fabric in Melbourne stocks a heavy matt knit that feels like a supplex (that’s what I made these leggings out of). You can ring Stretchtex and order fabric (I haven’t ordered from them but they do take phone orders and stock plain and space dyed supplex, no idea on their prices though). I have just contacted them and requested samples and I’ll let you know how I go with it.
Melissa at Fehr Trade made a list here of different stockists;
http://www.fehrtrade.com/article/748/where-to-buy-exercise-fabric-a-global-list
great tutorial for leggings
Thanks so much for the great tutorials! I love the contrast panel.
These look great on you! I will have to try to make me some now that I am doing yoga.