If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll probably know that I do a lot of rock climbing (mostly bouldering). For this activity, I usually wear leggings for their ease of movement and the fact that they stay out of the way when I’m trying to put my feet on small small holds. I’d been wanting to try making my own for a while, but the whim only fully took hold recently when I found some really fun sparkly poly/spandex (that with my accumulated points only cost me $3/cut). Here’s my first try with the Avery Leggings from Helen’s Closet! Before I forget: she actually JUST rereleased the pattern with her new extended size range, so it’s now available for up to a 52″ waist/62″ hip!
This is a combination of the two views of the pattern. View A has a medium rise and a standard leg length, and View B has an extra high rise and features extended legs so you can get a bit of bunching at the ankle. I took the high waist of View B, cut the leg length of View A, but then ended up shortening the leg another 3″ right before I hemmed because I prefer a little bit of space at my ankle. I’m not sure why, but this is the case for me with both leggings and fitted-sleeve shirts. I can’t deal with the fabric going all the way to my foot or wrist. I think I feel like I’m being restricted in some way even though it obviously makes no functional difference. Either way, since I sew my own clothes no one can stop me from cutting off all the things.
As you can see directly above, the pattern has you stitch down the seam allowance of the waistband facing when you’re attaching the elastic inside the top waist edge. The thing is…I didn’t use the elastic. Before I attached the waistband, I tried it on around me and it felt VERY VERY TIGHT. Like, painful hard-to-get-on tight. So I wasn’t convinced this size was even going to fit me. For the record, my measurements are 37.5″/29.5″/39″ and I cut a straight size M. The pattern tells you to cut the elastic according to how tight you want the waist to be (no specific measurements provided), but specifies that the elastic should definitely be smaller than the waistband circumference. I cut the elastic before I tried on the waistband on its own, and the elastic I had cut was WAAAYYYY bigger than the top of the waistband. Which alarmed me greatly and caused a significant amount of confusion. But then I decided, the fabric for these only cost me $3 and I want to commit and see if it ends up actually fitting by some fluke. So I left the elastic out and continued with the instructions. Helen really cleverly has you offset the facing and the waistband by 1/8″ when you’re sewing the top edge together so that when you flip it and match the lower edges flush, the seam rolls to the inside of the leggings a bit. I decided that since my fabric was essentially un-ironable (believe me, I tried), I would still do a zigzag stitch as understitching along the facing side to keep the top edge laying flat.
I haven’t worn these climbing yet (only finished them on Monday evening), but so far I’m hopeful about their range of mobility! Sometimes with climbing you have to put yourself into very pretzel-y positions, so the gusset will likely be a huge help in avoiding split seams. As well, I’m curious to see how they hold up functionally in terms of sliding down, since I left out the elastic. I’m going to hold off on making my second $3 pair before I see how they work in practice, that way if necessary I can put the elastic in my next pair.
I’m happy with the combination of features I went with on this first version and will likely not change anything for my future pairs! I have two pieces of athletic fabric en route from Blackbird Fabric that I’m excited to turn into leggings that are a little more understated. (For the record, the other fabric I have lined up looks kind of like dragon scales and is hot pink and sparkly. Very subtle.) This is the first time I’ve made athletic clothing before, and it was much less daunting than I expected! Maaaaybe I’ll eventually try a sports bra. I hate sewing regular every-day bras, but maybe sports bras would be more in my happy place. I’m not sure what’s next on my sewing table – I’m thinking either a re-muslin of B6453 (because none of my 1–2–3 previous versions fit anymore because of rock climbing), my Violet Craft Elephant abstractions quilt, or a muslin of the Wilder dress. Any thoughts? (Although, let’s be honest, we all know I’m not good at sticking with plans or a list when it comes to sewing!)
