I bought this ASOS ruched tunic back in April and I love the design of it – the ruched panels are really flattering, it’s a viscose knit and it’s entirely lined in lingerie mesh. But when it arrived, I realised it was way too short to wear as a dress, but too long to wear as a shirt and looks just plain lumpy when worn over regular trousers or jeans. And with the panels going at weird angles creating an intentionally uneven hem, there wasn’t a natural point to cut it off and shorten it, either.
So I filled the wardrobe hole by creating some leggings specifically to wear with this top!
I used the legging draft in Metric Pattern Cutting and it fit pretty well in my super green “Flashdance!” lycra muslin (don’t worry, that lycra was bought only ever for muslins!), apart from the waist being ridiculously high, so I just folded out a few inches when I cut into my black fabric. I really like that this draft hasn’t got an outer leg seam, so these were SUPER fast to make on the overlocker – only three seams plus the waistband and hems. I actually made these last Saturday morning in about two hours (though I did the drafting a few weeks ago)!
Sorry for the squished belly button shots, but I wanted to show you my waistband finish:
I used my favourite method of applying waistband elastic here, which results in a stretchy waist but with a smooth finish:
- Overlap the ends of your elastic and do a ton of zigzag stitches on the sewing machine so you’ve got a loop
- Serge/overlock one long edge of the elastic to the wrong side of the top edge of your trousers
- Turn inside again so there’s no elastic showing
- Zigzag, twin-needle, or coverstitch the lower edge of the elastic to the trousers, stretching as you sew
The only problem was, I didn’t have quite enough fabric to make these, and I despise capris of any sort, so my only option was to create a dorky ankle cuff in the hopes that these will always be concealed inside boots:
This black fabric is special wicking Meryl lycra from Pennine Outdoor, leftover from when I made my running trousers. So I could technically run in these if I wanted to, too!
Though probably not in those heels.
Edit: Oh! And a late addition for UK readers – set your Freeview+ boxes to record BBC Four at 10pm tonight – they’re showing Valentino – The Last Emperor, which Johanna reviewed last year.