A few months ago Rosie (aka DIY Couture) gifted me this crazy, mind-melting lycra when she was moving house, saying it looked like something I’d like! It definitely falls into the “fabric I’d run in” category rather than my normal wardrobe, I’m sure you’ll agree, so I knew I’d make leggings from it!
As it happens, I needed to test out KwikSew 3636 for a leggings class I’ll be teaching soon (yay!) so I thought I’d whip up a quick pair with this lycra, which I’ve decided is an acid trip in lycra form. In reality like it’s even more loud than the print itself though – because it’s actually wet look, too!
I mean – who looked at this fabric and though “Nah, not enough. How can we make it CRAZIER? I know – add some wet look shimmer!”?
If you’re a regular reader, you know I don’t often sew with Big Four or envelope patterns much these days (and especially not for something I draft myself, like leggings) but credit where credit’s due – I was impressed by this pattern, actually! It’s a one-piece pattern with two different fit options – one at 100% of body measurement, and the other with negative ease. Clearly I went for the negative ease one!
I was also impressed that they finish the waistband in my preferred method, which I’ve never, ever seen on a pattern before!
Cutting out the pattern made for some stomach-churning moments – don’t stare directly at the fabric! Lucky for me I only had to cut out one piece, and the construction was so quick I was wearing them in well under an hour.
During the photoshoot, James asked why I was “going all Sasha Fierce”, ahahahah! Blame it on my acid leggings, I suppose!
I actually made the lavender sweatshirt seen here, too (though I totally forgot I’d made it when I wrote this post last week!) I had a pile of odd lengths of sweatshirting which was taking up too much room in my sewing cave so I thought I’d cut out a bunch of mismatched tops to wear to the start of races. You always need to bring a warm top to wear to keep warm while you wait around in the starting pens, but then discard when the gun sounds – I call these “sacrificial sweatshirts”. But I was able to squeeze a whole top out of this lavender sweatshirting (leftover from my Mom’s Chic Sweatshirt) so it’s now too nice to be sacrificial and I wear it around the boat!
The sweatshirt pattern is one from a 2006 Burda magazine I traced out not long after that and have made something like six(?) times. It’s a great pattern and one that was within easy reach, but that was really the only deciding factor – I just wanted the quickest pattern to turn sweatshirting into a wearable top.
And I’ve got to end it on a hick kick, right?!?
I wore these to Run dem Crew on Tuesday and I got quite a few compliments on them – everybody loves crazy leggings!