There are two main reasons I choose to sew something – either because I’m mentally intrigued by the pattern and want to sew something new and engaging (90% of my sewing), or because I really want to wear something that fills a hole in my wardrobe.
If you’re keeping track, this is the fifth time I’ve sewn the Papercut “Ooh La Leggings” pattern (UK stockist here), so clearly it’s not because I want a mental challenge – seriously, I could sew these in my sleep by now!
So far, I’ve got the purple Suziplex pair, the Liberace leggings, the Run Dem Crew Refashioned pair, and most recently my pale grey Suziplex Olympic leggings. But these were all for running, and I really, really wanted a pair I could just lounge around in!
Long-time readers will know that I very rarely make a pattern twice, let along five times, so you can infer how much I love wearing these! This might be my new personal record for Pattern Sewn Most, come to think of it…
I made this pair in some “denim-look jersey” from Tissu Fabrics (aka Tia Knight on eBay – same stock, same owner, just a different interface!). It’s a jersey that cleverly really looks like it’s got a denim weave, and it’s absolutely perfect for making leggings that appear to be made from denim (I just really hate the j-word is all!).
These had nice stretch and recovery, and are super soft to wear, with virtual no colour bleed in the wash. The only downside is that the edges really liked to curl, so I had to keep everything pinned until I was ready to sew that piece, or it’d really curl away to nothing.
(These are worn with my KnipMode colourblock tunic, also recently published in Plus sizes)
Other than that, there’s nothing really much more I can say about these leggings or their sisters – I can make a pair of these in about an hour now, from cutting to wearing, and my pattern pieces are so full of pin holes now that I might have to reinforce the kraft paper!
As you’d expect, I used my favourite elastic waistband technique on these, too, so they’re just as comfortable to wear as my running versions.
I took a few photos with the tunic held up so you can see the seaming on these much better:
I wore these out to my Olympic ping-pong match (where we also watched Mo Farah’s incredible 10,000m performance on the big screens, too), and they were super comfortable. I wish I could say the same for the hard stadium seating in the Excel Centre!