make your own tights – Measure Twice Cut Once

After the success of my coloured Jalie tights I was on the lookout for some more fabric that was suitable for tights and Bam a huge selection arrived at Pitt Trading.

Pitt Trading buy excess fabric from many high end designers so you can access some incredible fabrics, these came from a high end Yoga design firm and they are lush. Thick but not too thick, don’t grin white when stretched and a nice amount of breathability and stretch.

Many of the panels come pre printed so it’s pretty much a case of cut out and go. Some of the panels were printed oddly so across the width you’d only get 3 right legs.

Both the pink pairs were like that. Now this is one of those times where being short rocks! I used my Nike run tights as a rough guide and by lining them up at the crotch and not the waistband I managed to cut a right leg panel into a left leg panel. It worked because I could shuffle it down so I was pretty excited, plus I had a cute catternweight to help. If you are longer limbed it would work just as well you just might not get full length ones?

On the black/pink spot ones I feel like the ankle could be a little narrower so I’ll probably skim them in a bit more.

Sewing wise I used the 4 thread overlocker for the inside leg and crotch seams, waistbands were overlocker together at the top edge while adding in some 6mm swimwear rubber. Turn the right way out and used the coverstitch to twin needle the top edge. The bottom edges were then placed together and overlocked straight onto the tights. I’ve kept my waistbands nice and high to hold everything in and as a result am getting no irritation around my scar or the areas where I have some residual issues from surgery.

The hems were then finished with the coverstitch machine.

A super fast super satisfying make and they spurred me into action and I’ve been running again! Am taking it slow and relearning how to do some things now my body is operating with less muscles (literally) but overall it’s going pretty well.

Pattern: mostly from the pre printed tights with a little bit of help from a RTW pair

Fabric: Pre printed tights panels from Pitt Trading

Alterations: the cherry blossom ones are the best waistband, next time just copy everything I did on that one.

It’s winter which means its cold and the temptation to stay on the couch cuddled under a blanket eating biscuits, drinking tea while reading books is big.
Sadly I know I need to move more. I have to get fitter and rebuild strength in my core and back.
So in an effort to motivate myself with new clothes to workout in I purchased the PDF of the Jalie Clara tights.

These are so intriguing as they have no centre front seam and only a back seam and an inside leg seam.
I measured myself and decided to go with the size Z with the 3/4 leg option of size O.

Cutting was easy and I added in the gusset, centre back seam and inside leg. At this stage I tried them on and decided I need to size down. Instead of unpicking and recutting I basically used my overlocker to cut down a size.

Tried them on again and decided on taking a dart like wedge out of the centre back and tightening the inside leg from mid thigh down the leg.
Popped them on again and was satisfied. Added the waistband using my overlocker and then twin needle stitched it in place using my coverstitch and hemmed (also on my coverstitch) and I was done.

I’m 5 foot tall so the top waistband sits really high on me (like just under my bra high) which is fabulous as it goes well up and above my surgery scar. It also goes above the weird swelling shape and weight gain which means it’s not going to move while I exercise.

There is some wrinkling around the knee that I’m not wild about but am going to wear them for awhile and see if there are any other changes to be made before I set about fixing that.

Great pattern, really impressed at the results and loving this Lycra from Pitt Trading which has no grin through of the white base fabric and isn’t see through even when stretched!

Having worn these a little am definitely going to size down even more, I want the Lycra to work a little harder as right now it feels a bit loose particularly around the crotch and thigh. It just doesn’t have that “firm” feeling yet so am going to do some tweaks. However I feel like the changes would be less if I wasn’t using such a nice quality Lycra.

Pattern – Jalie Clara tights pattern

Fabric – from the stash but originally from Pitt Trading

Changes – go down at least one to two sizes, take an extra dart shape wedge out of the centre back, tighten up knees a bit more

Tag: make your own tights

Sewing Adventures – Pre Printed Tights panels from Pitt Trading

Sewing Adventures – Jalie Clara Tights Camo edition