sewing sportswear – Measure Twice Cut Once

When my niece sent me a message requesting some sports crop tops I immediately went to my Jalie patterns to find one. Not only would it be one of the few patterns I have with kids sizing, they also just work. No faffing about, no issues they just go together and fit really well.

Digging through my athletic fabrics I found some suitable small pieces and got to cutting. The fronts are all double lined with the same moisture wicking fabric. On many printed athletic fabrics there is a white panel along the side (normally where the fabric is wider than the sublimation machine) I use this section of lining to reduce waste.

Everything was overlocked together before encasing some wide elastic in the bottom which was finished with a triple needle coverstitch. I debated if I should add elastic to the neck and armholes, in the end I didn’t and I’m really hoping that decision doesn’t come back to bite me later on.

On the pattern I raised the seam allowance of the neckline and armholes to allow me to turn the fabric back and topstitch it down and an additional 1cm to lower hem to account for the wider elastic I had on hand.

Pattern: Jalie 3247 size 10

Fabric: Moisture wicking athletic spandex from Pitt Trading

Alterations: check and see how the wash and wear went and then decide if it didn’t need additional elastic or not

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: sewing sportswear

Sewing Adventures – kids crop tops

Sewing Adventures – Jalie Clara Tights Camo edition