I wanted to make a pair of leggings with this yoga type waistband for a while. I saw some leggings in Sports Direct that have a yoga waistband ( so a piece of wide fabric that foldsover and no elastic) and thought they looked comfortable for summer when its hot. My only worry is if they fall down when walking. Well yes they do a bit but not too badly because I walked the dogs quite a distance today and they were fine.
Its still hot in the UK but has started to rain again so we have kind of wet, hot, sweaty weather. With walking boots and a light ( well worn) sweatshirt they were fine even when it was raining. I did need the hood on my hoody though because there was a constant fine drizzle. Still Britain!
Its wet!
Fabric is swimwear/ sports lycra fabric bought quite a few years ago so I actually used some of the stash for these. Thast currently a big bonus though I have not bought any fabriv since January so I am doing well right now. Though it has only made a small dent in what I own.
The sewing of these was really quite epic. I made these when my overlockers were both down about a month ago so I zigzagged them and then later overlocked the edges to neaten.
But when I put them on I was not happy with the stitching. I did not feel confident they would stand up to my usual lifestyle. I do like to tramp over fields and climb hills etc and tend to get wet and muddy pretty regularly.
I do not usually sew knits on a regular machine. Perhaps you should use a narrower stitch? I am not sure but the stitching seemed quite wide spaced and I just did not feel happy wearing them so yesterday I cut the waist band off and resewed using the overlocker and then put the waist band back on. Now I feel happy to wear them.
Since I think my waistband is a bit too wide really that was fine and lowering the waist a bit could work as well because the original waistband was a bit too high I think once I added the yoga band instead of a normal waistband.
This is an experiment though because its my first yoga band on a pair of leggings but yes I must say they are very comfy when lazing about on a sunday afternoon. I will make more of these I think.
Pattern is McCalls M6173 which is my go to for leggings at the moment. One thing about these if you were to want to make some - yoga band is just a strip of fabric and mine was around 35cm wide and the width of my waist. Perhaps 20cm might work better?
The galaxy print fabric was off Ebay but many years ago and was about £10 a metre and I used most of 2m. There is enough left over to make something else but I have not yet decided what.
Anyway I am happy enough with this as an experiment and I am enjoying wearing these leggings as I write. I will be making more but I think I will reduce the waistband width by about 1/3 since its definitely a bit too wide. I can nearly turn it over twice but that makes it slightly too narrow. Something to perfect in my next pair I suppose.
I think if you wanted to run in these they would be a problem and fall down. For yoga or pilates though they will work great. And for lounging of course they are extremely comfy.
See you soon and thanks for popping over
Bracken
The falling down does seem like a consideration! Maybe because patterns aren't adjusted to fit all different body types and you might have a narrow waist?
ReplyDeleteHi Laura, Yes thats a really good point about patterns not fitting all body types. There is no reference on that particular pattern to that but its quite right. I may have to try adjusting for the next pair I make - that is assuming I make another pair with that kind of waistband because the normal waistband stays up fine so maybe I might just swap it at some point. I suppose also it could be that the yoga type of waist just does not work for my body type as well.
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