Burda 01/2018 #107 Leggings

Ever on the quest to add athletic/exercise clothes to the handmade closet.... pieces that will actually be worn while exercising!..... I was quite excited to see these unusual leggings in the Burda 01/2018 issue.

Burda 01/2018 #107 Footed Leggings.... only mine are sans feet.  ;)  Takes around 1 1/4 yards of fabric and I simply cut the front pattern piece off right there at the ankle line to delete the foot piece.  Notice the awesome waistband.  These are high waisted, which I LOVE, and no elastic.  Yep, you read that right.... no elastic is in this waistband.  I was both excited and skeptical to see if these would hold up as well as be comfortable with no elastic in there.  They are both..... but ONLY if you chose the right fabric.  I'll talk more about that a little later down in the post.

Photo Credit:  BurdaStyle.com

https://www.burdastyle.com/pattern_store/patterns/footed-leggings-012018

This is my third pair.... for me!!!  My daughter scoffed up the first two pairs, which n.e.v.e.r happens, so I was happy she was so excited about them.  Used the 4-way stretch Heathered Quick Dry fabric from JoAnn Fabrics purchased last year.  Not sure I'm super keen on this fabric for tight fitting leggings, as it seems to show all the lumps and bumps but it is a comfortable wear.  By the way, I do try to keep all my fabric receipts, as well as log the fabric in when purchased..... so at times like this I can refer to my notes/info to see what exactly I have.  In this case, notes were not made on this fabric, but because I kept my receipt, I could simply log the SKU numbers into the JoAnn search box on their website until I 'found' my fabric.  This is great in case I wanted to purchase more, or see fabric content info.

Anyway, thought I'd shortened these to capri length by taking 4" off length, but instead it's above the ankle.  That's okay, I actually like this.  I'm 5'7".

Now let's talk about fabric choice.  If you look closely at the 'recommended fabrics' Burda suggests "Use two-way stretch fabrics only".  Do not..... I repeat DO NOT use what I would call two-way stretch fabrics..... a fabric that only stretches across the cross-grain.  ONLY use 4-way stretch fabrics.... a fabric that stretches both across the cross-grain and length-grain.  The first pair I made was with a 2-way stretch and it rides down every time you bend or stretch making it not only uncomfortable, but pretty much unwearable.  This was confusing to me at first, why Burda would recommend a 2-way stretch fabric for a garment that clearly needed the 4-way stretch until I read a post Beth, Sunny Gal Studio, wrote about understanding Knit Fabrics at her blog, and then it all made sense.  Scroll to the middle of her post to read her short paragraph about 1-way/2-way stretch vs. 2-way/4-way stretch.  Evidently the sewing world has no definitive meaning about the stretch of knits and depending on the pattern maker, depends on which type of stretch they mean.  In the future when Burda recommends 2-way stretch fabrics, I know they mean the type of fabric I would call 4-way stretch.  The type that stretches both cross-grain and length-grain.  As an aside, Beth has also written another, more in-depth article on Understanding Knits you can read here.

Photo Credit:  BurdaStyle website

So the first pair of leggings, made with the 2-way stretch fabric from Wal-Mart, was top-stitched with Stitch #10 on my Bernina 1230, as well as the other 2 successive pairs.  You've been seeing me use the decorative stitches more recently, and this is sort of changing my sewing game.  It's amazing how taking the time to do this, adds to the ready-to-wear (rtw) look.   The minute my daughter saw these leggings, she loved them because they did not look 'homemade'.  She actually wore them, pulling down at the back and all, until I could get another pair made of 4-way stretch cotton spandex from WalMart.

I'm actually wearing the 4-way cotton spandex in the photo below, and these are super duper comfortable.  In fact, I had to retrieve them from the dirty laundry basket to photograph them as they are usually on the girl.  Her only complaint, is that the fabric seems to be already 'pilling' and 'wearing'..... a fabric issue, not pattern issue.

Trying to show a little of the decorative stitching down the outer leg seam.

Bleached out the photo to try to get the cotton spandex gray to photograph well, but alas.  Hopefully you can see a little of the structure of this pattern.

A closer view of the overlapped waistband.  For my recent pair, I shortened the waistband a little to pull in the back waist for an even snugger fit.  No elastic... and these really do stay up.  All pairs are a size 36 at the waist, graded to size 38 hips.  Added 3/8" seam allowances because I knew I'd be using my serger and sewing small seams.  1" hem.  A quick sew.... maybe an hour or two after cutting out.  Am thinking I'll draw a traditional waistband and add elastic next time to compare.

This will be my June 2018 Burda Challenge project.  Meg is doing a great job pulling together the monthly 'Challenge' projects logged at Burda's website, so you might want to see what others are creating, as well as be sure to log yours in there too if you should be participating in this project.  We have some highly creative and talented folks in the Burda community, let me tell ya'!

In conclusion..... this pattern is well drafted and I will definitely be making more.

These photos include the new racerback tank top that was recently made.
Happy Sewing All!  :)