Sewing workout wear

I have sewn up about half of the Eclipse supplex lycras I bought a little while back.  It is a bit confronting to post photos of myself in lycra, but I know I prefer to see sewing projects on people.  Feel free to skip this post!

These first garments are made up in the "Luxury" colour.

The first pattern is Jalie 3022, lengthened by a couple of cm.  I have made this pattern half a dozen times for my daughter, and the fit on her is a little looser in the leg, more like shorts, but on me, the fit in the thighs is snug, perhaps even a little too snug.  This might be partly fabric selection, and partly body shape.  I'm hoping that the bright colour and seam down the centre back leg is distracting from the close fit!

The fabric is super comfortable to wear.  Very soft.  Breathable.  Wicks well.  If I have one complaint, it is that it tends to show the lumps and bumps more than the cotton lycra I have used in the past.  This top was made using Burda WOF 11-2007-123, which I originally reviewed here. 

I made my daughter a demi-tard, using my own pattern. 

 

I tweaked the Merckwaerdigh BHS10 bra pattern a little to make this sports bra.  This time I used a wider elastic along the bottom edge.  I still used elastic on the inner edge of the straps, but I bound the outer edges of the straps.  I adjusted the cup pieces a little, but they are not perfect yet.

 

I also made a running band, using Melissa's tutorial, but have not photographed it.  It works well, so I will feature it in a later post.

Next I switched all my threads over to black and made a couple of pairs of shorts.  I prefer shorts to bike pants or leggings.  I made mine out of regular weight supplex, but you can buy heavier weight supplex, some plush backed or with a French Terry back.  I guess the heavier weight versions would provide more compression, if that is what you are after.  The heavier weights had either a higher lycra content or poly content than the regular weight.  I live in an extremely hot climate, so I just went for the lighter weight.

I copied the shorts pattern off some RTW shorts I had.  Instead of vertical side seams, a diagonal seam wraps around from below the front pocket to the back of the leg.  There is a back yoke.  The original pair had an invisible zip for the front pocket, but I changed this to an overlapped, peekaboo sort of opening.  The black version seemed to wing out a bit at the sides, even though the leg circumference matches the original pair, so I adjusted this a little before I made the grey pair.

I bought a roll of wide, beefy elastic in a junk shop, which I have used for these.  It looks very good quality,but I did not know how much it would give after a few washes and wears.  Possibly I cut it a little short for these, but my RTW shorts are all falling down, which annoys me, so I went on the tighter side.

I have several leggings patterns, but wanted to try out the draft in Kristina Shin's "Patternmaking for Underwear Design".  First up, a plain grey pair.  I actually wore these to the beach last week.  We don't need the full stinger suits in the winter here, but a couple of weeks ago my legs got terribly burnt, even with sunscreen.  I think I will get some Aqualife lycra and make myself another pair in a pretty colour to match my swim shirt.

Then I cut up the pattern to make a pair with pink highlights.

And then a pair with grey highlights.

Now I need to get some pink thread to get started on the tops.

So a fair few items, but I do exercise daily.  I like hearing about what exercise other people are doing, so here's what I do.  Last year, I was walking a couple of times a week, including at least one walk up Castle Hill, doing a ballet class, and 3 weight work out routines from the Women's Health Big Book of Exercises (though sometimes I swapped these for gym classes with a friend).  I really missed my ballet class when I moved here, so I looked around for a replacement, and I bought the DVDs for Physique 57.  I now do an hour long DVD 4 times per week and a 30 minute version 1 - 2 times per week.  I was walking with a friend, and then we decided to build up to a run, and now I am in week 4 of the couch to 5K, doing a walk / run 3 times per week.  The streets here are pretty safe, so I tend to run before sunrise, which is what I prefer.  Just got to keep an eye out for buffalo.  I don't know how I will go when it heats back up again.   It is a bit of a step-up from last year, and I must confess, most afternoons I need a quick nap...it is so hard to stay awake listening to those year 3 readers...particularly as I am on my third time around for most of them!