Made By A Fabricista: Jalie Running Gear

New Year, new handmade running gear!! I have been a bit obsessed with obtaining technical fabrics and sewing up functional (and colorful!) clothing for my running routine for the past years.  A major amount of my technical knit stash is from the Fabric Mart activewear category, including all of the yardage I've used to sew up these Jalie Cora Tights #3462 and Jalie zip top # 2682.  The animal print is still actually in stock at this moment I am typing! They even sell Jalie patterns now. I've never found Fabric Mart to label their activewear fabrics as "wicking" but the animal print material is actually sweat wicking!  It's rare to find prints that wick!!!  How do I judge whether a mystery fabric can suck up sweat or let it just sit there and irritate the crap out of me and cause problems during very long runs??  I let a few droplets of water fall off the side of the material that touches the skin-- does it get absorbed immediately or form a perfect water droplet and sit on top of the knit?  The animal print absorbs as soon as the water touched it.  Same with the solid orange.  On the other hand, the solid black knit is not wicking... the water droplets did just sit on the fabric.  I wear a form fitting layer under these half zips, so I don't have worries.

I can't take myself too seriously in animal print tights, c'mon now.

The orange material I picked up well over a year ago.  It's from New Balance, a poly/spandex... I even sewed up other running gear last New Year's here for Fabric Mart with this same stuff in other colors (I bought many, many yards when it was in stock).  The black stuff is a beefier nylon/spandex ideal for cooler weather (no longer in stock unfortunately, I bought this stuff several months ago).  All of the fabrics are 4-way stretch.

The Jalie half zip top is pretty great.  This was my first version, I cut a size X in the bust and graded to a Z at the hip.  I found that I needed more room in the hip, especially the rear end area so I fixed that in version two (the animal print one below).  I also added 1" to the length of the bodice just below the underarm.  I made my own wide binding to finish the sleeve cuffs.  I've sewn up the Jalie Cora tights before-- found here on my own blog.  I went one size down to create compression style tights.  I sewed a size X waist and a size Z hip/leg.  On a recent blog post of mine, an anonymous person commented they thought my jeans were too tight and they didn't like them... man, I'm really gonna annoy them with these tights, huh?!?!!!  Ha!!  I've crossed more than one finish line running in tights, from 5Ks to a half marathon and soon a full marathon.

This animal print top does technically match the animal print tights, but even I know when to quit with the head to toe print whilst wearing spandex-- they shall never be worn together.  (The black tights here are store bought, as you could have guessed easily with the lack of color or print on them). With version #2 of the Jalie half zip, I did a swayback adjustment and added a little more width on the back hem.  It helped a good deal.  I am surprised at how smooth the back area lays in my photos here, I felt like there was still room for improvement when I was wearing it.

If you've ever run/hike/walk/bike/leave the house in winter, you may have experienced the thrill of freezing cold hands like I do.  I've tried several hand coverage options for running, including gloves and mittens.  Hands down these fold over mitts are the very best for me. (Aww, geez... I know).  I took the pattern pieces from the Fehr Trade Surf to Summit Top and added them on to the Jalie half zip.  I wore this top this morning for a very chilly run and they did the job!  I prefer these attached mitts because I can flip them off if I need and not have anything to have to carry.  I don't like gloves because separating my fingers from each other, they freeze still.  And those sleeves with thumb cuffs, fingers free and blowin in the wind... not functional at all.

The zippers are all from my mega stash of vintage zippers.  Oh and if you ever sew up this top, somehow Jalie totally forgets to tell you to stabilize the fabric before sewing on your zipper.  I used iron-on narrow strips of knit interfacing.  I ironed it to all the edges of fabric where the zipper is attached.  Otherwise, it's a hot mess without stabilizing this spandex material, knit fabric getting stretched out and what not, even under a walking foot.

Fresh from the freezing cold morning & completing a hilly 5k in the park

Anyone else sewing up some activewear this year?  I've said it before, it's a major motivator in my running routines.  If I sew up a fun new top, I have to go out and wear it.  Maybe it's yoga, or Zumba or hiking or biking for you.  I'm not out there to compete against anyone but myself.  I do what I can with what I've got... and that ain't half bad.

Happy New Year's Sewing!!

~Kathy

Kathy Sews