Made by a Fabricista: Workout Yoga Pants

I think I have turned into an activewear fabric junkie. I can't get enough of them! Well, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I joined a gym again and have been doing a lot of physical activity this summer. The last time I bought activewear clothes was like five years ago when I joined a gym. I went for about a year and lost interest. I would still wear the yoga pants and gym clothes, but honestly, I was really tired of my look. 

So I looked for some good activewear patterns and came across a few from Kwik Sew. I wanted to start with a pants pattern and Kwik Sew #3988 looked perfect! The pattern comes with a two inseam lengths. Since it is summer, I wanted to make the shorter length. Sue made the long pants HERE. And her success with the pattern made it better for me to decide on this pattern too. 

I had an activewear knit fabric in my stash from a previous Fabric Mart buyout a few years ago. So I dug it out from the bottom of the pile and got started. (You can find our selection of activewear fabrics HERE.) I read some reviews that you should almost go down a size with this pattern so you get the best fit. So I tissue fit the pants on my body and one size smaller seemed to do the trick. Remember -- activewear clothes usually fit closer to your body than regular clothes. 

I did not do any alterations to the pattern. I wanted to see how it went right out of the envelope. And it was great! The hardest part was probably the gusset and the inset piece on the side of the pants. But the directions are clear, I just needed to focus a little bit more. Oh, and all the double top-stitching! I was having a hard time getting the double needle to work properly on my machine (I was getting tunneling.) And everything I did to change that didn't work. So rather than messing up the pants, I decided to stitch using a single needle, just doing it twice. I'm pretty good at keeping my stitching straight, so I wasn't concerned. I used the knit stitch on my sewing machine (I have a Bernina). I also serged all the seams.

My only complaint would be that when the pants aren't on me, it has some rippling at the waist. The only thing I can think of is that maybe I was pulling on the fabric when sewing, but I didn't think I was. The waist has elastic stitched in which also helps keep the stretchy fabric on your body. I also may make the legs a wee bit thinner next time because it gets a little loose at the bottom. 

I'm really happy with my workout pants and can't wait to make more! It's time to replace the old ones in my closet. Now on to some tops!

Have you ever made your own workout clothes? Do you have pattern recommendations? 

Happy Sewing!

~ Julie