Little leggings, legion

A small selection

Last weekend, as often happens, we went to my Stylish sister-in-law’s. Certain television premieres may have been airing that, since we gave up cable, wouldn’t be watchable chez Isis. But before the stories were watched, we sewed. I’ve had a leggings itch ever since working on the Espresso leggings for Cake Patterns, especially with the weather turning. And this purple polkadot Michael Miller knit was kinda burning a hole in the stash ever since I caved and bought it last month.

Laying out little leggings

The purple was never meant for me; I handily got three little leggings out of it, for Syo, Fyon, and Waif, and there’s enough left for two more leggings or any number of pairs of underwear, depending. Stylish worked on tracing her pattern for Coat Club, but she is easily distracted by frivolities like cleaning her house and making supper, so she didn’t get much done. I, on the other hand, made five pairs of leggings, mainly by dint of ignoring everyone else.

Trying on.

I spent, by far, the most time laying out and matching up zig-zags.  The purple knit isn’t as substantial as I’d originally thought and I’m really not sure how well it’ll wear—although it is CUTE. The zig-zags actually ran lengthwise on this fabric, which didn’t seem right, so I cut them on the cross-grain, which means the maximum stretch isn’t quite right. As a result the leggings are a bit snug, even on the Waif, who isn’t at all used to anything being tight.

I think the cuteness has made up for it, though—I made the leggings on Sunday, it’s now the following Sunday, and I’m not actually sure they’ve been taken off.*

Tags

My fave bit was using Stylish’s embroidery machine to make little tags with the first letters of their names to help the girls distinguish between their pairs. And tell front from back. The only problem with this scheme is that Syo and Fyon have names that begin with the same letter, but they don’t live in the same house so I’m hoping it won’t be a huge issue.

All mine!

And my pair? Plain black, just below knee length. I wanted them mostly for sleeping, and they have been serving that purpose nicely.

*okay, they probably have. Stylish is pretty firm about things like pjs and baths…

… and more…

Ok, so in the time it’s taken me to write up this (painfully poorly photographed) post, I made up two more leggings, from this slippery nasty spandexy stuff Syo talked me into buying ages ago. I had a metre, which turned out to be just enough for a pair of leggings for me and another for Syo. It actually wasn’t bad to sew (slippery but not rolly and it doesn’t run), but I did have to sew just about everything twice, because the narrow zig-zag I used the first time around didn’t have enough stretch. So I switched to a bulkier, but stretchier, mock-overlock stitch on the White. Incidentally, Stylish’s Memorycraft has a mock-overlock stitch and an over-edge foot that works REALLY nicely with it. Since my serger a) doesn’t make strong enough seams for stuff like this, and b) has decided not to cut anything, this kind of thing has been kinda important. They’re all really slow compared to a serger, though. *pout*

Hopefully at some point this week I’ll manage to write up the underwear I’ve been making, the Hallowe’en outfit, or even the Darth Vader dress…. but next weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving, so I’m not holding my breath for too much sewing time…