It’s been a busy couple of weeks, after a pretty dead and uneventful January. I’ve also been running more now that I have some actual racing goals and motivation. Which is good, since the one pair of pants I’ve been able to finish since my last blog post (part 1) are my Sewaholic Pacific leggings. This was a second test run and I have to say, I like this pattern. These did not come out perfect, but I think they will be wearable enough to take them out on a run. I also did not make the same mistakes with the waistband from part 1, so some lessons learned!

I was a lot more comfortable with the gusset portion of the pants. I again followed along on the tutorial on the Sewaholic website. I’m still having trouble on knowing where to clip on the inseam. The photos and explanation just didn’t seem to make any sense to me. I clipped something, not sure it was in the right place. After I sewed the gusset to the first leg, I finished the seams with my serger. This was not in the tutorial, so I was nervous about attempting it, but it worked out really well. I ended up being able to finish the rest of the seams in the same fashion. I then decided to topstitch around the gusset seam, on the right side, hoping it would flatten things out and make it stronger overall.

I also experimented with some topstitching on the waist. I’m still undecided if I like it or not. This was the first time using the flatlock stitch on my machine. It seemed pretty inconsistent in the way it stitched and I can’t tell if it’s because of the machine or my lack of skill. Or maybe it was just because it struggled on the spandex. Either way, I haven’t decided if I want to try it again. I think it can add something interesting to the garment, I just need to make sure it’s not messy looking.

I think overall these pants look good, at least much better than my previous attempts. I would use this pattern again, however I still need to shorten these even more the next time. It was hard to tell while I was making them, but they still seem too long and baggy at the bottom.

One pair down and I’m excited to make more of these leggings in the future since they do sew up pretty fast. I think they will get better and better each time. As for the jeans I’m making, I’m currently in topstitching hell. They are coming along, just crossing my fingers I can adjust the seams so I am able to pull them on. With all the problems I have in the past making pants too large, I may have over-corrected. Well what is test fabric for, right?