Homemade Leggings for Nearly All of Us

Because Matt said that he didn't want leggings, the silly boy. Leggings are way more comfortable than basketball shorts and tracksuit bottoms, Dude!

I just want to say right off that you don't sew your own leggings to save money. Sweatshop leggings bought from big-box clothing stores that earn an F on their Fair Trade practices are waaaaay cheaper. Like, WAY cheaper. And when I can find thrift store leggings that don't have holes or grass stains, I snatch those babies up!

So why DO you sew your own leggings?

So that you can make dreams like this come true for your kid:



I mean, it helps if your kid's dream is to own leggings made from holographic blue mermaid scale fabric...

This particular fabric (actually, as is all of the fabric that I'm going to show you) is from Spandex World. Yes, I shopped at an online store named Spandex World. I really liked them for this project, in particular, because they offer the stretch percentages for many of their fabrics. If you're just starting to sew leggings, so you can't yet tell what will work just by feel, that's even more helpful than shopping in person in a place where that info isn't offered, in my opinion.

Also, I feel like half the craft bloggers out there have a free leggings "tutorial," but they generally all consist of "Step #1: Trace around a pair of leggings that you already own. Step #2: Sew those leggings," and I call hijinks. That nonsense works for little kids, when their bodies are just straight little noodles, but it's not happening for tweens, teens, and adults.

My own personal Step #1 was to search for a digital pattern that I liked, and buy it. For Syd's leggings, I bought the Felicity Sewing Patterns Children's Leggings pattern, and I'm perfectly happy with it. I had to fiddle with it a bit--which is another thing that's MUCH better than "trace your clothes," because with a real pattern, it's so much easier to make the waist a size 10 and the length a size 12, with a low-rise waist, like so:

Here are my new favorite things about sewing leggings:

1. You don't have to hem the bottom of full-length leggings. I do hem the bottom of the biker shorts that I've made Syd, but when they're ankle length, I think they look nice unhemmed.
2. There's only one pattern piece. It's super quick to cut out.
3. They sew up so quickly! Yesterday, I was able to whip up a new pair of leggings for myself in the hour between when we got home from the apple orchard and when I had to leave for the Girl Scout volunteers meeting, and that included the time  that it took for Syd to dress her doll in a complete outfit to complement the doll leggings that I also sewed in that time and to do a photo shoot of me and the doll wearing our leggings.

Another favorite thing?

This kid was absolutely THRILLED about her new mermaid leggings, and *I* made that happen!

I wanted to do a photo shoot of Syd's new leggings, because if I'm going to buy the fabric and make them and they're going to turn out awesome then heck, yeah, I'm going to show them off! Excuse how much eye makeup Syd is wearing in these photos, because apparently mermaids just wear a lot of eye makeup.

Do you see how she laid out her play silks to look like a mermaid's fin? This kid.

I don't have an immediate use for four-way stretch fabric scraps, so I've been trying to use up every square inch in this leggings project. There was enough leftover from Syd's full-length leggings to make her a pair of bike shorts--

And you might also have noticed that her American Girl doll has her own pair of mermaid leggings. The American Girl doll leggings pattern is from Artsy-Fartsy Mama, and I've sewn it a billion times now. I don't always put elastic in the waistband, and in consequence, I've cut several inches from the waist of the pattern.

Of course, if I'm going to make special leggings for Syd, then I've got to make leggings for Will, too. Will is probably the worst person to sew leggings for, because she's crazy rough on clothes, and unlike her sister or I, will not take pains to keep something nice. Sigh. Nevertheless, here are her brand-new leggings (along with bike shorts for Syd and leggings for the American Girl doll from the scrap fabric):

Will's pattern is the Patterns for Pirates Peg Legs pattern, which is so good that I absolutely cannot believe that it's free! I would pay good money for such a terrific pattern! There are even free add-ons so that you can do even more cool things to the leggings! The sizes run pretty small, but they go up really high, so it works out. I used an XL for Will, and she claims that it fits well and didn't even want me to put elastic in the waistband.



And here are the leggings that I made for ME!

I need to do some troubleshooting on my pattern, grr. I didn't cut the waistband that it wants you to cut, fold in half, and then attach to the leggings for Will, because I thought I'd end up adding elastic but then she didn't want it, so I forgot all about the waistband for me, and now that my leggings keep wanting to slip down, I'm wondering if duh, that fold-over waistband might have helped! So that will be another little project to try before I'm confident that I'm confident with my own leggings pattern.

Syd, however, loves her doll's new galaxy leggings, which came out just perfect:

Like I said, these are NOT money-saving leggings, but they're not too terribly expensive, either, especially considering that I can make two kid leggings plus one doll pair from one cut of fabric, so there will more than likely be at least one more order from Spandex World in our near future.

After all, they do make that holographic mermaid scale print in several colorways...

AND Syd says that she'd also really like a skater dress, also in mermaid scale fabric, so there's another fun sewing project to get to!

P.S. Want to follow along on more of my crafting adventures? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page for lots of pics and WIPs!

Trashion/Refashion Show 2018: Medieval Maiden

This was the year that Syd not only designed but constructed her own complete garment for the Trashion/Refashion Show. I'd been threatening/promising her for years that the next year, she'd be on her own, but then the next year would roll around, she'd design some complicated garment, and before I knew it there I'd be, muscling together sequins and T-shirts and silk sheets at the sewing machine.

And then I formed a Girl Scout troop, and that troop decided to become, during the month of February, the Girl Scout Cookie War Machine, and I found myself instead spending eighty-hour weeks as the fixer for the world's largest girl-led business. I realized that I had to let go of also figuring out the construction of a child-designed outfit from unsuitable fabrics under the unflinching supervision of said child/tyrant.

So Syd did it alone this year. And it was amazing. For both of us, I think.

It was interesting to watch how Syd approached constructing her garment this year. Previously, she's only ever had to worry about the design itself--although she helped me sew and glue, she didn't have the responsibility of figuring out exactly HOW to make her design reality. This year, of course, she had ALL of that responsibility, and I noticed that she was instinctively more flexible and more adaptable, more experimental. She let the fabric guide her as much as she did her design, and I think that it shows in her final result. The completed Medieval Maiden garment certainly resembles her original design, but to me, having seen the skirt that she started with, it looks much more organic than our previous collaborations--it's not so much that she took this and that and the other thing and made something completely different with them, as we've done in previous years; more that she molded these things into something that works differently, but is still very much what it was in the beginning.

My favorite part of the entire process might be the photo shoot that I get to do for her application, especially if the weather is cooperating for a change. I have to include some required poses, but after that we just get to show off!

One of my favorite parts of Syd's garment is that when she's still, with her arms back, you can't see her wings.

Syd would tell you that the wings are made from the inner lining of the original skirt. I will tell you that they're actually made of pure drama.

The interesting thing about this skirt was that it had three layers, plus lots of embellishments to play with. Syd kept the outer layer as-is, although at the dress rehearsal she decided that it needed to be pinned up at the sides so that she wouldn't trip during spins. The inner layer of the skirt made the wings, and Syd used the waistband of the middle layer as her neckline, then cleverly split it down the back and tacked it in place where she wanted the stitching to stay. And that's how she made herself that open back!

In the detail images you can see all the pleating and embroidery leftover from the costuming.

It's important to me that a child's garment, even one meant to be seen on a fashion show runway, should welcome active movement--really, it should invite it. Syd, however, makes her design decisions without my input, so I was pleased to see that she incorporated so much of that ethic into her own garment. This dress is made to move!

And one last action shot that has the bonus of showing off our junky yard!

Syd also had the responsibility of caring for her garment until the show, which I guess explains this pic that I found on my phone of her cat sleeping on the dress, which is, of course, crumpled on the carpet. Sigh...

Eight years in, Syd and I are old pros at spending the day of the fashion show in the theater. We get to watch all of the other acts--

--eat some pizza (eight years in, Syd also has a LOT of opinions about how much pizza one should take from the craft services table in order to ensure that there's enough pizza for everyone, and we spent the rest of the afternoon after this discussing the specific ways in which she felt that some people were not observing this completely unwritten, made-up, and entirely in her head rule. Life with tweens!)--

--and touch up her hair and makeup. I still got to help with the hair, but my days of doing makeup are apparently over:

And then--it's showtime!

Here's the video, if you'd prefer the full audience experience:



This is the first year that I did not have to step on stage AT ALL. I was a little sad when I realized that this meant that I wouldn't have the same backstage time with Syd--we're quite fond of our silent backstage dance parties!--but otherwise, the stage is not somewhere that I currently feel called to be. I was happy to watch her shine from my seat safely in the audience:



And look at her shine. Always, afterwards, I ask her if she's glad that it's over. Always, she tells me that she wishes she was still onstage:

We'll be back again next year, I guess!

P.S. You can always find WIP pics and discussions from these and all my other weird projects on my Craft Knife Facebook page.

I Made My Kid a Shirt

Does anyone actually like making muslins?

Not me! It's a freaking waste of fabric, that's for sure, although fine, I get even more pissed if I sew something and it doesn't fit correctly, especially because it would have fitted perfectly if I'd JUST SEWN A FREAKING MUSLIN FIRST.

I compromise with myself in that, when I DO sew a muslin, I try to make it something that will be wearable in its own right, if it works, but out of fabric that I won't be sorry to repurpose or turn into dishrags if it doesn't work. It's even fun, because I'll make fabric choices that I wouldn't normally make, such as the time that I sewed this muslin for Syd out of mismatched stash fabrics that she loved but that I didn't care for and probably wouldn't use in garments of my own design.

How do I end up with stash fabric that I don't love? I cave to kids in fabric stores, that's how.

I've made two recent "muslins that aren't really," both for Syd's Trashion/Refashion Show garment for this year. One was this basic upcycled jean skirt--

It's sewn from a pair of jeans that fit Syd well in the waist but that were too short and had holes in the knees, to boot--mending the knees of kid-sized skinny jeans is a nightmare repair job! The front piece is stash flannel, the blue dotted bias tape is the last scrap leftover from this hooded towel, and since it wasn't quite long enough for the entire circumference I made two matching pieces of bias tape from the pink flannel to piece it out to fit. See? A little too mismatched for my taste, but the kid likes it just fine.

--which I'm just now realizing the kid tricked me into making shorter than I'd like her skirts to be, but which also let me test out the construction method and desired look for the denim/formalwear fabric skirt that I'm entering in the show.

The other muslin is for a shirt that I'll also sew out of formalwear, but from stretch fabrics that allowed me to substitute jersey knit for the muslin. This turned into a shirt that I really love:

Why yes, I AM using the crap out of that "Think Spring" backdrop for as long as the drive-in owners keep it up. Fun fact: the other night, while I distracted the kids, Matt had to sneak over there in the dark and fix it back, because we came home from fencing and ballet to find that some hooligans had changed it to "Thick Pricks." And THEN about five minutes after Matt had gone out, I saw the lights from a police car RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE! I was about to tear outside and run over to inform the cops that Matt was FIXING IT, DAMMIT, but just then he came back in and said that he'd just finished, and the lights were just a police car pulling over a speeder. Whew!

 I really love the hood that I drafted, and the light blue/black color combo. The black fabric is stash jersey knit of indeterminate origin, and the blue fabric is from the backs of two matching Girl Scout camp T-shirts from a few years ago. I didn't think of the idea before I'd already tossed a couple of outgrown Girl Scout T-shirts, but now I'm saving them all for a couple of someday quilts.

The sleeves of this pattern were too short--see? So glad that I sewed a muslin!--and I was sewing late at night while Matt was finishing up a Girl Scout cookie booth with the kids and I managed to sew the ribbing on one cuff inside out. I just sewed the second cuff to match.

I altered the pattern piece of the sleeves to lengthen them after this, but then it turns out that the formal blouse that I'm using for part of the shirt in Syd's Trashion/Refashion Show garment doesn't have enough material for full-length sleeves, anyway, so that shirt will actually have half-length sleeves.

Oh, well. I like this pattern well enough that I'm sure I'll make a few more. You can't have too many long-sleeved hooded T-shirts!

Trashion/Refashion Show 2016: The Phoenix

My kid has designed and modeled a garment in our town's Trashion/Refashion Show for SIX YEARS now. Here, I'll prove it to you!

Fairy Princess: 2011

Rainbow Fairy: 2012

Rose Dress: 2013

Upside-Down Orange: 2014

The Awesomes: 2015

And now, for 2016, I give you The Phoenix!

The photo above shows the basic garment that Syd and I sewed WHILE I HAD THE FLU. I am hard-core, my Friends! I later added a double petticoat made of sheer curtains from Goodwill and the sash from Matt's high school graduation outfit.

I did my best to recreate Syd's original design, below:

Syd's designs are always this detailed, but fortunately, she gets the fact that construction is a totally different ballgame, and feathers can't always be found at Goodwill, and vat-dyeing corduroy yellow apparently makes it turn green--we did lace instead of feathers, and a red velvet bodice instead of a yellow one. I'm not as pleased with it as I'd like to be, but honestly, I did pretty damn good considering that I had the flu!

Syd, of course, always gives it her all. Here she is practicing onstage the day of the show:

The red Converse that her grandmother bought her kill me with cuteness.

 Tricoci University (formerly Hair Arts Academy) students generously donated their time and expertise to do hair and makeup again this year; Syd's hair designer thrilled her by creating exactly the tri-colored, half-up/half-down impossible hairdo that Syd asked for, and although the makeup artist wasn't able to create the impossible (Syd really wanted this exact look, bless her heart), she did the red flames that Syd later had me fill in with metallic orange and gold, with gold accents:

Who knew that metallic orange would bring out the green in her hazel eyes?

 Syd did her own lipstick, of COURSE:

Every year, this kid amazes me onstage, and this year?

She amazed me:


When the audience starts to cheer so loudly for my baby that the emcee has to pause her spiel? Ugh, my heart can't handle it.

Unlike last year, when I had TWO kids in costume and thus didn't manage to get a single photo of them in the flurry of "stop touching your face, here let me get that smudge, please don't step on your cape, your boot is untied again, pee now so you don't pee on the runway," I actually managed to get several photos of my kid this year!

I did NOT say that the photos would necessarily be in focus, just that they would exist.

I even managed to get a good photo of sisters together--

--just before they started fighting:

And pics with total strangers! Yay!

And just like that, there goes another year of the fashion show. Personally, I am stoked to be done with couture runway design for another eight months.

Syd, however? I kid you not, in the scrum to exit the theater after the show, she began with her patented "I was thinking..." and then proceeded to tell me her design plans for next year's Trashion/Refashion Show garment. 

Something about pop tabs, I think, and silver lame...