SEW ALONG: BOO! LEGGINGS – Day 3
Oh hello, it’s you again! Great to see you. Hopefully you are here to finish off your leggings!
This is a link to the LEGGINGS SAL DAY 3 thread (also accessible via the Pattern Club Group Photo Albums section).
Throughout the sew along you can tag your posts on social media with #boopins #boobabypins #boopinsSAL #boopinsSALday3 if you like!
Today we are adding our waistband elastic!
Follow the pattern to sew your waistband elastic together.
Fold in half but move the overlap slightly away from the fold. This is so when attached, the overlap of the elastic is slightly away from the centre back join of the leggings and is not too bulky. Mark the folded edges.
Align the marked points and mark the folded edges again. This is called marking into quarters and is sometimes referred to as quartering your elastic.
Align centre front and back of leggings and place a pin in the folded edges. The seam lines and pins are the quarter points of your waist opening.
Insert elastic into the waist opening matching quarter points. Make sure the overlapped piece is to the back!
Sew the elastic to the fabric along the raw edge.
For sewing machine, it is best to do this with a long wide zig zag stitch.
For overlocker, you can set your overlocker stitch length back to normal for this step if you want to (I don’t bother)! When attaching the elastic, the fabric should exceed the elastic by just a tiny bit meaning that as you are sewing, the fabric will slightly wrap around the edge of the elastic to hide it. It is a good idea to disengage your overlocker during this step to ensure you don’t cut into the elastic or just make sure that the elastic is very slightly away from the knife so you are not cutting it. You may need to check your manual for whether disengaging the knife is an option for your machine.
Attach branding and size or care labels now. I just pop them under and sew a little stitch on the sewing machine to secure them. You can also use your trusty Sewling glue step here if you have one! If you are sewing for pleasure, it is a great idea to sew a little ribbon or loop of spandex on the back here so the wearer knows which is the back.
Fold the waistband down to conceal the elastic. Use pins or clips to firmly hold the elastic ensuring there is no excess fabric above the elastic.
Use your preferred hem settings established yesterday to sew the waist. For twin needle or coverstitch stitching, I usually prefer the narrow needles for the leg hems and wide needles for the waistband, but then I also can’t be bother swapping over, so I will usually just do sew them narrow as well!
Some really important stuff. When stitching, I use my left hand to pull the fabric out to the left and use my right hand to slightly stretch the fabric by pulling towards me gently as I sew. This will do 2 things, it will ensure that there is no excess fabric or bubbling happening above the elastic and by pulling it out to the left while sewing it stops the waist casing from twisting. It is a little tricky to master right away and you will feel like you don’t have enough hands, but it gets easier!!
Anddddd GUESS WHAT????? You have made a pair of leggings!!!!
(Note: I would normally match my threads to my outside fabric or use a fun contrast like hot pink, but I left them white so you could see what is going on!)
I hope you are proud of your efforts and would love you to join me tomorrow and I will run though some fun options to pimp your next pair of leggings!
