As I said back in January, I needed more gym tights (I’m at the gym five days a week now so I really needed some). After I realized how easy it was to make them, I wanted to put together a “fit capsule” as discussed on the Greenstyle patterns blog.
The tanks are all blogged here and the print tights are blogged here. The last two pair of tights are the nicest, both in terms of fabric quality and construction: I finally figured out how to make a really professional looking seam (that won’t unravel)!
I ended up joining the Greenstyle Facebook group and lurking there, asking for advice and reading what other people did. Turns out, you can just use the regular settings on your serger, sew the seam with the wrong sides together so the seam allowance is on the outside, and then topstitch it down with a twin needle. It looks so much nicer than the four-thread flatlock I used on the stripe pair (four-thread flatlock on the left below; topstitched reverse seam on the right).
The fabric on the stripe and the orange pair is Supplex, which is a trademarked nylon yarn that is lovely–feels like cotton but is softer and wicks sweat away. (The navy stripe is from Stonemountain and the orange is from The Fabric Fairy.) For this pattern in a medium, I need a yard and a quarter of fabric–so it works out to be Old Navy prices for each tight, but with cool prints, nicer fabrics, no sweatshops, and POCKETS. Yay sewing!