Crazy Print Leggings

"You know you look like you belong in the 80's?"

Apparently my husband meant this as an insult, but I guess he doesn't know that the 80's are totally, like, so in right now. 

I'm not sure I can get into the whole pants-with-prints trend that's happening now, but I can deal with wild leggings. Especially if they only take an hour to make! 

The pattern is McCall's 6137, in XS, which I've made three? other times before (here, here, here). I've even transferred my tissue paper pattern to sturdy cardstock, so consider this a TNT! As a reminder, I've shortened the original in a few places (I'm 5'4"), lowered the rise, and removed a small wedge from CB. Every time I make these I think that I need to lower the rise even more...but I like a low rise. Just keep that in mind.

The fabric is a nylon/spandex knit from Girl Charlee (only 5 yards left at the time I'm writing this!). I ordered it specifically for this pattern, and it worked out perfectly. This type of fabric could be used for a swimsuit (with a lining) so it's not particularly warm as leggings. Okay, it's not warm at all. Normally I prefer more practicality, but every now and then I choose form over function.

The only tricky part of sewing this up was trying to arrange the motifs in a non-bullseye kind of way around the center front. But after staring at it for a while...I kind of just went for it. I'm not the type of person to wear leggings as pants (and you shouldn't be either!) so I'll likely always have a tunic or dress covering the top portion (you can read about the sweater I'm wearing here).

I sewed the seams with my serger and the hems with my coverstitch. I also sewed the waistband elastic to the top edge with my serger (knife disabled!) and then turned it down to the inside and coverstitched over the raw edge. Sooooooo much faster than making a casing!

Finally, make sure you always sew a tag into leggings, it can be tricky to tell the front from the back!

If you haven't tried this pattern yet, what are you waiting for?! Or do you have another leggings pattern that you prefer?