Exercise pants

My sweat pants that I use for exercising at home needed to be retired, so I used yet another piece of the polyester fabric that I received for Christmas to make myself new exercise pants.

For a pattern, I measured myself and sketched out a pattern (complete with seam allowances, and ease for room to move), knowing that I could alter it anywhere that it didn't fit.

I have been experimenting recently with doing away with the outside leg seams on pants, by making each leg a single piece of fabric that extends all the way up to the waist, and that joins with the other leg in the front and back; making a pair of pants from two larger pieces of fabric, instead of four smaller ones.

I took my current measurements to use in the pattern; if you're going to make something for yourself, you might as well customize it. A hint I learned (from Sewing for Plus Sizes, by Barbara Deckert) is to also measure your hips and thighs while sitting down, but I skipped that this time.

The fabric was rather thin, so I partially lined it with one of the other polyester knits; some of which I had to piece together. I basted each lining piece to the edges of its corresponding main piece before sewing the main pieces together. I used a piece of reclaimed elastic for the waistband.

Upon trying it on, I found two things that needed to be changed:  I forgot to measure my calves, and the pants were too tight there. Also, for some reason, the pants were much too long. The first I fixed by making a slash in each pants leg and sewing a long triangle of fabric into it.  The second just needed cutting and hemming at a higher point.

The end result is a bit funny-looking--the geometry of pants is tricky to get right, and I was throwing these pants together quickly--but fits fairly well and will serve its purpose.