Monday, May 25, 2015

My PB Jam Leggings

This summer I am starting a Bikram Yoga 60 day challenge...that means I'm going to be going through my workout wear pretty quickly. After making some of the Fehr Trade Duathlon leggings earlier this year for the PR Athletic Wear contest and loving them (they quickly became my favorites), I decided to try my hand at the PB Jam leggings.

I bought a bunch of fabric from Spandex World. My first two pair are mirror images of each other. The black is their supplex, the grey is the "moisture management." Quite frankly, I can't tell any difference. I'm guessing its due to different manufacturers.Because I made capri length instead of full length leggings I was able to cut leg pieces and contrast pieces from exactly one yard of fabric in each color. I cut a size xs.



It was really hard to tell right side from wrong side with this fabric. I could barely make out that one side looked slightly ribbed and one side flatter. My guess that the ribbed side was the right side was confirmed when I did a quick "squirt test" with a water bottle on mist setting on each side of some scraps. The water is supposed to move from the wrong side to the right as it wicks and that is what happened. I was also glad to know that the fabric actually does what it says it does! Once I had the right side distinguished from the wrong side, I marked each wrong side piece with a small piece of painter's tape.

I was really worried about the curvy accent pieces and being able to get them matched up. Thank you, Melissa, for reminding newbies like me to baste the side seams first to make sure of the match. I would have bravely forged forwarded and serged on through trusting to luck and then cursed a thousand curses. That "hint" she included saved me an hour of frustration.


The notches on the accents/curvy parts match up perfectly! I had no trouble placing them in the legs. (I still struggle knowing how to make sure the edges of both pieces on the side (where the side seams will be) will be even so you end up with a nice smooth edge; I know there has to be overlap but that part still takes me some fiddling. But I think this is a skill/experience issue, not a pattern issue because as I said, the pieces fit together beautifully.)


A Few Changes I Made
  • I shortened them to the capri length. I live in the desert. No full length leggings for me! I used my Fehr Trade Duathlon pattern pieces to help me find the right length.

  • I took out the contrast piece on the back knee, mostly because I just don't like it (the curves and that block seem to fight each other, not complement each other); also because it just seemed like it would be uncomfortable to have seam allowances (SAs) chafing there. I taped the back leg pieces/contrast knee piece together, folding over the SAs, and then again used my Duathlon pieces to cut it to capri length. 
The Back
  • The center back seam! One of these days I'm going to read other people's reviews BEFORE I start! There is a really weird bulge between the waistline and the butt that I just don't get. After fiddling with it and thinking "surely I did something wrong," I read other reviews and found the same problem cropping up. Since my Duathlons fit great, I laid that piece over this pattern's piece and traced its CB seamline. Perfect!

ETA: Melissa of Fehr Trade has updated this pattern recently to fix this problem. Any new purchasers will have a corrected pattern. If you have already purchased this pattern, just email her and she'll send you a corrected one. Thanks, Melissa!


I absolutely love these leggings! I haven't been able to try them out at Bikram yet (studio is closed for roof repairs), but I will be soon. They have, however, worked great at step and cycling.