From the January issue of Seamwork, I made the Manila leggings. These fall into the muslin category. Going into this, I knew I was using some of the most horrible fabric known to man. It’s some sparkly pink 2-way stretch lycra. And by stretch, I mean that it stretches and kinda stays there. It has about as much bounce-back as a rubber band that’s been rotting in the sun for 2 years.
Anyhow, my point is that I knew what I was getting into, but I didn’t want to make pants that were the wrong size with good lycra and I really wanted to get this out of my stash, so there ya go.
It’s a pretty was easy pattern. Only 4 pattern pieces. And they all go together pretty obviously.
I made my waistband with 3/4” elastic (the pattern calls for 1”) because I didn’t think there was enough fabric for the 1”. In retrospect, I think this is due to the lack of vertical stretch in my fabric so if I were to make these again, I’d go with the 1”.
The only slightly odd part in the directions, where I was a bit confused, was the petal cuff but I think that there was some weirdness there due to the my fabric selection and not the pattern — things didn’t overlap as much as I thought they should based on the pattern. But I tried on the pants part way through which I’m fairly certain stretched them irreparably since up until then, pieces had been matching quite nicely.
Here’s how the cuffs look pinned and ready to be sewed.
And serged cuffs. For this one (as opposed to my Oslo cardigan) I just went straight for the serger. None of that sewing with a stretchy stitch first. I knew these were either going to work or they wouldn’t, so I didn’t need the extra caution.
When they’re done the cuffs look quite cute! I might make these again if I can find some fun fabric now that I know I’m working with the right size since the cuff is pretty cute. They worked up in probably an hour or two tops — nice and fast! If I did them again, I’d also drop the waistband about 2 inches since that’s where I prefer to wear it.
Overall, I do recommend it, but definitely use 4-way stretch fabric!
