New exercise outfits really motivate me to workout. The top is Kwiksew 3036, a basic knit top with short dolman sleeves, and the exercise skirt is Jalie 2796. Both patterns are quick to sew up and may qualify as 2 of my few “tried and true” patterns as I have made them before.
i love trying new patterns, but sometimes it’s nice to use a pattern that’s all ready to use with all the fit issues worked out.
Posted in Activewear, Jalie, Knits, kwik Sew
I made some navy yoga pants and wanted a jacket to wear with them so I chose this zipped hoodie from the Autumn Winter 2011 Ottobre Woman.
I have a ton of this navy blue Polartec 100 fleece and found some white ribbed knit in my stash which I used for the hood lining, sleeve cuffs, and the binding for the pockets and hood edge. I think the navy with white trim gives the jacket a little bit of a retro look.
attaching knit strips as a binding is not difficult.
Sew the edge of the binding to your fabric, stretching the binding a bit as it is shorter than your fabric’s edge. How much shorter? It depends on the stretchiness of your fabric. I made my pieces about 20% shorter as my ribbed knit wasn’t as stretchy as some are. I used a narrow zig zag.
Press the seam open and bring the binding over the edge of the fashion fabric to the wrong side of the fabric
Fold under the edge and pin or clip into place, then topstitch from the right side, being careful to catch the folded over edge of the binding on the back in your stitching.
A coverstitch or twin needle could work for the stitching here. It is possible to do this in reverse, and start with sewing on the binding to the back of the fashion fabric and flipping it over to the front and tucking under the edge, but if you do it that way you would still topstitch front side up.
topstitching
Finished edge (hood)
Binding the pockets is a little fussier than the hood, as the edges are more curved, but they are done the same way.
A nice thing about this pattern is that there is a center back seam, which starts straight and then angles outward so I didn’t have to do a sway back alteration.
If I were to make this jacket over again, I would make the cuffs shorter in comparison to the arms: the proportions were off with my shorter arm, especially with the stark contrast between sleeve and cuff on my version. I find myself folding up the cuffs when I wear them, but then my sleeve is 3/4 length.
The fit is consistent with other Ottobre Woman patterns and I made my usual alterations (minus the swayback which was built in)
girl with a time machine 