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Sewing Activewear

Sewing Activewear

Posted by Claire on 28th Apr 2020

Are you keeping or starting a fitness regime during lockdown?

Bored of wearing the same old sportswear?

Time to sew your own!!

 

Most people are put off, thinking they need specialist machines - overlockers, coverstitch machines etc, but you can sew it all, on a basic sewing machine.  

The only specialist things you'll need are: 

  • washable activewear fabric, with lots of stretch & recovery in your fabric (no-one wants a saggy bottom!)
  • a form of zig zag stitch on your machine, so the stitches don't pop open as your fabric stretches, during your forward bend!
  • a stretch machine needle, to prevent skipped stitches.
  • an activewear sewing pattern, which has allowed for the stretch of the fabric, in the cut of the pattern.

Fabric

Any close fitting activewear fabric, will need to have some stretch in it.  Depending on how much the fabric is going to be stretched, will increase the need for more elasticity.  This comes in many forms - cotton or polyesters containing lycra, elastane, spandex etc.  But basically they all allow the fabric to stretch & just as importantly recover back to the pre-stretched shape.  Stretch activewear fabrics don't tend to fray, so you don't need to worry about raw edges - that speeds up your project!

                                          

Thread

A standard polyester machine thread is all you need.

Stitches

A small narrow zig zag stitch is perfect for activewear seams, some machines have a pre-set stitch for this - it looks like a lightening bolt.  A lot of the stretch seams, your machine comes with, can be quite thick & bulky & not the sort of thing you'd want on your crotch seam!  You can also use the narrow zig zag stitch for hemming your activewear, as it will give, as the fabric stretches.  If you want a professional looking stretch hem, you could try a twin needle, which gives parallel lines of straight stitch on the top of the fabric & a zig zag (for the stretch) on the bottom.  Like on the hem of your t-shirt.

Needle

A stretch machine needle has a hollow groove shape & a ballpoint tip, helping prevent skipped stitches or cutting the elastic fibres of the fabric.

                                         

Sewing Patterns

With the growing trend for sewing activewear, there are so many patterns on the market.  A simple top or leggings might be a good place to start your activewear sewing, before tackling that sports bra!!  The big 4 pattern companies have a range of patterns, but so do a lot of independent pattern companies.  These you can usually buy as a pdf pattern, download to your computer & print at home on A4 paper.  If there are big pattern pieces, for example leggings, you can have them printed with a specialist large format printer company.

Here are some of the independent pattern companies I've used:

GreenStyle Creations

5 out of 4 Patterns

Swim Style Patterns

Papercut Patterns

FehrTrade

Jalie

This is the large format printing company, I've used too:

ezeeprint


Good Luck with your lockdown sewing!

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info@timelessfabrics.co.uk

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