Two pairs of Manila Leggings

If you haven't heard about my favorite magazine, then you're going to right now :) The lovely team over at Colette Patterns started a monthly online magazine, Seamwork, which is chock full of sewing related articles that have tips, how-tos, and patterns. Not going to lie, the patterns are hands down my favorite part of Seamwork. Each issue costs $6 for subscribers and the price includes the two patterns! So, the Manila leggings only cost me $3. Pretty good deal, huh?


I've been on a leggings kick (more on that later) and loveeee the cuff detail, so over the last few days I made two pairs. Forget Superbowl, Katy Perry, and Tom Brady. It was all about Manila this past weekend for me! Side note: who else was hoping that one of the shark costumes would unzip and Snoop Dogg would pop out? Also, didn't Superbowl commercials used to be funny? What happened this year???? Please note, this is coming from someone who doesn't really care about football and cares more about the entertainment and the guacamole and chips situation. Guac and chips > football, in my opinion at least :P


Speaking of food, I had some fun Funki Fabrics ice cream fabric in my arsenal that I was dying to use, but I knew making a wearable muslin first would be the best way to go. This pretty purple knit was purchased from Fabric Mart last year and for the life of me I can't find it anywhere on the website, so no link for you guys.

The pattern instructions were followed to a T and everything sewed up really fast. The most time consuming part for me was attaching the waistband/elastic, but even that didn't take long. Despite the simplicity of the pattern I managed to sew one of the cuffs on backwards, but I am currently ok with that. Also, this was a rare instance when I did not have to shorten the leg length to fit me, so all you ladies with longer legs may need to lengthen them.


Version two was made from this radical ice cream cone printed lycra from Funki Fabrics. Yes, the fabric is very vibrant. No, the fabric doesn't bleed in the wash (I put a color catcher in the washer and it came out white). Yes, wearing ice cream leggings to the gym may or may not be inappropriate, but it's going to happen anyways.

I'd like to note that Funki Fabrics did send me this fabric as a gift and I am very impressed with it. Once I got the fabric in my hands I was so happy with it that I ordered four yards of some of their other fabrics. The quality is great, the design options are so unique (they have in house designers), and I can't think of any other place with this many options. I paid full price, tax, and shipping just like anyone else would. Over the next few weeks I'm going to be posting some of the things I have made from Funki Fabrics and I will make sure to be clear on what a gift and what was purchased.


Ok, back to the ice cream pants. The cuffs are on correctly, however the fabric doesn't hold the petal cuff as nicely as the purple pair. The only change I made was making the elastic a little tighter. The pattern recommends cutting the elastic two inches smaller than your natural waist, which works great for leggings that I wear during the day. When I want to make/wear leggings for working out I like to make the elastic fit a little more snug, so I am not fidgeting and pulling up my pants when I'm going into down dog. The elastic for this pair is three and a half inches smaller than my waist, so hopefully there will be less adjusting pants and more focusing on yoga!


Have any of you sewn Manila? Any other Mariachi El Bronx fans out there??!