Sewing Athletic Fabrics

Pattern - Love Notions' Thomas Track Pants for Men
Skill Level - Confident Beginner
Fabric - Yoga Stretch from Discovery Fabrics
Skills - Right side/wrong side, steam pressing, wicking, washing

My husband's been asking for track pants for a while now and Love Notions has come out with a quick and simple pattern that fills the bill.  It can be made in knit or woven and can be plain or colour blocked.  There's also the option to have zippers at the hem to make it easier to pull on or off over shoes.  Lots of possibilities, too, with this pattern.  Make it in a flannel fabric for PJ bottoms.  How about moisture resistant fabric for rain pants?

These pants are just begging to be made in athletic fabric, so I made hubby a pair in Discovery Fabric's Yoga Stretch.  Yoga Stretch is a type of supplex which is actually a treatment done to nylon to make it feel more like cotton.  It's very comfortable and versatile and I thought it would be perfect for the Thomas Track Pants.   I had lots of Yoga Stretch in heathered charcoal which is 48% nylon, 45% polyester and 7% spandex.  

At Discovery Fabrics, they specialize in athletic materials that you generally don't find in a fabric store.  They have a large selection of quality fabrics - everything from heavy winter wear to light summer wicking fabrics - and everything in between.

Not so long ago, I'd never sewn athletic fabrics before, and there was a bit of a learning curve for me with this new category of fabrics, so I thought I'd pass along some of the things I've learned along the way.

Wash your fabric

Although most athletic fabric isn't going to shrink on you, I always wash and dry before I sew.  And even though the care instructions are for washing in cold water and drying on a low setting, I always wash and dry the way it would be handled if for some reason hubby did the laundry!  Leslie Hanes from Discover Fabrics calls this "bomb proofing"!  There are other reasons to always wash fabrics before you use them, and to me, besides the possibility of shrinkage, the most important reason is that you are removing contaminants which might have come into contact with the fabric on the way from the mill to the warehouse.  Just ask someone who's moved bolt after bolt of new fabric to show you how dirty their hands get!

How do you tell the right and wrong side?

Sometimes a fabric looks virtually the same on both sides.  And especially if you've washed it, you might not know which is the right side.  And sometimes, athletic fabrics will lay perfectly flat, making it hard to decide which is the right side.  With nearly all knits, there's an easy way to tell.

Along the selvage edge, if you stretch the fabric it will curl to the wrong side.

Along the cut edge, if you stretch the fabric it will curl to the right side.

It's easy to mix up the sides when you're sewing if the fabric looks the same on both sides - and I've certainly done that with black fabric!  It wasn't until I wore the pants I'd made outside that I suddenly realized I'd mixed up my sides!  Now I take extra care before I start pinning pieces together.

And looking at the cut edges of these two pieces, I know the edges to the right are against the grain and I can easily see that top piece is wrong side up and the bottom is right side up.

And while this works for nearly all knits, of course there are exceptions.  For instance, an interlock will look the same on both sides - there is no right and wrong side.  But when it comes down to it - unless it's a wicking fabric, the side you choose is the correct side.

Wicking Fabrics

Wicking fabrics are wonderful, because the way they are made, they pull moisture away from your body and allow it to evaporate off the outside face of the fabric.  With some wicking fabrics, it's easy to tell right from wrong side because the side that goes against your body has a waffly texture.  Some aren't so easy, though.  A drop or two of water will help.

This fabric is Polartec Delta and is smooth on both sides.  I put drops of water on the wrong side to demonstrate how it works.

The top two wet marks are on the wrong side of the fabric, and you can see that they're already being drawn away and are fading.  The bottom wet mark is on the right side of the fabric.  It's much darker because the moisture is being pulled from the back to the front.

Steam Pressing

You may think that you can't press athletic fabrics, but you can.  The secret is a pressing cloth.  I just use a piece of old sheeting, but when laid on top of a fabric that would normally melt if touched with an iron, I can even leave the iron on for a short while to create that necessary fold for a hemline.  Or in the case of the Thomas Track Pants, a seam that I can press open to accommodate pockets.

I open the seam with my fingers and quickly lay the pressing cloth on it to keep it open.  Then I place the steaming iron on it for a couple of seconds.

And you can see in this picture the difference between where the seam has been pressed open and where I still need to iron.

And now for a bit more about the Thomas Track Pants for Men.  This versatile pattern is also a pretty quick sew.  I assembled the pattern, cut it out, and sewed it up complete with pockets in a morning.  The colour blocked and zippered options will take a little longer but you can definitely do it in a day.  The instructions are easy to understand and the pattern is available in AO versions for the print shop, a projector version and the print-at-home version that's a snap to put together as it's trimless.  Definitely a pattern to have in your collection.  And be sure to check out the quality athletic fabrics at Discovery Fabrics!

Pullover to Full Zip

Pattern - Love Notions Constellation Hoodie and Pullover
Skill Level - Confident Beginner
Fabric - Polartec Windpro Stretch from Discovery Fabrics
Skills - Zippers, Pressing Cloths, Clapper Use, Pattern Adjustments

I needed a new casual jacket for spring - one with a full zip.  I knew that the Constellation from Love Notions would work if I converted it from pullover to full zip.  And I wanted to make it from Polartec Windpro Stretch from Discovery Fabrics.  It's a warm fleece-type fabric with a smooth face that repels water.

Doing the conversion would require a number of adjustments - starting with the pattern itself.  I sized up one size as I wanted it to be roomy.

Pattern Adjustments

Since the Constellation has 3 pieces for the front, I needed to take two of them and combine them to one.

I overlapped the top and lining portion of the front by 3/8" and added another 3/8" so that the fronts matched.

And since I was going to finish the sleeves with fold over elastic instead of a cuff, I added 2" to the end of the sleeve.  I wound up taking 1" off that to get the right length - this was probably the result of sizing up.

Zipper Addition

After the front and back portion of the jacket were stitched together at the shoulder and the outer collar added, it was time to add the zipper.  The step that I was concerned about the most was getting the two halves of the separating zipper lined up correctly.

I laid out the jacket front so that the front edges were touching and matching.  With the zipper face down on the jacket front, I marked the collar seam on both sides with tailor's chalk.

Then, with the zipper separated, I applied 1/4" double-sided tape to the outer edges of the front, removed the backing and placed the zipper pieces to the front.  Note that they go right sides together with the zipper teeth facing in.

When stitching something like a zipper - it's very important to stitch in the same direction on both sides.  It does make stitching one side a bit more difficult because of the bulk that you'll be feeding through your sewing machine, but if you want your sides to match properly, it needs to be done!

And the result is a zipper installation that meshes perfectly at the seam.

Pressing and Pockets

Zipper in, it's time to attach the pockets.  I'd decided on a modified kangaroo pocket that would be sewed in place as a patch pocket.  I made the pocket narrower and shallower than the original in the pattern because I didn't want it taking up the whole bottom of the jacket.  And that would mean pressing on a polyester fabric - which you can't do.  Or can you?

If you use a pressing cloth, you can!  And if you have a clapper to slap down on the pressed seam, you will get nice sharp pressing.  With the pressing cloth in place (mine is just a piece of old cotton sheeting) steam iron on top of both layers for a few seconds.  Then place the clapper on top and press down.

This is how the collar looked after pressing.  The difference between the pressed and unpressed portion really stands out!  

Before I was ready to add the pockets, I tried on the jacket to see where the pockets should be placed and marked it with a pin.

A pressing cloth, steam iron and clapper made it possible to fold in the edges of the pocket.  Even the corners worked - I pinched the sides together to make the corner stand out and then carefully fold it in, pressing it down.  This hides all your fold edges.

To attach the pocket measure from the sides and bottom so the pockets are matching and then pin, pin, pin!

Hem Finishing

Once the sleeves and sides are sewn up, you are ready to hem.  I chose the curved hem option which sometimes makes hemming a little more challenging, but again - with the pressing cloth and clapper, it's really a simple job.

First, fold the hem over the zipper ends - right sides together and stitch up the edge following the stitching line that attached the zipper.  Now open up that corner and you're ready to fold up the hem - use lots of pins!

You can see that there are lots of bulges between pins.  This is where the pressing cloth and clapper come into play.  Lay the pressing cloth on top of the hem and steam press.

And look how nice and flat the hem is.

Topstitching the zipper

The last job is topstitching the zipper and when you're dealing with a stretchy fabric on top of a stable one, things can definitely go sideways!  You can avoid accidental tucks and warping of the fabric with a simple trick I learned from Discovery Fabrics.

With the project under your sewing machine foot and ready to go, lay a piece of light carding next to the needle, under the foot.  As you stitch down beside the zipper, move the carding down as well.  This keeps the fabric from shifting.

So that's it!  Jacket done and ready to wear!