Sport Luxe

Where are the bags? I took a break from making them last week as I was teaching a pattern cutting class on diagonal cutting. Many of you would have seen my diagonal trousers (here) that I made a while back. After teaching this subject, I decided to brush up on my skills and make a spiral sweatpants. Sweatpants are so comfortable to wear but I’m sure many of you would relate it to the gym or construction workers.  With the majority of sweatpants out there looking very basic and boring, I decided that a fashionable spiral one would be a perfect addition to my look book.

My method of making a spiral trousers pattern involves a basic trousers pattern and determining the angle of the spiral. Anyone attempting this should note that the bigger the angle, the steeper the diagonal lines are. This produces a very short and steep spiral line and hence is not that dramatic. From the top of the front trousers pattern, I used an angle of less that 45 degrees (to the crease line) and bisect the bottom of the pocket line. Then it is a matter of cutting out and pasting it to the back (and the front, then the back, etc) to produce a continuous length of pattern where the front and back pieces are merged into one.

You can see from the pattern above that the spiral is in a curve. This is due to the slim fit of the trousers which tapers down from the hips. CUTTERS BEWARE! With spiral/diagonal patterns, you end up with a very long piece of pattern. Extremely uneconomical especially with the curve in the pattern but I am saving the off-cuts to make a sweater so everything gets put into good use.

The spiral sweatpants looks really good but I needed something to pair it up with. I remembered a couple of weeks back, I watched an advert where this guy was wearing a part shear T-shirt and I immediately went, ‘I’d like that!’. After scouring the remanent basket in Berwick Street, I found a white silk crepe satin and a white silk chiffon that went perfectly well with the design. With a slight amendment to my existing T-shirt pattern, I made a part satin, part chiffon top.

I’m sure everyone hates cutting and sewing silk. It’s one of the most difficult fabrics to work with but you end up with an extremely luxurious garment, soft to the touch and drapes extremely well.

This silk T-shirt goes so well with the spiral sweatpants and creates a very sport luxe look but I doubt I will be wearing it to the gym anytime soon.

I am itching to wear this look now but with nowhere to go, I will have to leave it for another day. Maybe when it is sunny and dry, not wet and cloudy like today. Until then, I guess it’s back to bags.