Pacific leggings (for all that exercising I do)

So I'm not the most regular exerciser, and if I do anything these days it's either walking or cycling.  I might not bother making "performance wear" (quotes required to indicate my decidedly lack of performance while wearing anything), particularly leggings, if it weren't for for a buy-one-get-one pattern sale at Sewaholic a while back, and recently purchasing too much dri-fit performance knit from Mood.  Tack on that I'm anticipating doing some serious hiking this weekend at Big Trees State Park and in a couple of weeks in Alaska, and this project skipped to the head of the queue.

Okay, wow.  First off, I made leggings!  Second, they are awesome!  The pattern (Pacific leggings by Sewaholic) is easy and interesting, with the seam that wraps around the leg and the optional back pocket for your phone, chapstick, or FitBit.  I went with view C, with the pocket from B.  The main body of the leggings are size 0, grading up to 2-4 at the waistband. They might be a touch tight, but I guess that's what keeps them up!

The wide waistband makes the waist pretty comfortable, with an extra layer to hold stuff in.  In the future, I might lengthen the rise of the tights, since I'm an old lady.  However, these leggings are yet another stellar pattern from Tasia at Sewaholic.

Back pocket!  Brilliant.  It perfectly fits my moderately sized phone, and while it's a bit bulky back there, the blame can fall squarely on the phone.

For the construction, I wanted the look of decorative topstitching on the seams, but I'm not sure my coverstitch machine would do it properly.  So, I sewed all the seams on my serger, wrong sides together.  Then, I pressed the serged edge to one side and stitched it down with with a straight stitch.

It's important to be symmetrical with the direction in which you press the seams, since it's so visible!

Here's an inside shot of the crotch gusset (above).  I was able to serge the edges in two passes, which worked well.  Since all of the seams are sewn with the seam allowance on the outside, the inside seams are super smooth and lovely (see below)!

 I might have to go out and actually exercise in these babies!