Jalie 2005 sewn with wickaway jersey from Rose City Textiles. Since my sewing is on hold for a while, I have more time for blogging. And that's a great oppertunity to talk a bit about sewing workout wear. It's something I enjoy and also want to encourage others to do. It's really easy and can also save you a lot of money (unlike many other sewing projects) since high end workout wear often cost a small fortune in stores.
Patterns from Sewing swim and action wear and wickaway fabrics from Rockywoods and Rose City Textiles respectively. The top is more than six years old and shows no sign of wear whatsoever.
You can get great wickaway fabrics at a low cost from many on-line fabric stores. They sell the same fabrics that the big name manufacturers use and the fabrics I bought five-six years ago still holds up, unlike the cheapo workout wear from chain stores that starts to pill and wear down in less than a year.
So here are my best resources for sewing workout wear:
Favorite pattern makers:
Kwik-Sew
Jalie
Burda magazine
The Green Pepper
Favorite fabric stores:
Rose City Textiles
Wazoodle
Rockywoods
Pennine Outdoor
Please note that I have not ordered from these stores for a while (due to my long exercise hiatus), but in the past the service and quality has always been great. I especially love RCT and RW for their huge range of functional fabrics.
Best beginner's book:
Sewing swim and action wear
Best overall resource:
Specialty outdoor
The stuff I have made myself are really simple designs as you can see - I don't like being too frilly when working out. Also, most of the workout clothes that I own were made many years ago when I had just bought my serger and was less proficient. But of course there are options for those who likes to bring more fashion to their workout gear. Burda magazine for instance have really cool designs on some of their workout patterns.
Patterns from Sewing swim and action wear and wickaway fabrics from Rockywoods and Rose City Textiles respectively. The top is more than six years old and shows no sign of wear whatsoever.So here are my best resources for sewing workout wear:
Favorite pattern makers:
Kwik-Sew
Jalie
Burda magazine
The Green Pepper
Favorite fabric stores:
Rose City Textiles
Wazoodle
Rockywoods
Pennine Outdoor
Please note that I have not ordered from these stores for a while (due to my long exercise hiatus), but in the past the service and quality has always been great. I especially love RCT and RW for their huge range of functional fabrics.
Best beginner's book:
Sewing swim and action wear
Best overall resource:
Specialty outdoor
The stuff I have made myself are really simple designs as you can see - I don't like being too frilly when working out. Also, most of the workout clothes that I own were made many years ago when I had just bought my serger and was less proficient. But of course there are options for those who likes to bring more fashion to their workout gear. Burda magazine for instance have really cool designs on some of their workout patterns.
Hello there, thankyou for these pattern and fabric suggestions. You are absolutely right, buying workout wear in stores could send a person broke! I have vowed to make all my own clothing this year and now I need workout clothes so your post was very timely :o)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the fabric suggestions. I always wonder where I should get those material from so they mimic my RTW items
ReplyDeleteThanks for a good post. Those flimsy workout clothes are incredibly overpriced.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tips and resources. Since you've ordered from them, I gather they all deliver to Europe. As I'm working out more currently, I may come to the point where I'll want to replace my ratty 10 yo workout wear!
ReplyDeleteI keep telling myself I'm going to sew workout wear but I never do. You are right that you really can save money sewing this stuff.
ReplyDeleteAll great suggestions. Bookmarking this post...
ReplyDeleteHi johanna
ReplyDeleteI see that you live in sweden, I live in denmark.
How did you get to use fabrics from the US and both jalie and kwik-sew is foreign ??
Do you have any problems by getting the fabric to swedeen (toll and tax) etc.
I realy like your blogg.
Im going to london in one month and I read about you trip.
I love books. Du you have any suggestions to good sewing /fasion/fabric books ?
Annette
I love RCT fabrics. I'm from Oregon and I am visiting Goteberg in early july 2012. I know this post is older but I love seeing Rose City Textiles (RCT) in print. One of my faves.
ReplyDeleteWould be interested in your Goteberg or even Stockholm favorites?
k8hobbies (at) yahoo.com
Kathy
Thank you for this great tutorial! I know this post is old, but I just found it online. I find the fabrics used in workout wear are often also good for medical scrubs. Even designers such as Dickies scrubs use moisture-wicking fabrics such as the ones you used.
ReplyDelete