McCall's 5394 Leggings

I have trouble with purchased leggings because I carry excess weight in my thighs. If I size up to get a comfortable fit through the thigh, then the attached elastic waist is far too large, also generally the leggings are too short in the back crotch. I did try some leggings from Burda magazine on two occasions but both only went up to a 44 and were still a bit tight in the legs.

But recently I dug out McCall's 5394 and compared it to the Burda to find the crotch shape was very similar but the angle of the waistband was very different. I redrew the waistband to be more like the Burda and then chose the McCall's size which was slightly larger than the Burda 44. This was the XL which is equivalent to a 20-22, but its only a number and better fitting clothes are always more flattering whatever the size says.

 

The blue lines are the original cutting and folding lines for the waist casing. The orange line was my new fold line. You can see that the orange line dips below the lower blue line at the front, rising to above the higher blue line at the back. So if you have a Burda butt like me, you might find this waistline alteration useful.

(A hint you might need this too is the front waistband is always too high, but the back waistband is always too low and pulls down lower when you sit). I remember being frustrated by this more than 20 years ago and not knowing how to fix it. I find many Burda trousers fit me quite well with only small alterations, so buy the Burda magazine just for the trousers.

Its hard to see from the photo, but I cut these from a remnant of tubular ribbed knit. It was from the local cheap shop and a very uneven piece, but good for experimenting and no great loss if they were straight in the donation bag for someone else to enjoy.

I had to cut the tube open, lay it flat and cut each piece out separately in opposite directions (remembering to flip the piece over)  to get it out of the fabric, but I have to say they are super comfortable and fit more like slim trousers than leggings. The knit is quite hefty though so although I've made them in July I don't see it being practical to wear them until at least September maybe later. I will try them on for a quick photoshoot sometime this week though so you can see the fit.

Being this slimmer fit they needed a more tunic style top, and I'll share later what approach I tried for that.

As they fit like slim trousers, not like leggings, they wouldn't have the right fit for something like a stretch lace, though I'm not sure stretch lace would be a good choice for me anyway.