Today we've got a fun and quick way to add some detail to your Lo leggings! Thanks to Karolina for making this tutorial! You'll find Karolina on Instagram under @karolinaochsymaskinen.
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Here's a tutorial on how to add side ruffles to your Lo leggings as a cute detail!
Ruffle strip
Mark the side seam by folding the leggings and pressing with an iron. Measure the length from the waist to the foot and double that measurement - that's how long your fabric strip need to be.
Make it as wide as you wish it to be, I made mine 2 cm wide (almost 1").
Ps. If you need to join several pieces of fabric to make it as long as you need it do like this: Sew together the strips with 0,5 cm seam allowance and triple stitch or straight stitch. And later when you sew the gathered fabric strip onto the leggings make sure the joint is hidden in the gathers.
Gathering with a sewing machine
To gather the fabric strip increase the thread tension to its highest setting (or see how much you need to increase it to make the fabric gather) and use the longest stitch length setting.
Pull back the threads a bit extra before you start sewing, and when you've stopped, so they don't end up too short when it's time to pull the fabric to the correct length.
Sew a gathering stitch at the center of the fabric strip, alternatively two parallel rows of gathering stitches 0,5 cm from the center (that will make the gathers more even).
You can also sew with long stitches without increasing the tension. In that case its easiest to pull the bobbin threads to make the fabric gather.
Attach the ruffle strip
Stretch out the fabric strip to a suitable length. I rolled the fabric strip a little bit at both ends to get a nice finish at the hems. (If you're sewing leggings with waist and/or leg cuffs you can place the ruffle strip all the way down/up to the leggings in order to include it in the seam when attaching the cuffs.
Pin the ruffle strip along the pressed side seam crease. Topstitch the ruffle strip to the leggings with a stitch on top of, or between, the gathering stitches. Use a narrow zig zag stitch or twin stitch.
Note! don't forget to re-set the thread tension and stitch length before you sew.
When both ruffle strips are attached you can just continue follow the tutorial for Lo leggings and before you know it you've got extra fancy leggings!
Thank you Karolina for your tips and inspiration!
Karolina used our pattern Lo for the leggings.
