Jalie 3887 Tights in Polartec 100 Stretch

After the fabric run in Idaho, my wife picked out a tights pattern, and we made up a pair of Jalie leggings.

This is the fourth pattern I have used from Jalie. They produce good patterns that fit my wife well. While the other patterns I’ve used had some extraneous style lines, these leggings were the opposite, and have very few seams.

Cutting out the pattern is a little strange, as the front crotch is cut on the fold, while the rest of the pattern piece is not.

This is both legs, cut out of one piece, with the front crotch being the narrow piece of fabric connecting everything.

To make the legs, the fabric is folded from the outside in, towards the middle.

The back seam has a small gusset that is attached to the bottom of the curve.

Its important to sew this from outside to in, and with the main body of fabric down against the feed dogs.

The second seam of the gusset is matched up to the corresponding back leg curve. This seam is sewn from the waist band, down to the end of the gusset.

I finished the seams with my serger, using three thread single needle, with wooly nylon.

After the gusset is done, the inseam of the tights are sewn together and serged.

The original pattern called for the waist band pieces to be cut on the fold. To save fabric, I did not cut on the fold, and instead added a seam allowance to sew the two pieces together. This allowed me to use more width from my fabric, and not cut up all the nice full width yardage. Excessive cutting on the fold really uses up a lot of fabric, and makes it difficult to use remaining scraps.

The waistband has elastic inside it. I like to butt the raw edges of the elastic together, and sew them with a wide zig-zag stitch. This way there is no overlap, and no lumps and bumps.

The instructions call for the elastic to be stitched onto the seam allowance of the waist band. The seam allowance is only 1/4″ and I’m not sure how you are supposed to fit a zig-zag stitch onto that small of a seam allowance.

Instead of doing that, I placed the elastic onto the wrong side of the waistband and zig-zagged it on. Doing this creates one more visible stitching line on the inside of the waist band, but I’m not worried about that.

In the picture above, the elastic is only being sewn onto one side of the waist band. The other side (left in the picture) is folded over (wrong sides together) to cover the elastic. This way, the stitching is only visible along the inside of the waist band.

In hindsight, I should have topstitched one of the rows through both layers of the waistband. This would have helped the layers lay more even and flat.

The waist band is sewn on, and the tights are nearly complete.

The last step is to turn the cuffs in at the ankle. I did a single turn at 1/2″ and then zig zagged. This way there is less bulk than a rolled hem, and the zig-zag stitch will keep any loose fibers at bay.

Overall Thoughts on Pattern:

Jalie has never produced any real amazing instructions with their patterns, and these tights are no exception. The instructions are a little vague, and the pictures are much too limited and abstract.

The depth of the seat (butt area) is a little shallow. If I make these again, I will add a little fabric into the seat ( ≈ 1 inch ).

For the thicker fleece that is used, I may add a little ease to the width of the legs ( ≈ 1/2″ )

On the plus side, these are really easy and fast to make. Using stretchy fleece, or lycra eliminates so many fitting struggles.

Final Pics:

Have you made this pattern or are interested in trying it out? Let me know in the comments section, I’d like to see what other people are making.