A little motivation

I started doing Pilates a year ago. I’d never done Pilates but it was the only class that started after 8pm when the baby would finally relinquish her hold over me (albeit briefly).

As it turns out pilates is a brilliant exercise class for me.

Twelve years ago I had a fairly catastrophic back injury when I was living in Madagascar. We were messing about on our boat bouncing over the waves having a fabby time when CRUNCH! We hit a wave funny and my back compressed, I screamed and went into shock. Once we got back onto dry land the best guesstimate the doctor could give was I’d cracked a vertebrae but given the rudimentary medical facilities they reckoned I should just rest up and hope for the best.

Anyway to cut a long story short I’ve been incapable of doing much ab work since then. They all just make my back feel sore after about 2 sit ups. As a result I’ve avoided classes that overly focus on abdominal work. That is until I discovered Pilates.

Turns out Pilates is the perfect exercise for a me. It’s slow and gentle and methodical but at the same time is seriously tough and really builds your core muscles with nary a sit up in sight.

The down side to Pilates is exactly that. You spend most of your time upside down.

I’ve tried many different t shirt and trouser combinations to stop myself flashing the world my flabby tummy but have drawn a blank. I’ve tried tight shirts but they just roll up like a sausage skin. I’ve tried loose t-shirts tucked in but they always come untucked. I’ve tried wearing a loose t-shirt over a tight t-shirt. But none of them have worked. All result in flashing.

So then to sewing and IPM 2017. This pattern called Knot Maste by Fehr Trade starts out with flashing already on the menu. It’s got a funky cross over back that you can tie or attach a waist band. I went for the tie back – cos if you’re going to flash you might as well flash in style.

To complete the set I went for the Capri pants with tie cuffs in a bold colour combo.

You can make these without an overlocker if you use a zigzag stitch but I’m glad I had my overlocker so I could set my other machine up with the twin needle.

The trousers were mostly straightforward apart from the waistband. I wasn’t too keen on the construction here. Basically you had to sew the fabric to the elastic band first before attaching it to the trousers. This led to a lot of twisting for me. I think next time I’ll sew the waistband onto the trousers and then sew the elastic into the channel.

I particularly like the pockets in these. Unlikely to be useful when I’m upside down but allow me to take my gym pass and car keys out with me.

The top is mostly straight forward until the sleeves. They’re a bit of a fiddle doing the cross over and I didn’t like the way the raw seams were visible on the outside. I did a little handsewing once the cross over had been completed to tidy it up. Next time I think I’ll finish the edges before I do the cross over to keep it pretty.

All in all its a lovely comfy outfit for standing upside down.

And then as a wee bonus because I had some fabric left over I busted out a pair of Brindle and Twig’s baby joggers. This is truly one of my favourite pattern – indie or not. I’ve gotten to the point where I can knock up a pair in 15 minutes. Baby Bea looks tremendous in them even if we look twee.

Sadly our mummy daughter photo shoot was more of a trial