Patterns for Pirates Peg legs.

Well I’m a NZer who has been in the UK long enough to rule out 2 countries for this challenge! Luckily leggings from  Pattern for Pirates were on my sewing list. This company is from USA. Or I think so anyway- I couldn’t find anything that explicitly said that. But they have  .com address and don’t specify what their dollars are so those are normally signs of an USA company!

These legging are classic tight fit leggings with many different options, including length, maternity options, side panels, pockets and rise heights. Phew- that’s a lot for a free pattern! I chose to make up the over the belly band option. The under the belly ones always feel like they are about to fall down to me, and coming into winter a bit of extra coverage won’t go astray. Swapping out the normal band for the maternity band was very easy and well explained.

They also had an add on for a gusset. I was keen to do this as well but I could not work out the instructions for the life of me. And googling did not throw up any answers. They do have a good blog post about sewing these – Peg leg 101 – but this didn’t include information about the various add ons.

They state that they draft for a curvy 5’5″ and the finished inseam on the leggings is 28″. Now, I only noticed this after I had cut out my leggings. I am 5’7″ so I was worried that these leggings would be too short. I don’t know my inseam measurement but it turns out I needed to take 2″ off the bottom of my leggings to get the right length. I don’t think I have particularly short legs! If you are going to sew them up definitely find out what your inseam length is before you cut.

The belly band also is quite long on me and scrunches up a bit. This isn’t uncomfortable and may be useful as the bump grows (though I would have thought the fabric stretch would take care of that), so if you have a smaller bump you might want to adjust this. It was quite hard to take a picture of this – black is very difficult to photograph!

Otherwise these leggings were a very easy sew. And honestly not the most exciting things to make. But I know they will be extremely useful. I made 2 pairs this week, even with all my faffing over the abandoned gusset, and they will be worn everywhere over the next few months.

I suspect the success of these leggings will depend greatly on the fabric. The stretch percentage on this will be key as they have negative ease. My fabric is 92% cotton 8% elastane so it has good stretch but I still get baggy knees after a day’s wear. I thought that much elastane would ensure good recovery. However the bump band stays put and doesn’t slip or move during the day. I wondered if it might as I just used the fabric as the band – I didn’t add any additional elastic to help it stay up.

A few more details are on my blog