The weather forecast FINALLY shows a week of sunshine around here, and if I was like any normal person, I’d be breaking out last year’s capris and tanks. Of course, as my friends would tell you, I’m pretty far from “normal”- so naturally my response is to make new things for Spring instead!

I started with these beautiful pink floral athletic print. The Styled Magnolia, where I sourced these fabrics, calls this a “yoga” base, and it feels very different from other yoga fabrics I’ve encountered. (Note: While this specific print is not currently available, other amazing yoga prints and solids are currently up for retail!)

One of the challenges of buying fabric online is not being able to feel it in person, so I’ll try to describe it as best I can here, since it’s a base I haven’t encountered before, despite the common name. The TSM yoga has a great level of opacity, excellent stretch, and feels slightly slick- not in a really slippery way, like swim, but in the sense that water would just bead up and roll right off. It’s not textured with little ribs like supplex, but still seems to retain the moisture wicking properties of that fabric.

I put it to the test with a 8.6 mile run this past weekend, and it held up beautifully- I felt dry but not hot. I think out of the three bases from TSM (supplex, yoga, and athletic brushed poly) this will be my favorite for warmer weather. The supplex tends to hold onto moisture after working out (all my supplex fabrics do this- they’re damp hours later), and this fabric simply doesn’t do that at all, which is excellent because this summer’s adventures include hiking Zion and the Grand Canyon, two places not known for their cool summer weather!

I used the Inspire Tights pattern, with the no side seam hack and the zipper pocket hack (check out the zipper tutorial here, and the SewAlong here), so I can store my phone on longer hikes.

Unfortunately I’ve found that while my apple watch is an excellent fitness tracker, it won’t play music from Spotify independently from my phone, so I need to be able to carry the phone with me as well, despite my watch having cellular capability. If anyone knows a hack for this I’m all ears, but until then, I need to keep my phone handy.

The bra top is the Jalie Julia pattern again (blogged before here and here), this time with clear elastic inserted inside the foldover elastic (FOE). The clear elastic really lends a firmness to the FOE, making it more appropriate for high impact activity.

I sized down on this Julia, to the size “O”, which eliminated the need for the darts (which stuck out a bit funny in my last version), and lined with a light weight athletic fabric (both the FOE and the lining are from the Fabric Fairy– they have a great selection of FOE colors, and I was thrilled to find this one matched so well).

Tutorial: Adding Clear Elastic into your Straps

If you’d like to add clear elastic into the straps of your Julia, I took a few photos to explain the process:

Step One:

I decided to add the clear elastic to all my edges- the front, back and straps. I did this by zig-zagging in the elastic on the first pass as I applied the foldover elastic, so that my FOE was on the bottom, fabric in the middle, and clear elastic on top. You want to make sure the elastic butts right up against that fold line, so it won’t show when you fold it over.

Since I was using 3/8″ FOE, I used 1/4″ clear elastic (I buy mine here on Amazon). My stretch needle did just fine with this, and didn’t struggle at all.

I only did this for the front and armhole edges- the straps were finished in one pass (see below).

Step Two:

Fold your FOE over, so that the elastic is sandwiched inside, and zig zag on top of the FOE from the right side. When you get to the straps, continue folding and sandwiching the elastic inside, making sure it doesn’t peek out.

That’s it! Apply your sliders as usual, and enjoy your more supportive Julia bralette!

White leggings? The holy grail of athletic fabric…

WARNING: THE REST OF THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS FAR TOO MANY CLOSE UPS OF MY NETHER REGIONS> CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN PERIL

Right after I made this set Meagan (from the Styled Magnolia) sent me a sample of her new white yoga fabric, to test out for opacity and feel. I loved the texture, but I was skeptical about creating a pair of white leggings that wouldn’t show my undies as I ran! I decided to put it to the test with the most compressive pattern I own, the Super G leggings (find the SewAlong here), and got to work.

When I first finished them, I tried them on with a white pair of underwear, and the outline was clearly visible. Later, when I tried a tropical printed pair of NST’s (see my post about that pattern here), they were miraculously LESS visible- I’m sure this has something to do with color theory and physics, but those weren’t my best subjects in school, so I’ll just let myself continue to believe in the magic of these pants.

Here’s me, posting a sneak of my undies on the ‘net. Wouldn’t be the first time….

During the photoshoot hubby said (not unhappily, I might add) that he could indeed see a bit of my tropical thong in real life, but the fact that he was able to continue with the photoshoot without being distracted lends credence to the theory that they weren’t that visible, overall.

If one wanted to be absolutely sure they were “squat proof” I’d recommend a pair of nude undies, but I’ve had too many kids to care if someone’s staring at my a$$ as I run past them (anyone feel me here? having kids just takes the self-conscious bit right out of you!)

So, here are a bunch of photos to prove how opaque this fabric really is….the listing says 85-90%, and I think that’s pretty accurate.

I’m hoping the white pants magic extends to phenomenal stain resistant properties, so these survive a camping trip with my kids, as I do really love the clean, white, look. If you’re curious, I’m wearing a modified Lille tank in these photos (from my Fit Capsule post last year, here).

Still loving that side pocket!

We took advantage of the beautiful weather to do my favorite thing- hiking together as a family! What are you most looking forward to about spring? Drop me a comment!

Note: This post contains affiliate links. I don’t put my ass on the internet for free, people! LOL!