Whew! We are back from our vacation! I spent my days in Southern Cali hanging out at the beach, playing with the kids, and visiting all the local fabric shops (you’ll start seeing the fruits of those visits soon-!).

This little suit got a ton of wear, and while I didn’t have time to blog it before we left, I even managed to whip myself up a little going away outfit. I planned to blog it during our trip but…well, I wasn’t feeling motivated to do much more than hang out on the sand and shop.

Now we’ve unpacked and I have some of my blogging mojo back, I finally get to share my new favorite athleisure set- a pair of Inspire leggings and a couple tanks hacked from the DIBY Helen Dress pattern that released a few weeks ago!

The Leggings

The Inspire pattern is kind of like the middle Greenstyle child- often overshadowed by the flashy Strides and the newer Super G‘s, the Inspires quietly sit on the sidelines, waiting to get the attention they deserve.

I’m hoping that moment is now, with the too-cool-for-school mesh inserts (Fabric Fairy) and tropical athletic fabric (Surge)- these make me feel like I”m in the tropics all the time!

Of course, I had to add the back zippered pocket (check out that hack here)- this is pretty standard for me on all my leggings now, so I have somewhere to stash a credit card and a key on my runs- but you’ll just have to take my word for it, because I totally forgot to take a picture!

The Tanks

My athletic wardrobe is sadly lacking solid tops that match all my fun printed leggings, so I decided to make up a couple tanks to go with them.

I had originally ordered this athletic lining mesh as undershorts for a pair of athletic shorts or a skirt, but it didn’t have quite enough stretch, so I repurposed it as a highly breathable alternative to the standard athletic jersey fabric.

This is the fabric equivalent of an IKEA hack- brilliant (if I do say so myself), and perfect for the season.

I used the DIBY Helen bodice, lengthened it to suit, scooped out the neckline and arms a bit, and used binding rather than bands (it was surprisingly easy to sew and press!).

I was so pleased with the result I decided to repeat the process with another lightweight athletic jersey from the Fabric Fairy.

This time I used narrow bands (1.25″) at the arms and neck, and due to a cutting error, ended up gathering the sides a little bit (oops!)

I’m certain that you haven’t seen the last of these patterns, and can’t wait to dig into the stacks of fabrics I scored on the trip, and maybe sew up a few more of these outfits!