The SoLo Tank, and My New Exercise Obsession

As I imagine happens to many people, summer was a time of slacking for my exercise routine. We traveled alot, it was too hot, blah, blah blah- basically my exercise was sporadic, and come fall, I was feeling the mental and physical impact of my laziness. The trouble was, like many moms with a full plate of activities, I lacked the time and motivation to go to the gym, and needed something to motivate me at HOME.

If I’ve got 30 minutes, I want to spend all 30 of them working out- not driving to and from the gym, parking, scanning an id card, etc. If you happily belong to a gym, more power to ya- it just wasn’t really working for me. I do have a treadmill at home, but its so loud it could wake the dead, and wasn’t conducive to nap-time sprints.

I was floundering until a couple online friends posted pictures of themselves, sweaty as heck, next to their brand new stationary bikes- Peloton bikes to be specific. I hadn’t ever heard of Peloton before, and certainly hadn’t ever taken a spinning class, but my interest was piqued by the idea of the live-streamed classes, and the near silent machine I could toil away on as my family slept in the adjoining room.

I’ll admit, I had all the usual misgivings- the price, the possibility of hating spinning in general, the way my butt would feel after 10 minutes. However, I  took the opportunity to visit a showroom near me, just to see, and I was hooked.  I ordered the thing right there, and it was delivered (not uneventfully) 4 days later. Here’s an embarrassing picture of me at the showroom, as proof!

I immediately hopped on, and have been riding nearly every day since. Yes, my butt hurts a bit (but that’s getting better). Yes, it took me 10 minutes and several YouTube videos to figure out how to “clip out”. But man, does it give me an amazing workout. I’ve been a runner for 9 years, but 20 minutes on this bike, and I’m sweating more than I do in a half marathon, and my leg muscles (which I previously thought were pretty bad-ass) are killing me. It’s that good.

What does all this have to do with sewing? I’ll tell you what! Due to my history as a runner, most of my exercise clothing, especially the tops, were geared toward tight fitting clothing that doesn’t flap around in the wind when I’m on a trail, and with the bike I was finding that I preferred something that allowed a little more, um, airflow.

The newly released SoLo tank was perfect- loose fitting, dipping just below my sports bra, and finished using my favorite binding method.

Bonus? It shows off a cute strappy bra really well!

I used a lightweight athletic brushed poly from the Fabric Fairy in this great orange color– and then challenged myself to dust off my heat press and put on a decal celebrating the massive amount of sweat I was producing on my bike- and the results I’ve been seeing. Looking at these pictures, it seems I may have applied it slightly off center, but I can tell you that once I’m wearing it, I’m too busy to look down and criticize my pressing skills, and am just enjoying the perfect tank for my new activity.

If you’re curious how the binding is applied- you can find my full photo tutorial HERE, and if you want to see how it stacks up to the Lille, XPress and Tie Back Tanks, you can check out those links as well. Honestly, I don’t think you can ever have too many workout tanks- they’re kind of a use it and wash it right away kind of item, and I’d much rather be riding than doing laundry, so I think at least a dozen are in order?

I’m wearing it in these photos with the Inspire Tights I made for the Sew-Along last week (if you missed it, catch up here!), using Fabric Fairy athletic mesh for the inserts, and a brushed black athletic fabric of mysterious origin from my stash for the main.

These leggings feel amazing, and I think they look pretty awesome too. I’m actually kind of sad I didn’t make them full length, so I can’t wear them throughout the winter. I guess since I’m exercising mostly indoors it shouldn’t matter right?

Grab the SoLo on sale HERE, and let me know- would you want to do a SewAlong for such a simple tank? Or do you feel comfortable tackling it on your own, and don’t need the motivation of the group? Drop me a comment below 🙂

#realmomlife photo:

I try to include random photos of what the kids were doing during our photo shoots, because I know that even though they drive me NUTS sometimes when we’re trying to get it done, in 20 years I’ll look back and smile, cherishing the memories.

So here’s the one from today: Oliver lost his front tooth! This was kind of a big deal, because not only was the dentist threatening to pull it if it didn’t come out soon, but his sister (who’s 2.5) actually did it FOR him!

We were taking pictures when all of a sudden we hear screaming coming from the car, and it turns out she asked him if she could do it, and she did. He was super proud, and the tooth fairy gave him a little extra bonus for saving us the cost of an expensive dentist visit.

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3 Comments

  1. Sherri on October 22, 2018 at 8:30 am

    Those tights are fabulous!!!

  2. Ashley on February 13, 2019 at 11:31 pm

    Sarah, I love reading your blog posts and following along during your super helpful sew-a-longs. Did you make the strappy back bra in these photos? If so, could you tell me which pattern it is? Thanks so much!

    • Sarah on February 18, 2019 at 6:08 pm

      Thank you! That is not actually a me made bra, but the Power Bra is similar (and fits much better)!

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