Cake Espresso Leggings
First of all, I fully realize that leggings are not pants so no, I don’t intend to walk out on the street like this. But this is a sewing blog so I’m gonna wear ’em on here FOR SCIENCE!
Second of all, I have to admit my good friend Susan works for Cake and helped me pick out the perfect fabric and gave me tips and such. She’s great, and now I have awesome leggings!
The Goal: I’ve only ever made one pair of leggings, a McCall’s pattern which turned out to be a bust because they never fit right. I started out making a medium but by the time I had finished I re-cut and re-cut them down smaller than the smallest size in the envelope. Sill, they were baggy in the bum and the knees. Total bummer. Maybe part of my problem was the fabric but I think it was also McCall’s fault. I was hopeful with this new pattern.
The Pattern: The Espresso Leggings by Cake. It’s a cool pattern because it’s a template based on your own measurements. You measure waist, thigh, knee, ankle, then crotch rise and leg lengths and basically connect the dots. It’s cool because all the ease and stretch considerations are taken care of for you so it really is easier than drafting from scratch.
The example line drawing on the back of the envelope had me a little confused. There’s no side seam so the one pattern piece wraps around your whole leg but those knees and ankles looked so tiny compared to the thigh. I guess it’s ok ’cause everyone’s pattern will end up looking different.
My finished, traced pattern piece looked like this. The back curve is on the right. The front curve is barely a curve at all.
The Fabric: This is a super soft rayon jersey with 5% spandex and no vertical stretch (perfect for this pattern, thanks Susan!). Got it at Austin Fabric Co-Op, a joint venture between Fabricker and Stitched Fabric Boutique (they moved in together, it’s like the best fabric roommates ever!). Susan gave me a great tip to reduce the overall length of the leggings by 10% if your fabric has vertical stretch as well.
The Changes: None! Followed all the steps straight through. I like that Cake tells you to add a little ribbon tag to tell you which is the front and back of the leggings. I added my own personalized tag.
The Results: They fit REALLY WELL! No bagging anywhere, no wrinkles when I stand straight. And they’re super comfy. I’ve barely taken them off since I made ’em.
I liked the way the pattern has you measure your crotch rise in front and back by sitting in a chair. You can also have the rise come up more in the back than the front if you want. I attempted to do that with a slightly lower rise in the front, lower than my belly button. When I first tried them on they came up to the right place but after wearing them I think the fabric stretched and now the front hits at my belly button which is fine but next time if I use a similar fabric I’ll adjust to make them lower. I don’t really love high waist leggings. I could always just cut the waist down but why bother. 😉
I sewed the whole shebang with a zig zag stitch and hemmed the ankles. I think these leggings are going to get a lot of wear this winter under skirts and dresses, yay!
For realz, tho, don’t bother ever buying any other leggings pattern other than this one. None will ever fit you like these do and if you want to make some cool color blocked crazy leggings with style lines and cut outs, well, you can always just alter this one pattern piece to make it into whatever you want. I’m hooked. I’m officially a Cake convert.
ive never made any leggings but im tempted by these. i wear so many leggings in the winter under big sweaters that i really should make up some nice thick ones.
Wow that front cront curve is so teeny tiny! I don’t think you would EVER see that in another legging pattern. Now I’m tempted to get these!
I was wondering how well these leggings worked out. This is a super helpful review. After getting the right fit I can see chopping these bad boys up to make super crazy, pieced running tights for winter.
These look awesome! And for science! 🙂
Gorgeous leggings…I may add these are no-brainer leggings. If I was able to make them anybody can.
They look great – I have a feeling that my flat butt and podgy tummy would give me a pattern with the opposite rises to you! Great review – thanks!!
They look awesome. Your pose is a combination of eagle pose and three pose, as far as my yoga-knowledge goes. Now I want to make my own leggings as well!
I’m so excited! I have the pattern but haven’t made them yet — next up!!!!
Wow! What an intriguing pattern – so impressed by the ‘connect the dots’ theory of pattern sizing. Ingenious! I tried to make my own leggings a while back by copying a pair of rtw ones I owned, and learned the hard way that fabric makes a DIFFERENCE in stretch garments! Since then I’ve been wary to dive in again, but with all your helpful advice, I just might give it a whirl!
These look so comfy!
I have this crazy printed fabric I want to make these in. Yours turned out really great. I also got a leggings pattern from McCalls about a year ago. Unfortunately, they were designed for a teenager with no ‘pouch’ and no ass! I had plumber’s butt and muffin top and a smidge of cameltoe. haha. Definitely throwing that one out in light of this new pattern.
Aww like this shirt. Too bad the link to instructions is broke :(. Only getting the pattern. Well lets see if I can do it!
It’s a pretty awesome legging pattern, isn’t it? I made three pairs this week! (ok, one of them is a lounge pant modification…)
Great leggings and how nice to have to make no pattern alterations. I’ve been thinking of buying that pattern, maybe I will now 🙂
They really look great on you. Thank you for the pattern review, I would love to make a pair. Leggings are so great for winter!
Leggings look great. Your legs are doing Tree Pose (Vrksasana) and your arms are doing Eagle Pose (Garudasana)!
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