Jalie Clara leggings review

 These were recommended to me by a friend who raved about the absence of a front seam.  I didn't understand what she was talking about!  I thought the Megan Nielsen Virginia leggings are the most advanced and perfect pattern, with only an inseam...but this pattern has you cut the the ENTIRE pair of leggings in one piece on the fold.  It's almost like Japanese patterns in 3-D origami ingenuity.  However as you see from my pictures - it means that you can't choose your pattern placement. 

I have some athletic knit from Blended thread (here).  What to do with it?  Obviously I had to figure out what the hype was about with these leggings.  

I started with some swimsuit fabric since it's so forgiving.  The first time you make these it takes a solid read of the instructions to understand exactly what's going on. Every instruction, classic Jalie, has its place...the gusset initially seems like it's gonna be really complicated but in reality it's not.  I also have just discovered the 3 step zig zag and so I used it every chance I could. It's so pretty!! (You only stitch down the gusset but that does seem like a good spot to reinforce.)

 

I made size S and was happy with the fit, that's per the size chart and in general is the size I make in Jalie patterns.  I moved on from my first pair to the beautiful athletic knit, cropped it 1" above the crop lines at the hem, and paid some attention to which waistband piece I wanted on the outside.  It took half the width of a 1m long piece of fabric.  Not bad!  Also it took less than an hour to make these.  WELL under an hour.  Excluding the time I wasted while avoiding the coverstitch machine.  The coverseaming went just fine.  

 

And some close ups to better see the gusset - sorry these are a bit fuzzy: 

 

I love these, and totally agree with my friend.  I don't necessarily care about front seams but the details like elastic in the waistband mean these feel really secure.  They are a compressive fit according to my friend Tessa - who sized up and was happy with her fit - but I find that my usual size didn't feel super compressive.  I think if you are on the fence about sizing, consider your fabric and size up if it's a very firm athletic knit.  I have been happy with the leggings I made from the Virginia pattern, but I just made my own yoga style waistband without any elastic in it and it's more prone to slipping down.  The Virginias are also very baggy below the calf on me, which I blamed on my swimsuit fabric...but no bagginess in these Claras.