Jogging top!

What?! You didn't think I was the type to go jogging?! How dare you! I'll have you know that I am very much the type who kind of sometimes makes themselves feel guilty enough to find some old stretchy clothes and go for a jog. In fact, maybes you recall, that one of my aims for the duration of Self-Stitched-September '11 was to make myself at least one jogging appropriate garment and give it a test run before the end of the month. FAIL. I did start this jogging top during September, but the weather was so warm that I wouldn't have been able to wear something with long sleeves to go jogging before the month was up so I didn't see the point in rushing to get it done. I didn't want to make something with short sleeves, as I already have a couple of those to wear for jogging, hence making a variation that I don't already have.

But now it is finished. It's a basic long-sleeved T-shirt made from a pattern I developed yonks ago by tracing the shape of a favourite old T-shirt to get the right fit for the body, then using one of the patterns in Sew U: Home Stretch for the sleeve head and armhole shapes. If you are a stretch/jersey fabric virgin but fancy giving it a go, you really could do worse than get yourself a copy of that book, BTW (I'll pick up my commission later, Wendy!).

The most interesting feature of this top is the little pocket I made on the sleeve for my MP3 player. If I'm jogging during the summer (i.e. without a hoodie on) I rarely take my MP3 player out with me because I don't have anywhere to wedge it as I'm going along. I could of course make one of those arm strap MP3 holders, but A) I'm not too sure where I'd start, and B) my MP3 is really little and light, nothing like a big heavy i-pod, so a pocket on my garment would be more than adequate and far easier to construct.

This little pocket didn't require much effort. It's a bit bigger than the MP3 player (obviously) with a button hole inside it so I can thread the headphone wires through and up to the neck hole to keep the wires from getting in my way when I jog. I can't claim the button hole idea as my own, my boss came up with that stroke of genius.

The fabric is from the streetwear company Howies who, if I've got this right, are now owned by Timberland. Timberland have a relationship with Traid, the charity I work for, and often donate their garment samples and seconds for resale and de/reconstruction. We got sent rolls and rolls of this fabric in three colour ways to make into stuff for our range, TRAIDremade. The other two colour ways were vile so we sent those to be recycled. Meanwhile we have about 40 metres of this stuff! We created a fair few garments for the range out of it, but there's only so many garments you can make from exactly the same fabric and manage to make them look different. So now I am making personal projects from this stuff: vests, pants, baby trousers, this jogging top...... I may make some pyjamas too. I think the print is quite cute. And if you substitute the TV for a laptop, which the fabric is telling me to switch off in favour of donning my running shoes, I can see some relevance!

Overall, it's a pretty good top that I hope will serve me well when the weather is too chilly for going out in short sleeves but too cold for a hoodie, OR when it's so chilly I need a long-sleeved top AND a hoodie. Either way, I'm ready. I must admit, the sleeves are a bit short and the neck hole could be a little wider, but neither would prevent me from enjoying wearing this top. And no, I haven't tested it yet. I will at the weekend, promise!