Free Pattern Friday: Kids' Lightning Leggings

Welcome to my monthly 'Free Pattern Friday' feature, where I road test a free sewing pattern or tutorial: sometimes a children's one, sometimes a women's one. I publish these posts every first Friday of the month, timed to provide inspiration for those who plan to get their sew on over the weekend. I firmly believe that, if you pick your projects carefully, sewing doesn't have to be a crazy-expensive way to clothe yourself and your family. Thanks to all the amazing pattern designers who have offered up their hard work for us to enjoy for free.

As you may know, I try to alternate between women's and children's pattern for my Free Pattern Friday review posts. When it's time for a children's one, I especially love being able to shine a light on the super-useful ones, by which I mean patterns that span a wide size range, are (fairly) unisex in style, might work for a variety of climates and even offer some design options. Well today's free pattern ticks each and every one of those boxes. It's the Lightning leggings pattern by Made By Jack's Mum; massive thanks to her for sharing this amazing pattern for free. Please note: to access this pattern, you can join the MBJM Sewing Group on Facebook, or you can get it through her site. If you do the latter and are in UK or EU, the transaction goes through Etsy so you will pay a small fee.   

I'm also very happy to have found this pattern, because my former fave free kid's leggings pattern, as reviewed here, is no longer available. So, shall we begin?

Pattern type:

The amount of options included in this pattern is almost ridiculous! You can choose from a slim leg option (which I used for Dolores's pink cat leggings pictured in this post) or a (slightly) relaxed leg option (which I used for Frankie's leopard leggings pictured here). Both leg options then come with a choice of ankle, capri or knee lengths, ALL OF WHICH can be simply hemmed (as per the cat leggings) or finished with cuff bands (as per the leopard leggings). PLUS, both can have elastic applied at the waist, OR have a fabric waistband. Is that it? NO!!!!! BOTH leg style options also come with a cloth nappy-suitable fit option up to 4 years. Damn. I'm exhausted. 

(image source: knee length with cuff hem options via MBJM)

Sizing info:

This pattern goes all the way from premie/small newborn, up to 12 years. With some kids' pattern companies, I find that you always have to automatically size down one size or so. I've made a few MBJM patterns now, however, and I always find the sizing to be very accurate, no sizing down needed. 

Dolores is currently six years old, but basically the height and size of a 7yo. Therefore, I made her cat leggings a size 7 with an additional 2cm in length (hence the slight bunching at the ankle) because I wanted them to last for a couple of years. Frankie is three and average in height and size, and I made the size 3 with no changes because I wanted them to fit him straight away. 

One point I would mention here is that I found the suggested length measurements for the waist elastic to be too short. I would heartily recommend measuring the waist of the child you are sewing for to gauge the correct length, rather than blindly going by the length suggestions in the pattern. If you are making them for a child that you are unable to measure at this time, I'd suggest making the fabric waistband option. 

Fabric info:

The Lightning leggings patterns is recommend that knit fabrics with good stretch and recovery are used, for example cotton/lycra jersey. Both the cat jersey (a different colour way of this one) and leopard jersey used here are cotton/lycra jersey. The relaxed leg style option might also work with a lighter-weight French terry that has an elastane/Lycra/spandex content such as this modal/elastane French terry. BTW, that's not a sponsored link in anyway, I just happen to have used this fabric a couple of times for other projects, and think it would work well with this pattern for a slightly thicker leggings option. 

Findings:

I really like how MBJM's patterns are produced. The information conveyed is very clear and user friendly, without heaps of unnecessary blurb or frou frou. This is particularly important when a designer is trying to guide you through a pattern that contains heaps of options, such as this. Literally the only thing I can think of that is missing but would have been helpful, is a clear, technical spec drawing of the garments. In fact, now I come to think of it, I don't recall seeing a spec drawing for any of MBJM's patterns. I find those can help you get to the bones of a pattern style, without fabric choice, model's pose etc. distracting you.

You might think that, what with all the style options and choices included, that the actual PDF pattern pages would be a Burda-magazine-style web of confusion. However, I am able to report that I found them very well laid out and easy to figure out, despite all the various pieces and cutting lines. In the instructions there is a handy guide to help work out which pages to print for the combo of options you're going for. Plus, both the A4 and A0 copy shop files offer the layers function; yet another way to prevent wasting precious printer paper and ink. If you think you're likely to reach for this pattern again and again as the child you sew for grows, it might be worth getting the A0 file printed at the copy shop with all the sizes (excluding the sizes that they are already too big for). Then you can trace off the size you need onto pattern paper (or wrapping paper/wall paper/whatever you've got to hand that) as and when you need it, to save on ink (and getting your printer out and finding all the relevant wires, amirite?!) further down the line. 

As for the finished garments, I'm really pleased with them. The overall fit of the slim leg option is exactly what you'd hope for in a regular leggings pattern. And the relaxed leg option is a nice, modern alternative that is suitable for any kid who may not wish to wear tight leggings (yeah, I'm trying to find a woke way of referring to 'most boys'!).

Customisation ideas:

If you are looking for even more options for creating a unique garment, other than those included, here's some ideas:

• Add some seam lines for scrap busting/colour blocking the leg pieces
• Add a side seam if it'll help you squeeze them out of a smaller or odd-shaped piece of fabric
• Apply knee patches (think traditional ovals or cute cat head/apples/dinosaur/etc shapes) to reinforce those areas that are vulnerable to holes. 
• Make a matching set using the free Ester & Ebbe top or Rowan tee patterns, perhaps by cutting the T-shirt sleeves from the same fabric you used for the leggings

Would I make it again?

Yes, yes and thrice yes. I'm very pleased to have this in my arsenal for whenever some awesome printed jersey appears on my radar and the scamps have done some growing. Dolores will only wear leggings or skirts, or at a push, joggers (NOT woven trousers, jeans or even jeggings) so I'm super pleased to have this pattern on hand for the future. I'm also really happy that I can use it for making lighter-weight bottoms for Frankie for warm-but-not-hot weather: for garments that land in between thick joggers and summer shorts. 

This might also be a particularly useful pattern to have right now if your family is in lockdown. If, like mine, the kids you sew for refuse to stop growing despite the quarantine, and you've got some jersey in your stash, whipping up a couple of quick pairs of leggings might help to pad out their clothing options for a while.