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PB Jam Leggings – invisible pocket tutorial

One of the favourite features of my PB Jam Leggings pattern is that there’s a secure, inner pocket at the upper back to keep things like your phone, keys, or gels handy while you’re working out. While I was developing the pattern, I decided to make this pocket one layer, and use the exterior of the leggings as the other side of the pocket, sealing off the bottom with topstitching.

But sometimes you may not want any topstitching visible from the right side, so to do this, you only need one extra piece of fabric and a few short steps. Making the pocket invisible from the outside will only add about 5 minutes max onto your construction time, but if your fabric is thick, definitely consider cutting your pocket from a thinner lycra!

Here’s the finished invisible pocket on my latest “rainbow sherbert” pair I’ve just finished!

Before you start…

When you’re cutting out your fabric, cut two pocket pieces instead of just one.

Step One


Fold down the shorter, curved edge of one of the pocket pieces and topstitch with a twin needle or coverstitch (or, alternatively, finish with narrow elastic or FOE)

Step Two


With right sides together, stitch the longer, curved edge of the two pocket pieces, and flip right side out (note: if you’re zigzagging this seam, you’ll want to trim the seam allowance and/or clip the curves to get a smooth seam)

Exercise eye candy

It’s been a while since I showed you some of the amazing finished versions of my first two patterns I’ve spotted from around the internet (over a month, in fact!), so I thought I’d show off some of the amazing diversity of workout gear others have achieved.

My own printed PB Jams and mocha T-Back Workout Top

I’ll start off with two versions of my own that you’ve seen peeks of in the pattern photos, but not properly had a look at. This is probably my favourite pair of PB Jam Leggings I’ve made so far – I used some printed lycra from Minerva (sold out now!) teamed up with some neon red wicking lycra from my stash and I swear I get compliments every single time I wear them!

The top is a very early version of the T-Back XYT Workout Top, and one I wasn’t entirely happy with – you can see a lot of pulling around the neckline that I eliminated in later revisions of the pattern, but I wanted to show this one anyway so you could see the contrast coverstitch binding edges and my use of braided trim at the vertical T piece. I’d used the same neon red wicking lycra for the accents so these two coordinate rather nicely when work together – you could easily do the same by using your leggings swirl fabric in your upper back piece on the workout top.

Here you can see the classic (non-invisible) pocket in the centre back, and that it really does keep your phone and gels close enough to not bounce or bulge!

And lastly, I just really like this shot my dad took of me in these leggings while I was running around a frosty park in Virginia last November.

Beaute’ J’Adore’s Reebok-inspired PB Jams

I love this idea – Nikki had the opportunity to design her own pair of Reebok trainers, so of course she took it one step further and made her own leggings to match!

How amazing is it that this is the first activewear she’s sewn, too?! (Seriously, go back and look at her DIY makes – I’d steal her entire wardrobe if I could!)

A Rainbow in Bath

You may have already read Winnie’s post about our weekend (‘cos she’s well faster than me at writing!), but it’s just too big not to post, however late, because…

….I finally got to meet Winnie (aka Scruffy Badger)! Look, we’re on the same couch and everything!

When I was looking at half marathons to run before London Marathon, Winnie stepped up to campaign for Bath, and won me over with her offer of a comfortable bed, carb-loaded dinner, and pre-race breakfast. And all I had to do was show her a few coverstitch tricks. Bargain!

To top it off, she gifted me some of her adorable shoe bows, too, with signature Winnie elephants!

Winnie runs the Bath Half every year, so this was her 5th(!) time running it, but a first for me so I was grateful for a local to get me to the start line on time. And I finally got to race in the PB Jam Leggings I made from the rainbow space-dyed supplex, too.

Updated progress – 5 different projects!

Real life is starting to run away from the documented garments on this site, so it’s definitely time for a little roundup of projects which I’ve been working on, yet haven’t quite done a full photoshoot for yet…

The Sherlock coat

The Sherlock coat is 90% done – I’ve attached the lining and flipped it all right side out, but there’s still some hand-stitching to be done. However, this is currently “parked” while James is waiting for the Etsy lady to put up more replica buttons for sale (yes, someone makes buttons that look just like the ones on Cumberbatch’s coat!). When those arrive, I’ll finish the handstitching, sew them on, and make a gajillion keyhole buttonholes with my vintage Singer attachment.

The Rainbow PB Jam Leggings

I used some of my most precious, imported Space Dyed “confetti” supplex to make a pair of my PB Jam Leggings to wear to the Bath Half marathon next weekend, and possibly run London marathon in, too, depending on the weather. These are totally finished and road-tested at Run dem Crew last week (to rapturous compliments!) but I’m waiting until next weekend to do a photoshoot in the race environment.

You saw these in my invisible pocket tutorial, remember?

(Actually, now that I think of it, I still need to show you all my last set of PB Jams and XYT Tops from my big pre-release photoshoot, too!)

The Brasilia Dress

I’ve been wanting to make Rachel’s free Brasilia Dress pattern since she released it on Christmas Day, and I finally got the kick I needed, in the form of a big opportunity – I’ve been asked to speak at the House of Commons on Monday about a new stem cell bill! Omg!! So of course I needed a new dress, and I figured the red cotton sateen in my stash would be perfect, both for confidence and the connotation with blood. Even though it was a rush job, I still made enough time to sew up a muslin first, and the finished dress is now finished, too. I’ll try to do a photoshoot this weekend and the grab a few photos in the Houses of Parliament itself next week!