Oh, do blather on. About Leggings of all things.

For some reason, maybe it's personal, but I get the feeling that the Prompter's want to know that we also have pointless arguments that we wholeheartedly believe in but also for some reason devalue by being explicitly and habitually uncritical of them. 

Like most of this week's fills, I can't claim a point for point on that, even if I wanted to brag, but I plan to toss in a technicality. Do you know how many leggings I've acquired over the course of my life? 

I'll give you a hint, from the age of nine I've been getting leggings for daywear on account of them being cheap and "functionally pants" if you buy them thick and oversized. People have been born that will be able to vote soon since my first pair of leggings, and I've been getting roughly three pairs a year, give or take. 

If most of them didn't suck and die or become even more depressing cutoffs, then I'd have frankly many more leggings than I do right now, which is a lot. 

A minimum of five Navy blue leggings alone, I've got two gray sets, and oddly enough only three in black. I have a single pair of teal leggings that I'm hoping to continue with, but that's not really where we're starting. 

We're starting with my freaky little cavewoman legs. 

Now, don't get defencive for my freaky shortstack-calves; they're the reason I'm short, lovely and can pick my sister up without physical prep or injury. So no, you're not being nice if you're just gonna quibble turns of phrase. 

Anyway, there are two actual problems with that and it's the leggings fault. Mostly, that leggings that fit my thighs are drafted for women who are on average, five inches taller than me, six inches wider in the belly, and overall much skinnier in the leg. 

This wouldn't be a problem if my body were different, but it's not, so here's how I started. Back in the day I'd cut them down to just coochy-length and that was usually where it ended, but I'm a much colder person now, with much more stable proportions width and length wise. 

This means along with my expanded skills I could fix the issues inherent to covering my body with this particular format of legwear. Nowadays it's more extensive, for one, I "run" the hem seams so as to make as much fabric as is there usable and assess the de-finished length.

This unfinished length would usually fall-out as longer than the hem-line, this was due to the tightening effect of a machine's double stitch, though the first set I'd actually done this to ended up falling to calf-length before rehemming. (there's actually a second pair like this, but in that case the crotch and rise measurement was so vast that I needed to take 3 inches out of the front so I could walk without losing them while walking, even after I took 5 out of the waist) 

In any case, the first few sets I'd done this to fell out with about three to six inches minimum in length from the ankle, which was perfect for a boot save option that I'd rarely seen in stores, Stirrups!

Now some of you probably think of stirrups as a bit hokey, but I thought a lot about the appearance of these things, and considering the placement of cutaways it seemed like the perfect way to make up for excessively narrow hems common to standard sizes.

There were two options I'd found with little fanfare, a gusset option and a standard Heel and toe cutaway option. 

Given the material limits I was working with my next three leggings were Heel and toe, with front elastics for the first two. This was alright, but it took and is still taking a lot more time than such a simple design option would seem to require. I was able to finished the fleece lined set, but I still haven't finished the light gray leggings.(I've actually added new project goals for before I can finish that set to encourage myself to finish)

My third attempt was simply unappealing to me but since the waistline didn't have elastics(having discovered this while modding out the hip to waist, which was itself rather far off)

I decided to add a cuff in order to match its waistband type, folded over and topstitched to the best of my by hand mimicry. These are finished, but I think they are the last set of leggings I plan on giving that form of Stirrup to. Though I am mandated by the finish of a bra and leotard to finish the lightgray set(with underwear type lining)

But then I discovered the hole-punch method. You see, the teal, dark gray and at least one pair of Navy Leggings were long enough to invite a better solution than was offered by the classic cutaway option. 

But here are the limits, the hole punch method requires enough fabric in the length of the legging to meet up with the bridge of one's foot, the bridge being the bar of knuckles before your toes, which is anatomically the same as the base of your fingers.

If the hem-run leggings go that far they might actually be large enough in other dimensions on you to need taking in around the heel, this was the case in my first heel punch set. (It's also the only time I successfully reused foldover elastics)

I think this will continue to be my primary legging modification aside from patching and scotching, since I'm unlikely to buy leggings that are short enough to make the classical mistake without just making them into hole-punch tights using a gusset form toe. 

Yeah, I discovered a lot about how one fits fabric around a foot, and one of the primary "issues" is the heel projection since the contour of it is in the ankle, and the arch is comparatively flat when compared with most bridge and toe shapes. I like the hole punch method, but I also love the appearance of gussets which is why the last shortest pair of leggings I own is getting toes, ya knows?

This probably isn't a narratively interesting situation, but it is accurate to my few experiences of acting certainly but without assessment.