Santa Fe Pattern Hack

I recently took a luxurious break from working on the espadrilles kits and spent time in my sewing studio actually sewing! Three cheers for mental health time, right?! I  was working on a Santa Fe pattern hack for this guest post on Hey June Handmade. I love the casual ease of the Santa Fe top and I’ve been searching for something similar for my Pilates workouts. I ended up finding three knits I liked, in that loud workout-wear kind of way, at Jo-Ann (of all places) so I made three tops.  They will definitely get lots of wear.

I have a form of arthritis in my lower back (there is very little cartilage between two vertebrae) and it makes running or any other high-impact exercise painful and dangerous.  My doctor recommended that I start doing Pilates because it can help avoid dependence on the back as the core muscles strengthen.  Over the past few years I’ve discovered that Pilates is not just a good idea but essential for me. It basically keeps me from becoming a kind of old-man stiff akin to the main character in UP.

I’ve never been an intense, must-workout-or-I-will-die kind of person.  It doesn’t release those kind of chemicals for me but I do find regular exercise keeps me mentally healthy.  It clears my head.  Before my back problems, running was my favorite form of exercise and at the top of the list of reasons I loved running was that I could wear any old t-shirts and sweats to do it. I’m lazy like that.

Pilates is so different! It’s actual classes with other people around. I need to be presentable in public.

That is why these tops are my new workout companion. I can move wherever I need to without exposing my stomach or even feeling the ‘creep up’ of a standard workout shirt.  Plus, the blousy-ness of the top means I don’t have to be thinking, not even for a second, about what my tummy is doing.  Essentially, they free me up to focus on my body and movement and my workout and not fuss with my clothes.   

Be sure to check out the simple step by step on the Hey June blog.

Also, as it turns out. I can’t smile and do a pilates teaser at the same time. Ha!