Crash!

If you’ve followed my sewing journey for the last couple of years you will have seen me sew items suitable for rollerskating in. I started skating two years ago and love it. First I started on the flat and my local prom, but then I discovered park skating and have begun to enjoy throwing myself down ramps.

A year ago I had a nasty fall on the top of a ramp and landed with my coccyx on the coping (metal bar at the top of a half-pipe). It took a few weeks to heal and since then I have been skating with impact shorts on - also known as bum pads and crash pants. These are popular in board sports and ski/ snowboard sports. I got a pair from Facebook marketplace that was a little big, but they do fit well over leggings or skinny jeans. I wanted some that were more slimline to wear under my jeans, leggings and shorts.

I have done some reading into impact materials and discovered that a material called D30 is an impact-reducing material, that is often used in impact shorts for sportswear. It hardens on impact and then softens. However, the shorts with this in are very spenny! And you can’t just buy sheets of it, which is a shame.

I scored some junior impact shorts for £10 second-hand. I could get them on but they were tight!!!! I decided to try and make my own, using the padded sections from the ones I bought.

I started with a base leggings/ shorts pattern. For this I used the Ninja leggings from 5 out 4 patterns and cut the size small, grading to XS at the waist. I had made them before in S/M and there were a tiny bit too big. I used the Matt Activewear fabric as it has good stretch and recovery. I sewed the lot on my Pfaff, using a zigzag for the seam construction and creating a faux cover stitch effect by sewing the seam allowances down using an overlock stitch. The seams are external so that friction is reduced on the inside of the leggings.

Once I had the shorts made. I needed to get the protective pads in the correct place. I managed to pin in the hip pads and coccyx protection myself and then zigzagged them into place, using a zipper foot to get as close to the D30 Material as I could. The small pads that sit on the buttocks were harder to place and I had to get my hubby to help me position them and pin them before sewing them in.

I did consider adding an elastic waistband to them but I found that the high rise and fabric band is actually enough and they stay up very well. 

I have seen some very stylish crash shorts with lovely fabric on the outside and I considered making an outer layer to the shorts to hide the pads. However, keeping these as a single layer reduces the bulk and gives me way more options. I can wear under my jeans and skirts and also under leggings. I used the remaining fabric to make a full-length pair of Ninjas. I can wear these over the top as you can see in the photographs, but they are also great to wear for my yoga or Pilates sessions. The fabric has such a good recovery and coverage I love these. I think I might not ever buy leggings again.

The vest top is the Itch to Stitch Lago tank sewn up in the Minerva exclusive Dancing Lights french terry fabric. I also made full length leggings.