Gymnastics Leotards

Dorothy has been doing gymnastics for a while and has just been wearing sweats to class.  The problem is that she only has a couple of pairs of sweats and they were often dirty and I was scrambling to get them washed and dried in time for her classes.  I have a bunch of leotard fabric that has been sitting around for several years now, and was never used, so I decided to try my hand at making her a couple of gymnastics leotards.

Here is my first attempt at making a leotard.  I decided to go with the bike shorts style because it offers more coverage (she has no rear end) and it meant I didn't have to add elastic, which I hate doing.  It's a dark navy stretch velvet and is so, so soft.

I appliqued a girl doing a handstand, since it seemed appropriate for a gymnastics leotard.  I used a scrap of lime green lycra with little holographic dots.  Dorothy likes that it is shiny and sparkly.  She wasn't willing to hold still and model for me, but I did manage some quick pictures with my phone.  The quality isn't great, and many were taken through the viewing windows, but hopefully they show the fit.  

For a first try, it came out really well.  I couldn't get the casings right on the arm and neck holes, so I cheated a bit.  They look fine from a distance, but I'm not entirely happy with them.  I did better in later attempts.

Ready to head into class, and the only semi-decent front shot I was able to get.

Warming up.  I like the line of the back of the leotard.

Waiting her turn.

She loves bars and the leotard seemed to move with her very well all through class.

My second attempt did not go nearly so well.  I let Dorothy pick out the fabric she wanted me to use, and she insisted on a hunter green crushed velvet.  It isn't something I ever would have picked for her, but she really fell for it for some reason.  She then wanted an orange fox on it, so I did that too (though when she saw it, she insisted that it was a cat).  This material was only a two-way stretch, instead of four, but I thought I could make it work.  I was wrong.  When I tried it on her, the legs were much too tight and it would not go over her (non-existent) hips.  Yeah, definitely needs to be able to stretch around as well as in length.  Too bad, because it was really cute.

I did, however, do a much better job with the casing around the arms and neck.  I didn't get the stitching quite close enough to the seam, but it got better and looked pretty decent by the next time I made one.

She was a little disappointed it didn't fit, and pulled really hard trying to get it on.

 My last try went much, much better.  Even the casing look pretty good.  Luckily, Dorothy was excited to get to choose more fabric (uh, oh, she might be turning into me a little bit) and a design to put on yet another leotard.  This time, she went with a jade green lycra with glitter sparkles all over, and a hot pink dinosaur.  Rawr! 

It's hard to capture the glittery-ness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dinosaur is made with a stretch material I had sitting in a box that was bright pink, but nearly sheer.  It wouldn't work for a full leotard, but is fine for appliques.

Waiting for class to start.  The shoulders are set a tiny bit wide, so next time I'll trim them in a bit.  I cut this one a touch larger than the navy one, and it looks like she has a little bit of growing room in it. 

This one seems just a little more comfortable to her.  The legs and girth are a little longer, and she seemed to hardly tug at it at all.

She is pretty strong and can hold this for a good amount of time.  Now, if she would just focus a little, she could actually do some more difficult skills.

This was supposed to be a front kick.  Not quite there yet.

I had a lot of fun making these and learned a lot.  I would love to make some more, but she only has class once a week, so I think two leotards are more than enough.  I certainly wouldn't buy her more than one if I was buying them.  I justify the two because they were "free" since the fabric was just sitting here, but I need to wait and not make more until she outgrows these.