My little one has been asking me for months for a new leotard. She only goes to dance once a week, so I kept putting it off and rotating our 4 store bought leotards for the time being! I never pass up an opportunity to make my kiddos unique clothes though, so I finally moved "mama-made leotard" to the top of my "To Sew" list! And it turned out better than I could have every imagined! I used the Juliet Leotard from Petite Stitchery & Co., which I have owned for a while anticipating making her one but never got around to until now. She measured mostly for a size 5, but not quite into the 5 torso length. I decided to go ahead and make a straight size 5 to allow a little growing room, and it fits perfect now, but will definitely last for quite a while still! Her studio is not strict on dress code at this age thankfully, so I had some freedom of choice for fabric. I still settled on a solid, but strayed from the typical black and light pink and used a Dark Ruby double brushed poly from So Sew English fabrics. I lined it with some nude colored swim lining that I always keep on hand from Joann Fabrics. I definitely see many, many, many more new Leotards in this little dancers future!
My daughter also likes to wear skirts to dance, and some of her store bought leos have attached skirts. I may hack an attached skirt onto my next version, but for this time I just made a simple circle skirt with a waistband using the Bonny pattern from Made for Mermaids. I used some super glittery Lurex french terry, also from So Sew English fabrics, for the skirt. I used a black swim fabric for the waistband as I wanted it to be a little bit shiny to tie in with the glitter in the skirt.
This dance outfit was a total win with the little lady. The other dance moms loved her new look today as well! This may have been my first adventure into sewing leotards, but it definitely will not be my last!
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