Cut, Sew, Cartwheel, Blog: Jalie 3136

One of the things about sewing for kids is that their enthusiasm can be catching. Everything gets set aside to whip up the outfit of the moment. Right now it's all about gymnastics.

On Sunday, she was bugging me to buy a second hand leotard from her gymastics club that she's just recently joined. It was too small and the full priced ones that might come in her size just seemed crazy expensive to me. Do you do this too? It's not that I couldn't afford to buy the regular leotard but it just irks me to know that I could do it cheaper, probably just as well, and have more fun in the process.

So I convinced her I'd do a trial run and then we'd go fabric shopping together next weekend...

Sunday night became cutting night:

 

Whenever I've been at the sewing machine repair shop (Nick Ciancio - he's good) the kids rummage in the scrap fabric basket and dress themselves in outlandish outfits of tied on scraps. Last time, A had found a remnant that almost looked like it might be big enough for something. Nick always lets the kids take whatever bits they like, so we kept it.

It was big enough, but only just. The tiny bits above are all the leftovers after cutting the leotard. Design choices were made based solely on the fabric allowance.

Long sleeves were out (boo), but then that left enough to add the skirt (yay). The requested cross over bodice was possible (yay) but only on the front (boo).

I thought it would be as simple as cutting the View B bodice for the front and the View A bodice for the back, but I hadn't looked at the shoulder width. The round neck version has a considerably narrower shoulder than the cross over one. I had to scoop a good 3/4" off the front shoulder to make them fit together.

Monday was sewing day and to say she was excited to wear it to her gymnastics class on Tuesday is just a bit of an understatment!

The neck binding looked a bit wavy and stretched out when it was straight off the machine, but happily when she's wearing it, it is fine.The size is the same J width and L length I'd done for swimemrs. Fit wise: I think the leg elastic might need to be bigger, or maybe cut the leg openings a bit lower at the back. I suspect there was some wedgy action going on under the skirt. The upper sleeves are a tiny bit tight. Otherwise it seems perfect.

She was positively prancing around in her class and her teachers did comment that she was easy to spot! :)

Details:
Pattern: Jalie 3136
Size: J width l length
Fabric: Scrounged lycra with crazy print and metallic gold highlights from Nick Ciancio Sewing Machine Repairs.
 (go watch that video link, it's great!)

* crappy photography virtue of flash battery being dead and us being in a hurry to get to gymnastics.
Notions: 1cm elastic