“Olympic” leotard

As you know, my younger daughter, Rainbow Girl loves gymnastics and trains many hours a week. Potentially, she and the other girls in her training squad could one day end up at the Olympics – that’s what they’re headed for, though who knows if they’ll make it!

To celebrate the Olympics, the gym has declared this week “Australia week” and all coaches and gymnasts have been asked to dress up in Australian colours to support the Australian Olympic gymnasts (and to have a bit of fun!).

There have been many coaches sporting Australian green and gold tracksuits. There’s been lots of girls in fluoro green. Australia’s colours are green and gold (yellow), not fluoro green, but as that seems to be the green that most girls have in their gymnastic wardrobe, that’s what they’ve been wearing.

Rainbow Girl didn’t have ANYTHING in green or gold. And I didn’t have ANY green or gold lycra fabric to make something for her. She mentioned this to her coach, who said “your mum can make something, can’t she?” Oh, yes, because I have all the time in the world to do that sort of thing…!

I ummed and aahed about it at the end of last week, arguing with myself that I really didn’t have time, but that Rainbow Girl was going to feel quite left out if I didn’t. The left-out-ness side won, and I dropped in at a local shop with a range of lycra fabrics on the way home from depositing her at gym training last Friday. As it happened, they had 30% off lycra. A friend commented, “see, even [the shop] thought you should make a leotard!”

I purchased small quantities of green and sparkly gold, knowing that I could put them with a white that I already had at home. So, Friday night, I was up late, creating a fake Australian gymnastic team leotard in green, gold and white (they often have the addition of white on their leotards – it helps to break up all the ghastly green and gold!).

It wasn’t all beer and skittles, as the white fabric that I had was velvet lycra. This is a dreadful fabric to sew. The pile means that it moves where IT wants to as you’re sewing it. Even if it is pinned, it still moves wherever it feels like. The seams with the white all had to be done and redone several times, but eventually I got there!

The leotard isn’t nearly as special or as sparkly as a real Australian competition leotard would be – they would have Swarovski crystals all over them, for one thing, and be a much more exciting design – but it is as good as she was likely to get for an evening’s work, and for as little cost as possible. In the photo, the neckline looks a little crooked, but I assure you it is not, it is just the way it has been flattened out for the photo. 🙂

On Saturday morning, the leotard was matched with a new scrunchie, and Rainbow Girl was thrilled. The big hugs said it all! She was proud to go off to gym training wearing her fake Australian leotard. It got a good reception, and several of the coaches have asked where she got it from. “My mum made it!”

You can bet that if she ever does make it to the Olympics, the leotard she’ll wear will not cost the paltry sum of $12.25… 🙂 Several hundred dollars will be more likely. Leotards – especially competition leotards – are NOT cheap, which is why it is so good that I can make training leotards for her, saving us buckets of money! And it is true that I do enjoy the challenge of creating them.