DIY Leotard Tutorial

First, get all your sewing goodies together.

• favorite leotard pattern
• thread (all purpose)
• elastic (as specified by the pattern)

Find the size you want to make for your child. Measure their torso for a good fitting leotard. That is the most important decision to make. I never go by the age of the child, since all children have different length torso’s. As you see, I have all my pieces cut: front/back leotard, and sleeves.

Next, to make a long sleeve leotard, sew the front/back leotard shoulders together with a zig-zag stitch or with your Serger/Overlocker. Remove the pins before they go under the foot or else you can damage your machine. 

Take the long sleeves and find the center of the sleeve cap. Mark it somehow (fabric pen, pencil etc,.) I chose to cut a very tiny,tiny slit. Try not to cut to big. Pin the sleeves to the armhole of the leotard. This pattern did not have a front and back sleeve, so I easily pinned my sleeve and pinned my center sleeve (cut mark) where the shoulder seems are. Now, zig zag your shoulder sleeves onto the armholes.
 
To make a Sleeve Hem, baste the desired hem length required by the pattern. I’m using a 3/4” hem. I set my straight stitch at it’s largest stitch length. Just easy stitch across the sleeve, where the hem length will be. Do not safety stitch, since you’ll be pulling these threads out after you zig zag the final hem. Now, use the basting stitch as a guide and fold over the hem, pin, and finish with a final zig zag stitch.
 
Pin the sleeves together, and front/back of the leotard, and finally the crotch bottom. Now zig zag starting from the wrist, and go all the way to the hip and finish off . Sew the bottom together.

Attach your elastics and pin evenly.

Zig zag the elastics onto the leotard. Once you have them all basted on, flip over the elastic and finalize the with a zig zag top stitch. I chose a 2.5” zig zag.

Finished leotard!!!

If you have any questions , feel free to ask me a question.
-Ruthanne-