Hot Hot Hot

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to take you through my world and give you an insight into my creative mind. As it is Solo/Duo time, I know there are probably some parents or competitors that are either going to have a hand at making at leotard and/or decorate one. So I thought it would be good to show my viewers how I get from the point of the idea to the finished product! With all the trails and tribulations that go on in between.

Now first the process!

When I go about design and making my leotards theses are the steps that I generally follow! Now they are definitely not static steps!! Think of them as a continuous circle, which is never complete till the first foot hits that stage!

1.Searching

2.Planning

3.Designing

4.Making

5.Detail

And then 6. Headgear!!!

As I said above, think continuous circle with this process!! Like everything in life these steps can be completed multiple times through the process of making a leotard, because lets face it things happen! Sometimes we don’t like what we’ve done and have to try another direction. Or… in the worst case scrap the whole idea and start again (which I have done).

To day I am going to take you through the Searching, Planning and apart of the Designing segments.

First off you need a rational. – The idea/theme

Sometimes this can be lengthy and detailed other times it could be one or two words.

Rational

Hot Hot HOT.

So the theme for this particular leotard it the song Hot Hot Hot or Feeling Hot Hot Hot. And for it to have ruffles for the skirt.

So from this song we can attain that it has Cuban beat feel, which makes me think of Rio. The song also sounds very bright, so that throws the ideal of vivid colours into the mix.

1. Searching

For me searching start off with either the search for materials or search for images. Today was materials; I was lucky to stumble across some really bold flower Lycra that would work perfectly with this theme.

Now as this Lycra is a little too full on to put everywhere on the leotard I have chosen pink to be the base colour. Though this material does have pink already it in it, its background colour is dark blue so I want a colour that will complement.

I do already have a design in my head for this one… BUT if I didn’t, this is where the Internet comes in handy! And therefore I would search of images and ideas using the above rational broken into key words / Statements.

• Cuban beat

• Rio

• Bright coloured dance Costumes

• Ruffle skirts dance

And here are just a few of the images – which I liked!

2. Planning

Planning is one of those stages that sometimes can be done as the second step but other times it intermingles with the third step (designing).

However the planning is more about schedules and time lines.

Now because I already know what colour Lycras I want for this leotard I can go a purchase the materials with out having to work out how many centimeters to meters I need.

Handy Hint: one leotard needs generally 40cm wide of material to make a full leotard. And if adding little segments of Lycra 20cm

** If stretch is length ways

Otherwise you can design and measure, that way you end up with less waste at the end.

Other areas of planning are how you are going to make the leotard, which I have talked about before, but I’ll go in to make detail later during the making stage.

3. Designing

For designing we have to come up with what we want the leotard to look like! This could be a to scale drawing or a smaller version. I generally draw a tiny version first, and I mean tiny! The front and the back drawing is usually 1/8th the size of an A4 page. Though when you take a picture of it, it doesn’t look small!

So as you can see I’ve got the ruffles, which are on a side skirt.

My idea is to also use the flowers from the skirt in the top half of the leotard and applique them on.

It will have flesh through the centre with either the flowers continuing down diagonally to the skirt or straps going diagonally crisscross. But that is something to figure out in the detail stage!

Next week I will be continuing on with the rest of the designing stage (Drafting the pattern) and making the leotard.

Until then xxx