Gymnastics: a leotard is judged on how it stays put through a routine

The leg opening is the first. Cut too high it rides; cut too low it looks wrong; bound with a folded hem it rolls. We bind the leg opening with a stretch binding that grips without an elastic, in the design colour, and we cut it to the club’s preference within the range the judging rules allow.

The neckline and strap are the second. A neckline that gaps in a handstand is a pattern fault, and the fix is in the drafting: the front is cut slightly shorter than a standing figure suggests, so it lies flat inverted. Straps are bound the same way as the leg, and on a competition leotard they are often a mesh or a contrast panel, which we sublimate as part of the design rather than sew on.

The knit is a four-way stretch polyester-spandex that returns to shape, and every leotard is sublimated for the same reason a singlet is: a printed design on a stretch knit cracks along the stretch, and a dyed one does not.

Competition leotards are often finished with rhinestones or a metallic panel. We do not apply rhinestones, and we say so plainly, because a stone applied in a factory and a stone applied by a club’s own finisher are different jobs and the second is usually better. What we do is leave the design clean where stones are going, so a finisher has a flat surface.

Metallic and foil effects we reproduce in sublimation as a printed effect rather than a real foil, because a real foil on a stretch knit cracks. The mockup shows which is which, so a club is not surprised.