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| Jalie 3464 - Lillie Gymnastics Leotard (with 3/4 stretch mesh sleeve) |
The Name
It has been a great honour to count Fiona Buttery as our friend AND gymnastics critic/expert since 2010. She is a super talented sewist who makes stunning leotards for elite/international competitions. She is the designer behind the Team GB RG leotards for the London 2012 Olympics. Yes. She is THAT awesome!
It is with great pleasure that we named this new gymnastics pattern after Lillie, her youngest daughter who was an elite gymnast and starred in Chalk, a short film a short film directed by BAFTA winning film-maker Martina Amati (for which Fiona made stunning leos too!).
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| Lillie on the Chalk movie poster wearing a leotard made by Fiona |
The Inspiration
Everyone in Quebec remembers young Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The stripes that ran under the sleeves and on the sides made her arms look a mile long! We wanted to replicate that effect, but on a more modern leotard.
The Pattern
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| Jalie 3464 - Lillie Gymnastics Leotard |
As we were making prototypes, we added a princess seam that 1) makes it suuuuper easy to adjust for a perfect fit and 2) is very flattering, slimming the waist and creating a lovely, feminine shape.
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| Jalie 3464 - Lillie Gymnastics Leotard Sleeveless, long sleeve, 3/4 sleeve |
At first, we wanted to make only a long-sleeve leotard with a nice fit at armhole (not batwing effect!), at every fitting, Éléonore insisted on having a sleeveless leotard.
We figured out she was probably not the only
Here is mini-me, taking her modelling job very seriously:
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Jalie 3464 - Lillie Gymnastics Leotard (Sleeveless) Printed Fabric: RO244 from FunkiFabrics |
It's hard to believe that it was me, posing for Jalie in oh-so-cool leotards back in the 80's! I didn't do gymnastics or anything. I was just a little girl who was happy to play with giant ballons and pretend I was the Athlete of the Year for the day :)
Hope all gym moms out there will be happy with this new pattern!