Why You Should Stop Settling for Typical Leotards

Why You Should Stop Settling for Typical Leotards

Aug 11, 2020 | Athletic Leotards, Athleticwear, Dancers

A couple of years ago I created a leotard survey for my dancer friends to ask them how they felt about leotards. I asked several questions that started with “how satisfied are you with leotard              ?” Leotard styles, leotard colors, leotard coverage, the fit and the comfort. I remember one friend telling me afterward, “I didn’t realize how dissatisfied I am with leotards until I took your survey!” 

Sorry. Haha.

At the same time, though, not sorry. Dance is an area where too many people have accepted the idea that beauty is pain. Sometimes I think that idea is true, and experiencing some pain is worth it for the result. However—leotards shouldn’t be a pain. There is no reason for it. And, in case you’ve internalized the “beauty is pain” idea so much that you don’t even notice how leotards are a pain—let me point some things out to you, with love. Because I don’t want you to keep settling for this pain when you don’t have to. 

Typical leotards aren’t comfy

Have you ever considered wearing a leotard inside-out? 😆 I’m serious. 😐

I ask because that would probably be a lot comfier than wearing it right-side-out.

(Having tried these leotards on inside-out, I can verify that not having the elastic and tags and whatnot against my skin was great, and the seams were smoother and comfier. However, if the straps/shoulders dug in when they were right-side-out, they still dug in when inside-out.)

You might have thought, “No, of course I wouldn’t wear a leotard inside-out, that would look ridiculous.” Well, that’s part of the problem.

Typical leotards are constructed to look pretty on the outside, and who cares what’s going on inside. So you end up with smooth, pretty stitches on the outside, and layers of loopy, scratchy stitches on the inside that dig into your skin. But who cares as long as it’s pretty, right? 

I care! 

Other athletes—runners and whatnot, people who are generally acknowledged as athletes—have been pampered a bit. They’ve got people working on making the comfiest, most supportive shoes and athleticwear to support them in their athleticism and make sure that what they’re wearing isn’t holding them back from reaching their potential. They’re making comfortable clothing to improve their experience and help them take care of their bodies so they can enjoy their sport more.

I think dancers deserve that same pampering. 😊

Typical leotards aren’t built for support and coverage

A pretty classic leotard includes spaghetti straps. I don’t mind spaghetti straps on a camisole, but I hate them on a leotard. Why? Because leotards are already snug, the fabric is stretching over your body for a secure fit. When all that is holding the leotard on your shoulders is a couple of tiny straps, a lot of strain is put on them, which means those tiny straps dig into your skin. Blegh.

After wearing a spaghetti strap leotard for about a half hour

Red lines left on my shoulder after wearing a spaghetti strap leotard for about a half hour

After wearing a typical leotard for about a half hour

Red lines left on my shoulder after wearing a typical leotard for about a half hour

Sadly, you can see that the same thing can happen with sleeved leotards as well.

Many leotards are constructed with a little shelf lining for bust support. They’re inadequate, though. For people like me with a small bust, they’re just kind of annoying and unnecessary, but for dancers with a larger bust, that shelf lining just doesn’t cut it. 

Leotards should be comfortable and secure. When you wear a leotard, you should be able to focus on what you’re doing and move with freedom. You shouldn’t have to worry that your leotard might fall off, or that your body might fall out. 

Standard sizing doesn’t cut it

Here’s a big one: standard sizing. With typical leotards, you get to choose between small, medium, and large . . . sometimes extra small, sometimes extra large, etc. Granted, for some people, those sizes are specific enough. But I hear from dancers who don’t have a torso with just one size!

Some dancers might be small on bottom but medium on top. So they have to choose . . . do they want it to fit on bottom but be constricting on top? Or do they want to be able to breathe better, and deal with a saggy bottom? These are not great options!

In addition to fit issues with the width of the leotard, the length can also be a problem. I’ve heard from several dancers with a longer torso who struggle to find a leotard that is long enough to fit comfortably, or even to cover them! People like me can have the opposite problem as well—I have a short torso and I’ve had a leotard that is long enough that I have to pinch up and sew out some of the torso.

Leotards should be snug, but not constricting. They should fit you lengthwise and crosswise.  

You don’t get to decide what your leotards look like

The comfort and the function of a leotard are probably the most important. But the design is where a lot of the fun and self-expression come into play. At least for me, the color and design of a leotard can have quite an effect on my mood and change how I feel when I go to the studio. 

There are lots of fun styles and colors of leotards out there, but especially if you’re looking for leotards with comfort and coverage, your selection is quite limited. Put all of these factors together, and you can get quite fed up with searching for a leotard in stores that meets your needs. You might just have to make one yourself!

Now that we’ve established that typical leotards kind of suck . . . in my next post I’ll tell you more about why you should consider making your own leotards. 😉 

But if you already believe me and you’re ready to make your own leotard now—sign up for my free DIY Athletic Leotard Course!

Get Free Access to the DIY Athletic Leotard Course!

3 Features That Make a Leotard “Athleticwear”

3 Features That Make a Leotard “Athleticwear”

Jul 28, 2020 | Athletic Leotards, Dancers are Athletes

Three features may not sound like a lot, but these three things actually make a huge difference. Let me tell you what turns a typical leotard into athleticwear. 

Enclosed seams

Typical leotards have exposed serged seams on the inside, and exposed serged and coverstitched seams on the neck and legholes. If you’re not familiar with sewing, both serged and coverstitched seams are overlock seams, meaning there are lots of looping layers of thread around the edge of the fabric. That is great, because it keeps the fabric from fraying. But it can also be irritating to your skin, especially if the thread is not soft.

This irritation of the skin gets worse on neck and legholes, where there are more layers of stitching and also tight elastic pressing that stitching into your skin.

Tia’s Leos are completely lined and have only one exposed seam; the rest of them are enclosed. This means your side seams, shoulder seams, and sleeve seams are all totally smooth and silky. Rather than the overlock stitch,.

Perhaps more importantly, on Tia’s Leos the neck and legholes are also enclosed. Rather than the overlock stitch, you’ve got just a smooth, straight double-needle stitch. The elastic and all of the overlock stitching are still there, making your leotard secure, but they’re all on the inside—as in, between the layers of fabric in your leotard, where you’ll never see them, and you’ll certainly never feel them digging into your skin. 

Coverage and support, no thin straps

Have you ever watched a dance performance where the most memorable thing was how many times the dancers tugged their costumes back into place so they’d be covered while they were dancing? Where that motion was the most repeated, but definitely not choreographed movement? 😅😆🤣 I have. 

Tia’s Leos are designed to provide you coverage and support as an athlete, so that you can move and dance without worrying about falling out of your leotard. 

One thing that means for me that is no thin straps—maybe as a design feature, but not as a structural part of the leotard that holds it on your body. Besides not being terribly secure, they also are much less comfortable because so much strain from a tight, stretchy piece of clothing is put on such a tiny little strap. That means more digging into your skin and leaving red marks! No thank you.

Having thicker traps, or even sleeves, spreads that pressure out over more surface area and makes your leotard much more comfortable and secure. That, plus not having a super low neckline in the front or back, also means that in many cases you can wear a sports bra underneath for more support without your bra showing. 

These elements help ensure that you can move securely—and not ruin your choreography by throwing in extra moves to adjust your leo. 😉😄

Custom-fit 

Not all athleticwear is custom-fit—but Tia’s Leos are!! This supports you as an athlete because your leotard is made to fit YOUR body just right, rather than expecting you to fit in a standardized leo. 

I’ve heard complaints from dancers whose torsos are long, and standard leotards really have to stretch to fit them, making their leotards feel really tight and uncomfortable. I have a short torso, so I tend to have the opposite problem!

I’ve also heard from dancers who are one size on top, and another size on bottom. This means they have to choose a size, and either find a way to deal with it being too loose, or too tight and constricting.

Tia’s Leos fix all of these problems because you and I start from scratch with YOUR measurements, not standardized measurements,  in order to make a pattern just for your body. That means it will be nice and snug and secure, but it won’t be painfully tight and constricting. This all makes dancing a more comfortable experience for you!

Do these sound like features you want in a leotard?

If you’re ready to stop settling for typical leotards and try a leotard constructed to support an athlete, take my free course! It’s broken up into 3 days, and by the end of the course, you’ll have an athletic leotard made just for your body!

Get Free Access to the DIY Athletic Leotard Course!

Dancers are Athletes—So Why Don’t They Have Athleticwear?

Dancers are Athletes—So Why Don’t They Have Athleticwear?

Jul 14, 2020 | Athletic Leotards, Athleticwear, Dancers are Athletes

Dancers are athletes

For me, looking at a definition is all I really need to decide whether dancers are athletes. From dictionary.com:

athlete [ath-leet] noun

a person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill.

To me this definition makes it clear that all dancers are athletes, but dancers are not the only type of athletes. Dance is always exercise, but it’s not always a contest. It’s sometimes considered a sport, rarely a game, but always an exercise requiring physical skill. Sometimes dancers compete against other dancers to win. Lots of times dancers dance for many other reasons, though, such as self-expression, getting a workout, feeling beautiful, creating art, telling a story . . . There are a lot of components to dance.

Dancers are Athletes

I’ve heard an argument that since the root word means to contend for a prize, the word “athlete” doesn’t capture the true purpose of dance, that dance is so much more than that. I don’t disagree with that! 

ORIGIN OF ATHLETE

1520–30; < Latin āthlēta < Greek āthlētḗs, equivalent to āthlē- (variant stem of āthleîn to contend for a prize, derivative of âthlos a contest) + -tēs suffix of agency

But by saying that dancers are athletes, I’m not saying that dancers are only athletes. And I think it’s clear that there are different levels of athleticism required for different types of dance. You can’t deny the athleticism of dancers, but that’s only one part of what makes a dancer. 

I will also throw out there that a trophy or a ribbon is definitely not the only worthwhile prize for athleticism. There are many rewards that come with training, conditioning, creating, and performing in dance.

Why does it matter?

There is so much artistry involved in dance. Much of the time, a dancer’s goal on stage is to make what they’re doing look easy, to make the audience feel what they’re expressing more than think about the difficulty of what they’re doing. 

Sometimes a performance is clearly about showing off what dancers are physically capable of, but even then, they’re supposed to make it look like it’s easy for them—no grunting, no pulling faces showing the effort. Oftentimes they’ve got a big, confident smile.

Sometimes dancers are so good at performing with their whole body, including their face, and making it look so easy that the outside world is tricked—they think dancing IS easy, that it doesn’t require any significant amount of strength, skill, or training. 

So one of the reasons it matters to me to say that dancers are athletes is just to acknowledge the physical and mental discipline, the strength, flexibility, technical skill, stamina, the rigorous work many dancers put into their craft. Dance is very artistic, but it is important to me that people appreciate the athleticism that goes into dance as well. 

Another big reason it matters to me is:

Dancers need better athleticwear

“What are you talking about?” you might ask me. “Dancers have leotards. Aren’t leotards athleticwear?”

Well . . . kinda. But they’re kind of outdated. I mean, they still look good, but when was the last time you heard someone say, “Oh man, I love this leotard because it’s so COMFY and supportive!”?

On the other hand, how often do you hear people talk about leggings or yoga pants that way?

When I say dancers need better athleticwear, I mean leotards need to catch up on the athleticwear revolution and they need to be constructed in a way that makes them comfortable and supportive.

Why aren’t my leotards as comfortable as my leggings?

Admittedly, some leotards are better than others. More leotards are being made out of softer, silkier materials and sewn together with softer threads. Those are good improvements. 

But, for example, athletic leggings often have flat seams or enclosed seams, rather than serged seams—meaning that you don’t have layers of stitched fabric on the inside of your already tight clothing that are being pressed into your skin and leaving funny designs when you take it off, haha. 

And when it comes to leotards, you’ve got a neckhole and legholes that require extra security to keep them in place—meaning you’ve not only got layers of exposed stitching, but you also have elastic making it even tighter and pressing that stitching into your skin even more.

So ya . . . it’s pretty safe to say that leotards are usually constructed with the look of them in mind more than the comfort. 

That’s why I created Tia’s Leos

I’m all for a pretty leotard, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that it be comfortable and supportive, too.

I wanted a leotard with flat or enclosed seams. Flatseamers are pretty expensive, and that didn’t seem very practical for me or for people who might want to learn to sew their own leotards with me. So! I use a serger and a coverstitch machine to make my leotards, which are much more affordable. 

With my home sewing machines I can make a leotard that is snug and supportive, that has elastic and is secure, BUT—the whole thing is completely lined with silky lining, and all the seams but one are enclosed. There’s one seam around the torso that’s exposed, but there’s no elastic there pushing it into your skin. So the neckhole, legholes, side seams, and sleeves are all smooth and silky, and you won’t see overlock stitch designs all over your body when you take it off!

Dancers are athletes, and they need comfy, supportive athleticwear 

If you agree and you want this kind of leotard, take my free course! In 3 sections, I’ll teach you how to make an athletic leotard with silky, enclosed seams. Oh, and—it’s also customized to fit your body specifically. So it’s not just athleticwear, it’s fancy customized athleticwear, just for you!

And yes, it really is free. 🙂 My gift to you!

Get Free Access to the DIY Athletic Leotard Course!