The 70's Square Leg Maillot

For the last 30 years we've all looked back on the 70's and wondered how on earth the fashion industry got us to wear flares, wide collars, wide ties, and spectrums of colour all in the one garment. But the cyclic nature of fashion crept up and bit us in the behind while we weren't looking. Low slung hipsters have been taking over for the last few years and now waistlines are so low on every type of garment that women are running off to wax areas they'd never have dreamed of waxing 30 years ago!

I have to admit liking the 70's. Women's fashion was soft and feminine. Men's fashion had a sense of flamboyant style that hadn't really been seen since the 1700's. People could speak their mind and everyone was open about love and sexuality. But as sudden as they arrived, the 70's was crushed in the 80's by androgeny, shoulder pads, huge plastic components and the belief that 'greed was good'. I hereby swear that if 3/4" thick shoulder pads return to mainstream womens blouses I'll retire from fashion forever!

The 70's were responsible for the transition from bloomer type bikini bottoms of the 60's through to the bikini brief. The 60's bikini bottoms were predominantly center front/back seamed short designs with a square leg line. This meant that one piece designs had a center front seam that ran all the way to the bust. The only way to remove this seam was to lift the leg line slightly up from square. Which is what happened. Indeed this also meant a certain amount of unflattering wrinkles and fabric bulking around the crotch area. So the square line kept on being lifted a more and more until by the mid to late 70's the leg line had reached the low slung waist line and the most successful swimsuit design in history became standard. Ok so the 80's saw a short lived high (sometimes way too high) leg line but feminist androgeny pretty much destroyed that design with anyone wearing it looked down upon. Of course the invention of fluorescent colours didn't help the cause any.

So how did they make the one piece square leg? How low can you go before needing to revert to a center front and back seam? By definition the lowest a square leg can be is the waist to crotch measurement as a vertical. Any more than that and it's no longer square. But of course you still need to be able to able to wrap around the inside leg tendon and join between the legs. This means lifing the legline a fraction. This sketch above represents the early 70's halter neck one piece with a square leg and no center front seam that we're going to make a pattern for. Of course there's nothing stopping you still using a center back seam, in fact I think it would look much better with one.

This is pattern is based on the size 10B/C one piece block. I'm not going to repeat the instructions for making the halter top section, so I'm just going to transfer it directly to the block at step one. If you haven't made the halter neck one piece, you'll need to do that first. Before you start each step, click on the link marked "Illustration for this Step". A pop up window with an illustration for that step will help guide you through the instructions. At the end of each step your draft should match the illustration.

Step One

Illustration for this Step

Trace around your one piece block and transfer across the top of the halter pattern (without seam allowance). Mark in a guide line 7cm above the hip line (+/- 0.25 cm per size). This represents the height of the leg line. Draft in a vertical guide line twice the width of the crotch from center front on the new height guide.

Step Two

Illustration for this Step

Extend the side seam on both front and back panels to the height guide. Widen the crotch seam (bottom of pattern) by 0.5cm (for all sizes). This is a simple tweak to help the leg line sit better ... it won't matter if you don't do this.

Step Three

Illustration for this Step

Draft in the new front leg line touching all guide points: new side seam to intersection of vertical guide, to narrowest part of crotch, to widened crotch seam. This should be a smooth gradual curve dictated by the guide points. The back leg line curves ever so slightly from side seam to crotch seam. Trace the front side seam onto tracing paper to true up the back leg line at both ends.

Step Four

Illustration for this Step

Remove unnecessary guidelines. If necessary retrace the front and back panels. Be sure to clearly label your pattern pieces with a title, panel name, size, cutting instructions, author’s name, date and revision number. Finaly, add seam allowance to the pattern based on how you intend to assemble it. I've shown this pattern with 10mm allowance for overlocked seams (8mm to blade, 2mm off cut) and 10mm allowance for folding over 9mm elastic.

Step Five

Illustration for this Step

This image has been included for completeness to demonstrate how the center back seam might be created. It's very much the same as for the cheekies pattern only we're not going to narrow the bottom of the square leg line.