when culottes attack

Sure, I'll wear heels with a circle skirt, if the occasion feels right. But I've never worn heels with shorts before.

UNTIL NOW.

Well, these ain't shorts really. They're culottes, sewn from the Tania Culottes pattern by Megan Nielsen. I researched (er, wikipedia'd) the origin/meaning of culottes, and the word used to refer to the knee-breeches worn by French aristocrats in the 16th century. Working class revolutionaries were called "sans-culottes" (literally, without culottes), which was used as a derogatory term, obvi. So basically that means I'm like royalty in these culottes, you guys. Except "culottes" now can mean "panties" in French. Great. Whatever. I can't keep up with fashion.

I haven't ordered a paper pattern via mail in ages, so the wait felt excruciating. I've become a PDF pattern junkie, looking for that quick fix. Newsflash: the Tania Culottes (and a couple other MN patterns) are now available as a PDF on her website (here), as of like yesterday. Smart thinkin', Megs.

Anyway, the pattern finally arrived and I sewed my first pair immediately. I was just so curious to see how they were constructed, after reading other bloggers mention the clever pleating system. To the untrained eye, it looks like there's a center front and back seam in a normal skirt, but it's actually a large box pleat in the front and back that is stitched several inches down the skirt then stops. A couple inches behind the pleat is the actual seat seam. All the draping of the large pleat and circle-cut legs creates the look of a skirt. Tunnel vision:

I decided to make my culottes in a knit fabric because... because! I just tend to have a higher proportion of stretchies in my stash and I liked this watercolor print. It's a stable jersey or somethin' from a local discount fabric store. The pattern calls for woven fabrics and an invisible side zipper. I eliminated the zipper, so I sewed both side seams, constructed the waistband all together then attached it as one to the waist of the culottes. I serged elastic to the seam allowance of the waist so it doesn't stretch out when I go to pull the waist over my not-so-tiny hips. So it's a bulky seam, oh well.

I finished the hem with my coverstitch machine (review of my machine is here), though it's really not necessary because these culotte legs are enormous circles and will never have to be stretched over any body part. Speaking of the legs being enormous circles, that means it's still VERY possible to flash your naughties if you lift up your leg to throw over a bicycle, for instance. The crotch seam is quite low, actually, so while these culottes help control some windy-day chaos, you're not entirely safe from a little oops moment. Just saying!

Sizing reference: For this pair I made a size S in the waist with a size L length. I should have gone down a size in the waist to accommodate the fabric's stretch, because this pair hangs lower on my waist than I think they're intended. Even at the "large" length with a saggy fit, these 'lottes are pretty short! I'm 5'7, btw.

On my first pair, I noticed the same issue that many others mentioned about making this pattern (i.e. Nette, Lladybird, Scruffy Badger): the back drooped far below the front, and took quite a bit of adjustment to even everything out. Of course, garments cut on the bias are prone to stretching out, but it seemed a little excessive. Plus, I noticed the back was drooping the very first time I held them up vertically, so it didn't seem like something that resulted from hanging or wearing.

So I did some investigation. The pattern is, in fact, drafted this way. It's not a perfect circle and the back is drafted to be 2" longer than the front and sides to accommodate your rear end. Megan did mention the slightly longer back in her description of the culottes when they were first released (here). But I guess 2" is a little generous in a non-fitted circle skirt/culotte. And 2" in addition to the natural stretching of the bias may lead to even more drooping. I decided to re-draft it so the hem is even to begin with.

I found the center point of the circle and measured everything from there. Please pardon my janky use of canned tomatoes and chilies as pattern weights. The side seam (which is the upper horizontal edge of the photo above) is about 20" long from center point to the size L length:

Sorry the measuring tape is upside down. Anyway, you'll see that as you move along the skirt to measure the bias, the hem is drafted to 22" long:

I wanted it to be the same all the way around, so I decided to stick with the longer length since my first culottes are pretty short. So I made the back 22" long all the way around, and made the front 22" long all the way around as well.

I used the altered pattern to make a second pair. And after 24 hours of hanging, the hem was still relatively even. No droopy pants! But, I must confess, now the center back is an eensy bit higher than the rest of the culottes because my badonk is in the way, so I guess I made the mistake of making the hem TOO even. Ah well, learning. If you were to adjust your pattern like I did, maybe keep a tiny bit of extra length in the back. But not a full 2 inches. Or do whatchu want. I'm not here to preach about pattern drafting.

This is my fancy version. It's still a knit, but a pretty thick one so the circley femininity is exaggerated. This is leftover fabric from a dress I made in May (seen in my MMM photos here). The fabric is spongy, hot and not very stretchy so I don't really like wearing it in the summer. It's a blue knit fabric that has black lace fused to its right side.

Word to the wise: If you're using a directional, striped or plaid fabric for these bad boys, remember that the front and back pleat seam is what the world will see in the center, so be sure to match your print there. I didn't think about it and had to manipulate the fabric after the fact.

Not truly symmetrical but the best I could do!

The Tania Culotte is a fun, unique pattern that is super quick to make. Though the garment doesn't offer all the the practicality and coverage I expected, I still enjoy wearing them and demonstrating my "culotte-reveal pose" (seen in second photo above) to unsuspecting friends.

How do you feel about wearing culottes in the year 2013? I must say I prefer these to knee breeches, the culottes of yore...

a kouple kellys

I was a lucky tester for Megan Nielsen's newest pattern, the Kelly Skirt, and now that she's released it into the wild (see here) I thought I should share my creations. Plural. In all, I've made this skirt three times. It's that easy and fills a lot of gaps in the wardrobe. 

Button-down skirts simply don’t exist in the commercial pattern world, it seems. I would go ahead and tell you how many straight skirts with a side zipper there are between Simplicity and McCalls, but I’m not sure I could count that high. For independent designs, there’s just the Colette Beignet, the Wiksten Tulip (wait -- it's not in her shop; is it no longer available?), and now the Megan Nielsen Kelly. I think the Kelly fits in nicely with the competition. It’s high-waisted with a thick waistband, deep hem and pleats for shaping. Can’t resist the scoop pockets on the front. 

The fabric recommendations for this skirt are midweight wovens, like denim, corduroy and linen. I used cotton sateen on my tester version, a linen/cotton blend on my second version and rayon challis for my third. Yea, by the third skirt I strayed away from the rules like the reckless sewasaurus I am, but I think a light and breezy fabric works quite well with this design, if you’re looking for more drape and a less-pronounced A-line shape. 

This one was made with Robert Kaufman yarn-dyed Essex linen I found on Fabricworm. The vertical threads are dyed black and the horizontal are white, which gives an overall effect of textured heather gray. It’s 55% flax linen/45% cotton so it claimed it wouldn’t wrinkle as easily as pure linen. Ahem. Because I didn’t have a washer and dryer at the time, I hand-washed and hung this fabric to dry. Unfortunately the wrinkles from washing, rinsing and wringing seem permanently set in no matter how vigorously I iron. Life goes on, clothes wrinkle on. 

I added some piping (without the… pipe) to the pocket edges just for fun. 

This fabric is quite scratchy, so I underlined the whole skirt in Bemberg rayon. Bright red, o’ course. If you underline yours, make sure you pleat the layers separately. I tried pleating them together to save time, but that made for some large puffy pleats -- not cute.

My latest Kelly version was made in a tobacco-colored rayon challis from ye olde JoAnn. Being a semi-pro at the Kelly by the point, and not having to add an underlining, I whipped this up in what seemed like no time. This pattern is designated as "beginner" level and I stand by it.

My machine ACTUALLY cooperated, too, and allowed me to make buttonholes without provoking a wrestling match like it usually does. I think the pattern calls for seven buttons total but I used eight on both of these versions.

So, if you’re looking to make a simple and casual or semi-casual skirt with room for customization, Kelly’s your girl… er, pattern. Is it just me, or does the name Kelly always ring a "bell"... 

Do you think Kelly Kapowski would ever wear a Kelly skirt? Or is she more of a neon mini-skirt and pastel floral pants kind of girl? To each her own. 

So tell me... is the Kelly skirt in your sewing future?

farmer's daughter banksia dress

Guys and gals, I took your advice on my last post and decided to move on from winter sewing to the fun stuff for spring. Therefore, I blame you for how cold I was taking these pictures in my open doorway. Just kidding... your encouragement helped this little dress come to fruition and I think it's wonderful. It's not denim, by the way; it's a $3 blue cotton bedsheet!

Hey, wrinkly bum, this serves as a reminder to not sit down & play around on Pinterest before a photo shoot. 

The pattern is (mostly) Megan Nielsen's newest release - the Banksia Top, which she describes as a: "Semi-fitted [top] with button-up placket front and large peter pan collar... elbow-length sleeves and shaping darts at the bust line." In the back of the instruction booklet, Megan suggests some possible modifications to the top, such as lengthening the hem to make a dress. Well, that sounded brilliant, so I did it.

I added about 15 inches to the pattern piece to begin with, I think, and sewed a fairly deep hem. It was quite loose-fitting as it was, and the bunched-up fabric looked sloppy when I belted it. I decided to add elastic to the waist so it'd have a better fit and the gathers would be more even. It also gave me a way to line the skirt without having to cut the dress at the waist to create two pieces. Here's the beauuutiful inside:

Yes, that's black thread for the serged edges, tan thread for machine stitching, and white lining. Some of the seams have light blue thread, too, since that's what I started with before I switched to tan. Don't judge me for ugly mismatched garment interiors, please.

Don't tell anyone but I left off the buttonholes; I just sewed the buttons through both layers of the placket because the neckline's low enough to pull the dress on over my head without having to unbutton it. So, why bother, amirite? I added a box with an X (an X-box?) to the bottom of the placket, mostly because I had messy placket sewing skills and I wanted to distract from the unevenness along the bottom seam. I highly recommend, if you make this pattern, to very carefully and evenly mark, cut and sew the placket lines. It makes a big difference in how neatly everything will fold and fit together at the bottom. Oh and another "design" element I added was narrowly tucked sleeve hems with double stitching.

I lowered the bust darts and had them slant upward at a diagonal to the bust point. The original pattern has high horizontal darts, just like the Darling Ranges Dress, which I learned don't quite work for my shape. So I used my Lisette Traveler's Dress pattern as a guide, since those bust darts had better positioning.

I was in the middle of sewing this dress and didn't know what color buttons I wanted. I just happened to see Mary of Idle Fancy pin this on her Pinterest that same day I was thinking about it:

Hey! Looks familiar. I then knew mine would have to have brown buttons, too. By the way, Mary has a lovely "Sew Much Inspiration" pin board chock full of beautiful dresses to ogle - I recommend you follow her if you have a Pinterest account.

This dress is pretty cutesy with the collar, buttons and elastic. I won't lie, I feel kind of farmer's daughterish in it. "Well hi there folks!"

Nothing wrong with that, though, and you never know when some hay-pitchin' opportunities will arise, so I best be dressed right.

project linked to sew country chick

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Is the Banksia Top (or dress!) in your sewing queue?

"flower rock" darling ranges dress

Here she is, my Darling Ranges dress. 

Ever since I saw Paunnet's version of this dress, I knew I wanted one. It's a nice little button-up V-neck dress with half-sleeves finished in elastic.

Yea, we see you, center back crease.

This pattern is by Megan Nielsen, an independent fashion designer and pattern-maker based in the USA. Most of her current patterns are for expecting mamas, but the Darling Ranges Dress is one primarily targeted at... non-mamas? No. Both mamas and non-mamas who just happen to not be... expecting? Why is that so difficult to write? I guess I don't know an appropriate word that means opposite of pregnant. Anyway, Megan designs and sells lovely clothing for cool people like you and me, so go check out her current winter collection.

There's no facing in the bodice (a great thing), and I really liked the way the neckline is finished with bias tape. Yea, bias tape, my nemesis, but I can deal with it when it's only visible on the inside. The fabric I used is black and white rayon from ZinniaSnipSnap on Etsy. The floral pattern reminds me of those sunglasses-clad dancing flowers from the 90s.

Now my Google search history is filled with terms like "battery-operated dancing wiggle flowers in sunglasses with tiny instruments." What else is new. They still make these things in Japan, of course -- the world capital of questionably cute and completely useless robotic toys. They're called "Flower Rock," in case you're interested.

The pattern doesn't call for interfacing in the button placket. It just so happened that the day I was working on it, I received the Colette Patterns "Snippet" (weekly sewing tip) in my e-mail. It was about, guess what?, interfacing buttonholes. It said, "Not all patterns suggest interfacing buttonholes, but it's an important step to take [to prevent sagging]." I was like, "Is this a test?" So, I interfaced my buttonholes. I hope you're happy, Sarai!

Okay, she seems pretty happy.

Somehow I cut the bodice too short, so it's now kind of an empire-waisted dress. I'm not a fan of empire waists, so I'll mostly wear this dress with a thicker belt that creates the illusion of a lower waistline. This dress is comfy as all get-out, btw.

The fabric isn't sheer, but since it's white I thought a skirt lining would be a good idea. Plus I'm sick of making unlined skirts that stick to my tights as I walk (mustard skirt, I'm talking to you). I simply cut the same skirt pattern in the lining fabric, stitched it together at the sides, then attached it to the skirt at the top when I machine-basted the gathering stitches. 

Hey, serged edges! My new serger and I have gotten along so far, but every time I go to Joann's they're always completely out of black and white serger thread. I was too anxious to get started on this dress so I just used the black I already had. It's probably a no-no on white fabric, but I don't think it's that noticeable from the right side.

I want to make a sleeveless version in a darker color next!


Tell me: is this pattern in your stash yet? Get on it!
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linked to: sew country chick
and
Threading My Way women's dress link-up