This project has been brought to you by the power of positive reinforcement.
Every time I took a picture of a step in the process I got a bit of a cookie.
Only three cookies were harmed during this experiment.
I made culottes!
Aren’t they purdy?
And I can spin! And the windy days won’t completely ruin my day! And I can be comfy!
It wasn’t without some trial, though.
A few weeks ago I found this tutorial, which explains how to pattern these culottes.
I’d never heard of culottes, skorts being the only alternative skirt option I knew.
I kinda miss skorts, and there may be a pair in the works… Some thoughts need to be worked out.
So, I did some research. At least, I searched Pinterest, and I attempted some google searches, but most of those patterns looked, well, ugly.
I did find this lovely pattern, which I loved the idea of, except it was sold out… And a little out of my price range at the moment.
And I found Lladybird’s culottes, which inspired me to buy some fabric, and I decided to use that first link above to go ahead and pattern the culottes.
I’m new to knits, being primarily a quilter before last year, but I love to wear them, so it was a logical progression. I’ve made a skirt or two before, but I really like the idea of a bike-approved option.
I got this fabric off of ebay, and there’s a lot of it. This is also the fabric I’m planning to make my Kaylee-inspired dress with.
But before I cut into it I made a muslin like a good little pattern-making newbie.
And I’m glad I did! Except it got fuzzy stuff all over my scissors!
I found that I needed to lower the rise, in order to get into the culottes, and have a comfortable placement of the shorts on my body. I also needed to lengthen the skirt from the bottom, to make the skirt more to my liking.
First I made myself a new pattern, but this time I cut out the real fabric, because I was tired of muslins already, and the knit muslin fabric I have currently is all much heavier than the actual fabric. I wanted to know how the actual fabric draped before changing anything else.
And during this process I found out that my fashion fabric isn’t a knit. Zipper to the rescue! I really should double check these things.
Because I didn’t add seam allowances, because I forgot it wasn’t a knit, it’s a tight squeeze on me up top, but that was helped a bit by my waist finishing process.
Both of the above pictures were taken before hemming, but it seemed like a good length, and with the exception of the tightness around the waist, an all around good fit. I could always remove the seams and add something in later, but I’m on limited supplies and time at the moment, so that will have to wait.
Then came the hemming and I was done!
Next time, though: definitely need to add seam allowances, and perhaps make them a little longer,