Long Tania Culottes

Why hello there!

You were lured in by my first couple posts in a while (plausible), or perhaps by the lovely pics of the culottes in the pictures (perhaps less plausible), or because you did a double take when you realized that I wasn’t in fact going to be talking about my Ariel costume, but about a piece of clothing… Don’t worry. I’ll talk about the rest of the costume at the end!

My 2016 Ariel costume involved a floor length deep blue skirt that was maybe a quarter circle skirt out of some lovely but incredibly flimsy rayon. So I made an Onyx shirt out of it a couple months afterward.

So when I decided to attend DragonCon again in 2017 I wanted to update my Ariel costume, and that meant making a new skirt.

But Ariel is all about getting legs! Why does she get legs, and then suddenly start wearing a tube that she could’ve worn with a tail anyway!

So my theory is that she would be much happier wearing culottes. Still loose and flowy without being a single tube. Two tubes for the win!

Okay, that’s enough now…

I had recently downloaded the update to Megan Nielsen’s Tania Culotte pattern, and had pieces together the knee length version (I think) of the full circle culotte pattern, as opposed to the tapered version.

So I took some of the rayon lawn that I used with my 2017 Birthday Dress and cut pieces a little larger than the pattern pieces would require, and then I dyed them using either Procion Royal Blue or Moody Blue (Moody Blue was a specialty color that doesn’t look like its still available), which came out the perfect sky blue (perhaps because I didn’t use enough dye, as I’m looking at the instructions). I think I used glauber’s salt in the mixture, which is suggested for evening out the color. And urea, now that I think about it. I was dyeing a couple things that night, so I’m not sure..

The fabric dyeing went well, but then I laid the pieces over the rungs of my drying rack, and that left lines in the fabric… Oh well!

Then I took the fabric pieces, ironed them heavily and cut out the Tania culottes pattern for real this time. Sewing together was pretty simple, as I’ve made it many a time before (I mean, at least twice). I did have to make really big darts in the waistband, and I put in pockets… They were messy. The waistband was something I over-interfaced, because I knew it had to hold up (literally) when the rest of the garment was so flowy.

This is the time to remind/let you know that this rayon lawn is not meant for real garments. I was just silly to have tried it. I seem to have a habit of trying to force thin rayon into skirt like jobs… Hmm…

Once finished, I wore them to work… Which worked okay. The problem arose that they are so flowy that they got caught in my bike wheels. As in grind me to a halt stuck between the brakes and the wheel.

Every time I got in a car I was at risk of tearing the fabric. Especially around the back seam area. Not the seam itself, but the area next to the seam. I had already repaired that area once before DragonCon, and by the time I got to the Marriott apparently the hole had reappeared… Oops? Thanks lady on the escalator for letting me know so carefully!

So this was retired about a month after DragonCon, though it was my ultimate favorite swishy swishy make. Fabric eater, I think this had over 3.5 yards in it. But I will be looking into making this again soon, out of a more durable fabric. Maybe I’ll make the tapered version, but I really like the deceptive nature of the circle skirt variation. I had to prove to a number of people (not at the con but in life) that it was in fact “pants”).

So details on the rest of the Ariel costume… Same corset as 2016, but I made a new shirt. I altered the Onyx top pattern to lengthen and widen the sleeves and I embroidered these adorable waves along the neckline. I also made a Flounder plushie who is my new favorite (don’t tell my fox-squirrel), especially because he looks so terrified. I carried him around in a basket, and when one young boy was nervous to come up and touch him, I told him that Flounder was scared being out of the ocean… I’m not good at coming up with things on the spot, so my new and improved quick thinking came in handy. Hopefully it sticks around…

This year I plan to also make a Sebastian plushie. I had all the fabrics ready with the Flounder stuff, but I just didn’t have the time to make it!