I have been wanting to make this pair of culottes for quite awhile and this pattern has been in my possession for quite awhile.
So on to the construction of these culottes. I decided I would go ahead and add the waistband with the elastic encased inside it. However when I tried them on the crotch length was way to long and the waist band ended up being almost to my lower bust! I ripped out the waistband and decided that I would just attach the elastic to the waist and then turn it under. This is a technique that I have seen used in some of my RTW skirts with an elastic waist. Nancy Zieman has a great tutorial here.
I used my serger to attach the elastic to the culottes:
Once I turned it over it looked like this:
Then I went ahead and stitched in "the ditch" to attach the elastic to the culottes and to keep them intact. (I probably need to use a real camera and not my iphone to take pictures)
Size: 14 based on the pattern measurements. This fit very well and has plenty of ease
Fabric: Navy bengaline from fabric.com. They are out but I am sure other sites will have some in stock.
Design Change: I removed 4 inches from the length of the culottes and also deleted the waistband. I also deleted the pockets but only because I was out of fabric.
Construction Notes: The entire skirt was made on my serger, with the exception of the hem. This means that the seam was adjusted from 5/8in to 3/8in. I used a double needle to sew the hem. I lowered the tension to avoid "tunneling" which sometimes occurs with a double needle.
Will I make this again: Most definitely! I plan on making the version with the pleats and have some black benagline at home that I plan on using.
I had a some navy benagline that I had bought from fabric.com and it has been in my stash for quite awhile. Benagline is wonderful fabric but the stretch goes length-wise, along the selvage so you need to adjust if you want to make use of the stretch. But as I started laying out the pattern I realized that I was going to have to be creative as I was going to be a little short on fabric.
These are a pretty easy sew. I decided that since this was being made out of stretch fabric I would add an elastic waist. Because I cut this on the lengthwise grain and because I didn't have much yardage, I had to cut out View D. This view only had darts and not the extra fabric needed to make the pleats. According to my measurements I needed to cut out a size 14. Because I am shorter, I adjusted the length of culottes by 4 inches, giving me just enough fabric.
I was able to get this done in a couple of hours and most of the sewing was done on my serger. I love how this looks and I am very pleased with how it turned out.
These are a pretty easy sew. I decided that since this was being made out of stretch fabric I would add an elastic waist. Because I cut this on the lengthwise grain and because I didn't have much yardage, I had to cut out View D. This view only had darts and not the extra fabric needed to make the pleats. According to my measurements I needed to cut out a size 14. Because I am shorter, I adjusted the length of culottes by 4 inches, giving me just enough fabric.
I was able to get this done in a couple of hours and most of the sewing was done on my serger. I love how this looks and I am very pleased with how it turned out.
So on to the construction of these culottes. I decided I would go ahead and add the waistband with the elastic encased inside it. However when I tried them on the crotch length was way to long and the waist band ended up being almost to my lower bust! I ripped out the waistband and decided that I would just attach the elastic to the waist and then turn it under. This is a technique that I have seen used in some of my RTW skirts with an elastic waist. Nancy Zieman has a great tutorial here.
I used my serger to attach the elastic to the culottes:
Once I turned it over it looked like this:
Then I went ahead and stitched in "the ditch" to attach the elastic to the culottes and to keep them intact. (I probably need to use a real camera and not my iphone to take pictures)
Size: 14 based on the pattern measurements. This fit very well and has plenty of ease
Fabric: Navy bengaline from fabric.com. They are out but I am sure other sites will have some in stock.
Design Change: I removed 4 inches from the length of the culottes and also deleted the waistband. I also deleted the pockets but only because I was out of fabric.
Construction Notes: The entire skirt was made on my serger, with the exception of the hem. This means that the seam was adjusted from 5/8in to 3/8in. I used a double needle to sew the hem. I lowered the tension to avoid "tunneling" which sometimes occurs with a double needle.
Will I make this again: Most definitely! I plan on making the version with the pleats and have some black benagline at home that I plan on using.
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