Sew Over It – Ultimate Culottes | Tilly and the Buttons – Marigold

You know, I’ve been seeing lots of culottes lately that I actually had culotte-envy. So I started planning and sketching out my ideas for sewing my own  – I was dreaming about a whole outfit actually; cami top with culottes, cute flats, and Summer breeze… lovely! I found an image on John Lewis magazine that I liked, pasted it onto my sketchbook page, and started to work from there; hunting for the perfect pattern, and then the fabric, you know the drill. I liked the idea of wearing culottes with white sneakers, but after seeing lots of yellow the past few months I’m thinking I want a pair of yellow flats. I still haven’t found the perfect pair yet, but it’s ok, Summer hasn’t arrived yet. As for the top, I decided to go with Tilly’s Marigold because I was already planning to make a Marigold jumpsuit anyway, I thought it would be a cute sweetheart cami as well as a wearable toile before I make the jumpsuit. I found the fabric  for the culottes from John Lewis Liverpool, it’s their triple crepe in very dark navy. Oh such perfect drape for this garment. The Marigold cami fabric I got from Fabric Godmother, it’s their viscose challis.

Sew Over It – Ultimate Culottes

The Ultimate Culottes pattern comes in two versions; version one has waistband and belt loops, version two doesn’t have waistband, both have invisible zipper closure on the side seam. I went with version one. The culottes are easy to construct but they don’t have pockets. I am a big fan of pockets, I just can’t have trousers/shorts/skirts/culottes without pockets, so hacking was required. I used this tutorial from By Hand London to draft the pocket pattern pieces. I also moved the zipper to the back seam to accommodate the pockets. Moving the zipper also means tweaking the waistband pattern, which was not so complicated really. I made mine in size 12, shortened the length by 4 inches. I managed to make mine with only 2m of fabric and I still have a bit of leftover.

Deep pocket, yaaay!

Back seam zipper.

To be honest, I’m not sure I’m in love with the dropped crotch, I think it is a bit too low – could it be because the pattern was drafted for someone tall and so adjustments were needed? I think I need to play around a bit more with the pattern. I do love how comfy the culottes are though, seriously! Ultimate comfort (see what I did there? 😉 ) without involving elastic in the waistband. The pattern instructions are clear and with photos of the steps too, which are much appreciated. I would say this is an easy pattern, nothing too challenging, basically a quick, instant gratification kind of project. Four stars out of five from me.

Tilly and the Buttons – Marigold

This pattern has been around for some time now, so I’m sure there are a million other versions out there already. It is actually the pattern for April’s Sew My Style challenge – though I’m not participating in the challenge. I was tempted by this pattern after seeing Joy Margot’s Marigold trousers in Ateliér Brunette’s pink Moonstone viscose fabric. They’re just gorgeous. I am going to make both the jumpsuit (already cut the fabric, just need to stop faffing about and just sew it!) and the trousers too, maybe shamelessly copy Joy’s Marigold in the same fabric, what can I say I’m a sucker for pink. Like all of Tilly’s patterns that I’ve tried, the instructions for this one are just as clear and also with lots of photos for visual guidance. This project was quite straightforward – apart from my trying to figure out the hack I was planning. So this is what I did:

1. Lengthened the bodice by 7.5cm + 3cm for hem allowance.
2. Added 3 cm to each side of the front opening  for the buttons (button band?).
3. Drew/traced the facing based on the bodice pattern.

I must say, I love how it turned out, and oh this fabric! [insert a million heart-eyes]. My first time sewing with viscose challis, a bit challenging at first, especially during the cutting  – also the fabric frays a lot, hence my french-seaming – but the comfort it provides is just worth the hassle I think.

Oh look, buttons!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this post. Thank you for reading. Happy sewing.

Faye

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