Embroidered Cotton Culottes

Inspiration for new projects comes from many places, and for me, that is often from other bloggers. I didn't know that I wanted to make myself culottes until I saw Sue's culottes that she made in January. Until I read about her culottes, I had not realised that a pattern for culottes was made from a skirt block. I dutifully researched in my patternmaking book, and started work on my own pattern shortly after. I even bought fabric specifically to make these culottes, and actually used it instead of stashing
it.

The Pattern making
I added some large front pockets, but then was undecided about what to do for my zipper. I knew that I didn't want a lapped fly front, and wasn't keen on a back zipper either, so ended up with an invisible zipper in the left side.

The waistband is shaped, which I do with all my skirts, pants and shorts. I don't like straight waistbands, probably as I haven't liked waistbands that sit on my true waist since the stage of my first pregnancy where I couldn't, and now usually go for a few centimetres below true waist. The band is only 4cm wide, and in hindsight maybe I should have made it a bit wider, to balance out the finished length.

I took some tips from Sue's process, and joined my front and back pieces at the inside leg, to eliminate one seam on each leg, and used the U shaped piece from the centre to cut back pockets from, which you can barely see in my back photo. Sorry!

The Fabric
Embroidered cotton fabric from The Fabric Store Sydney. Time in stash: 2 and a half months. I only bought what I needed for these, so there are only scraps left.

I should add that the pocket bags are scraps of cream homespun. I didn't want the area around the pockets getting too thick with three layers of embroidered fabric, so opted for something plainer to line the pockets.

The Fit
I really like these. They'll go with so many things in my wardrobe. But why wouldn't they when half of my wardrobe seems to end up blue, and the other half some variation of brown? I've teemed my new culottes here with my linen bamboo shoot top. The culottes are very comfortable, and I'm so glad I spent the time last year perfecting the fit of my skirt pattern, because it meant that this pattern worked perfectly.  I'm not sure if there will be more culottes in my future, maybe one pair is enough?