Once upon a time there was a girl who loved skirts. She loved skirts, but with 4 young children it was often impractical. Her babies would sometimes lift her skirts up in public or try to hide under them. She had to be able to easily sit and do things with the kids out in public without having to worry about her underwear showing.
Did that photo above make you want that cute skirt? What if I told you that this poor skirt-loving mom found a solution to her problems? What if I told she realized she could have the best of BOTH the pant and skirt worlds? Say what? No way….
What?!?!?!? That skirt was really…… PANTS????? YES! Culottes! Culottes are the answer to all skirt-loving, but pants-practicality needs!!!! (pictured here with a wiksten Haori)
When I discovered this pattern awhile ago I was intrigued by its practical beauty. For the Sew Fancy Pants Challenge I knew I wanted to do something out of my pants-making norm. I figured you can’t get fancier pants than ones that look like you’re wearing a skirt right?
I started off with this beautiful Robert Kaufman Essex linen from Raspberry Creek Fabrics. I had picked it out because I wanted to make these culottes have a fun, bold look, but also be in a comfortable everyday fabric that would work with my “mom life.”
I started playing with the idea of quilting fabric from my scraps bin onto the top. If you’d been watching my Instagram stories you would’ve seen all of my design decision-making there. I’ll admit I was a little scared to just quilt together these pants and not have them work out or look good in the end.
I decided that the best way to make sure it would look okay, would be to quilt the pieces together and then appliqué it on top of the pants. This way I could pin it to the pants first and see how it looked.
(Left photo) Once I had decided the quilting appliqué looked good I still wanted something more. I realized that it really needed a pop of bright color to offset all those neutrals. Again, I took photos of different ideas to see what I liked best ( and put them in my Insta stories!).
(Right photo) I actually ended up appliquéing a few more pieces to the top between the original quilting and the waistband because I thought it looked weird having that area without the patches.
To appliqué the small pieces (and the larger quilted pieces) I simply ironed the edges under about 1/4″ and then pinned them to the pant fronts. I did a normal straight stitch all around the edges, but not in the middle.
I had pondered the idea of creating a jumpsuit out of the culottes, and I went back and forth between making that and a jumper/overalls look as well. In the end I decided to make a faux jumpsuit by making a coordinating top! This top is self-drafted (using existing patterns as my base). I added the coral buttons to the shoulders because I like to be match-y like that sometimes.
This is how I feel when I wear this outfit!!!!! PHENOMENAL!!! I look all dressed up, but I feel like I’m wearing sweats and a t-shirt. My skirt vs. pants problem has been solved!!!! It is amazing. Now take my word for it and go make some CULOTTES!!!!!!!