I drank the kool-aid.

Culottes have been on my mind for MONTHS, if not a year. I’ve pinned many a cute pair on my Pinterest boards.

They can be tricky to fit and look ghastly when they go wrong. To be honest, there is a red linen already cut out in to UFO pile waiting to be sewn up in a Burda pattern that has been sitting for weeks now. However, I saw this pattern made up here and it totally jumped the queue. Go straight to view D, don’t let yourself be thrown off by the cover model’s outfit!

They go to your natural waist, which I like since I can wear the more cropped top look that I’m slowly coming around to. The Style Arc Ethel Designer Top has been in constant rotation ever since it was finished. The yarn dyed linen has started to relax and lay a little more softly. Really need to make another since it is perfect for summer. My measurements have me falling nearly perfectly into a 14, but there was so much ease that I ended up making a 10. Still worked out nicely. Style Arc has been getting a lot of my money lately, can’t seem to resist their look and end up loving most of my makes.

There was a lovely neutral/cool brown cotton-linen in my stash from last year when the ISGB Gathering was in Houston. We managed to sneak a quick trip to High Fashion Fabrics and got 2 yards of this Armani linen. It’s a crossweave with brown and off white- incredibly fine and smooth. It was just enough to make in View D, size 18.

The instructions were good, and only managed to make one major rookie mistake. And it’s a doozy. Almost didn’t show it, but I like to see the whole truth in other blogs, so here you go:

Argh, why didn’t I rip it out and fix it when it would’ve been easier?! Hindsight and lost patience. They have you putting a centered zipper on the CB seam and have a dot to place your zipper. Maybe I misunderstood and placed my zipper too low because there is an inch of space that the zipper was supposed to take up before it meets the waistband. Face, meet Palm. (Apologies for the wrinkles, we went to the store before photos and, well, it’s linen)

BUT! I still like them..an awful lot, but I’m not sure about where the hem hits me. Adding an inch may not have been a most genius idea without doing a muslin first. Took a deep 2″ hem- can’t recall what the original allowance was, maybe 1-1/4″?

Then the question of footwear. Sandals or wedge?

How it usually is when trying to get good photos: