....and sew it begins!

Sew My Style 2020 - How I saved my Tania Culottes!!

                                                            January pattern choice

I chose to make the Megan Neilsen Tania Culottes because I love culottes. These looked perfect - the comfort of a pant but the look of a skirt. They looked so flattering in the picture so I jumped right in, ignoring all the rules of measuring, fitting, etc. etc.  I found the perfect fabric and dreamed of what I would wear with these for the photo shoot (even though I hate having my pictures taken). I purchased a beautiful black cardigan to complete the outfit.

I would say the hardest part was the laying out and cutting. I'm not a huge fan of laying out on a single layer of fabric and because the pieces were so wide the idea of perfectly matching went out the window. I managed on my tiny table to get all the pieces cut and even cut out a flower detail to add to the cardigan. I may or may not use, but it is cute.

Why I never bothered to test the fit I'll never know! I starting sewing right away, it was easy and although the pleat detail seemed daunting it was super easy and so so cool. These were going to be so pretty.

I haven't sewn a hidden zipper in quite some time but watched a tutorial and felt confident. I sewed the one side seam - easy. At this point though (before tackling the zipper) I thought I would check the fit. OMG I'm glad I did. The waist sat just under my boobs and the crotch was half way to my ankle - yikes now what.  I figured they were ruined so what the heck lets take a leap and see how they could be saved. I cut off just over 4 inches from the waist down (still saved some pleat - enough to still do what it was suppose to). I cut a new waistband piece 8 inches but this would be folded in half to make up the approx. 4 inches I lost. Because I cut down 4 inches, the culottes slipped on with no need of a zipper. I threaded elastic through the wide waistband and drum roll - it worked. They look perfect and are so comfortable.

I will definitely make these again but I will take the time to properly fit the pattern first.