I really love culottes and knickerbockers and am always looking out for a pattern, so when Megan Nielson released her Tania Culottes as part of the Breakwater collection I couldn’t move fast enough to buy them. Despite all the styling and pattern notes talking about lightweight materials, it is Autumn and I love corduroy so I immediately saw this pattern in corduroy.
I had just enough corduroy left over from my Laurel dress to
make it up exactly as per the pattern in size S. I’m really happy with the fit, it is perfect and I didn’t
need to make any alterations.
Let’s talk first about the pattern. The way the front folds come together with
the hidden crotch is ingenious. Massive congratulations to Megan. The pattern has only a few pieces and is super straightforward to make up. Even hemming
the legs on the curve was pretty good and I hand stitched the waistband in
place. I’ve seen lots of very stylish girls in circle skirts in the MMMay13 flickr group and I’d recommend
to anyone who wears this type of skirt to rush out and buy this pattern! It definitely allows you to sit in a very unlady like manner!
Sadly I had a shocker with the invisible zip. Both times I didn’t place it correctly so the
teeth curve around a bit over the waistband. The first time I actually managed
to break the invisible zip by removing the pully thing, so I had to unpick the
zip and put a new one in. I still put it
in the wrong place??! I’ve made a big note in my pattern booklet now about that,
so I think I’ve learned that lesson now.
I hope so anyway.
Despite really loving the pattern, and I enjoy wearing them ... I’m not exactly sure they suit me. Originally I made them thinking they would
look great with my Bensimon jumper that I bought in France, but the silhouette didn't look great on me; the proportions a bit wrong when I then tried them on
together. Could be the colour of the
corduroy as well? I then proceeded to
try them on with lots of my tops and nothing was quite right. I like them with
this vest as the silhouette works better, though it is corduroy on corduroy and
a bit cutesy.
I still think a longer pair might be very stylish, to the
calf in a dark navy light wool for work.
Mmm maybe I’ll add that to the list of things to make.