Welcome back to Round 2 of Battle of the Culottes !
This week we are concentrating on the fuller hemmed culottes, these are designed to look the most like a skirt. These are normally wider legged or have more panels or seams to add much more volume to the hem. If you haven’t checked out Round 1 yet then pop over and check it out.
This week we made the Simplicity 1089 and the Butterick B6179 and you can catch our Vlog on our Stitch Sisters Youtube Channel. Make sure to check out our post on Summer Styling Tips for Culottes, in the meantime lets get Battling !!!!!
Battle of the Culottes – Round 2
In Battle of the Culottes Round 2 we used the Big 4 Pattern Companies and we concentrated on patterns with a fuller hem that looked more like a skirt.
Nikki made the Simplicity 1089 and Rachel made the Butterick B6179.
There are lots of patterns available for culottes with this faux skirt look, here are a few also worth looking at.
Mimosa by Named Clothing
A good thing to remember is that culottes have been in fashion since paper patterns began to be mass produced, so be on the look out for vintage patterns.
Before we go any further, if you want to catch up on Battle of the Culottes Part 1 you can do it here.
Or head straight into watching Battle of the Culottes Round 2 here
Butterick B6179
This Butterick pattern comes with a choice of skirts or culottes options. Rachel made view D for the culottes. They come with multiple bias cut panels, princess seams, pockets, back zip and hook & bar closure. She used a beautiful viscose to make her culottes.
Simplicity 1069
The Simplicity 1069 is one of those patterns where you get a lot for your money. In the pattern are two pairs of trousers, shorts, two skirts and culottes!
Nikki made view B which are the culottes but if you prefer the belted waistband on view A you could shorten them. The patterns involved doing a couple of pleats in the front, darts in the back and an invisible zip. She chose a polyester satin fabric with lots of drape, she just loved the colour and print on this fabric and knew it needed to be culottes.
How did they sew up ?
Rachel’s culottes were definitely the more complex of the two. They are made using princess seams and each leg is comprised of 4 pieces. Although that sounds tricky, it also means that there are no darts on these. All those seams give you all the shaping that a traditional dart would give you. It gives great fit around the waist and hip area but flares out substantially at the hem, giving you that faux-skirt effect.
It also has pockets which is always a plus on any garment! The closure is a slot zip, which is one of the easiest zips you can do. The top of the waistband has an underlap and a Hook and Bar closure, which Rachel found so much simpler than trying to add a buttonhole!
Nikki’s culottes were the simpler make this time, the Simplicity 1069 have just two pleats in each front panel and a dart in each back panel. Once you have done those and sewn the legs together then its just waist facing, zip and hem and your done ! These would be perfect for an experienced beginner.
They did come up a bit on the roomy side for Nikki, in the end she took them in by half an inch on each side and they fit much closer. In our experience these commercial patterns do tend to come out slightly on the bigger side so there is always a little bit of adjustment needed at the end for a great fit. They may be a little more work to get the perfect end product but you very often get such good value for money out of these patterns its still worth the effort.
So which pattern won Battle of the Culottes Round 2 ?
After chatting it through we decided that Simplicity 1069 was the winner. Rachel loved Nikki’s pair and Nikki would definitely make another pair but she felt that the Butterick B6179 were just a bit too big on the hem for her personal style. It was a tough choice but ……
If you want to watch the battle “go down”, why not check out the YouTube video!
Whats coming in Battle of the Culottes Round 3 ?
Round 3 of our Battle of the Culottes series will be out next week. We are taking the culotte to the next level, looking at the slightly more tailored culottes. We will be reviewing the Ultimate Culottes by Sew Over It and the Megan Neilson Flint Pants.
Join us on the vlog to see what we made and we will also have a Round Up here on the Blog.
If you have a favourite commercial pattern you use for Culottes we would love to hear about it. Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for checking in!
Nikki & Rachel x
Just watched this ( and am now following you on Bloglovin) following seeing the video link on The Fold Line
Looking forward to round 3 as those are both patterns I’m interested in.
Hoping to make some culottes soon
That’s great! Thank you so much for tuning in x
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