Reply To: Burda Pattern #108 Culottes- Mag issue 12/2014

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

Ok, I’m back! omg, that was definitely a challenge and I really don’t get how those instructions were written with a beginner in mind. And why are all those steps crammed into one section? so many questions. Anyways, as you can see in my picture I used your images to create my own mini culotte, complete with pockets. They’ll work for a doll, I guess. I did mine in muslin which makes it easy to experiment with and I recommend you do the same before using really nice fabric so you can figure out the process. I’m going to go over each sentence and I can’t say this is exactly what they meant but it’s what I did after some trial and error. Hopefully, I explain it better than they did.

“press facing on side edges to inside” — Both front and back pattern pieces have “facing fold-line” Just fold this section to the wrong side and press. For the next section you’ll want to unfold this but basically you’re just doing it to create a crease.
“stitch pockets to seam marks” –Again, the facing section should be unfolded because you’re going to take a pocket piece and pin it to the raw edge of the facing section. The pieces should be place right side to right side. And you have two orange notches in your facing section and the pocket gets placed between these two notches, so that the notch on the pocket lines up with the bottom notch on the facing. Sew your seam attaching them. You’ll do this 4 times because you have 4 pocket pieces that go with 2 back pieces and 2 front pieces.
“on front, pockets go toward center front” –So after the pockets are stitch into place, if you look at the right side of your 2 front pieces, you should have a pocket that’s stitched right on the front. Now refold the facing, on that same crease, and bring the pocket over so that now it’s laying flat on the wrong side of the front piece and the curved part of the pocket is facing towards the center front. You only have to do this for the front pieces.
“Topstitch” –Now look again at the right side of the front pieces. (at this point you shouldn’t see the pockets because they’ve been folded over to the back) Stitch on the top stitch line above and below the orange notches, so not between.
“Pin front and back pieces to placement line” –Now pair off front and back pieces. So 1 front piece goes with 1 back piece and lay them right side up, when paired correctly, the crotch curves of the front and back will be on opposite sides. (Going back to the back pieces with 1 pocket piece attached. You can refold the facing on each back piece, but I wouldn’t fold the pocket over to the back like you did with the front. So if you’re looking at the right side of the back piece, the facing is folded over but the pocket sticks out on the side so you can see it.) On the back piece you have Placement line with a number 1. You also have a number 1 on the front and it’s the same line as the facing fold. So take the folded edge of the facing on the front piece and lay it on top of the placement line on the back piece. (It took me awhile to get this until I looked at the drawing of the finished culottes in the directions and realized that the front overlaps the back of the culottes.) Pin folded edge to placement line.
“Stitch where marked” –ok, it doesn’t get more specific on where to stitch so I just stitch again on the front top stitch line, again above and below notch. If you stitch between the notches, you’ll sew your pocket closed.
“Stitch pocket pieces” –Now that the front and back are stitch together, flip this giant piece over to look at the wrong side. Pull out the 2 pocket pieces, they should be lined up, and you’ll just stitch around the curved edges of the pocket to stitch them together and that way your change won’t fall out.

phew! we got through it! Next is matching the inner leg seams of front and back together, the number 2 lines. 🙂 Anyways, even if my descriptions seem overwhelming, just do what I did and make a mini muslin and then just try and take 1 sentence at a time. It’s always overwhelming if you try and understand everything at once and sometimes easier if the pieces are physically in front of you. If you get through it, please send me a picture of your finished culottes. And if you talk to Burda, tell them they can write a check in care of Professor Pincushion 😉