Completed: Birthday Tania Culottes

I never thought I would say this… but… YAY CULOTTES!!!

These culottes come courtesy of not one, but TWO awesome birthday gifts I got back in May.

I used Megan Nielsen’s Tania Culottes pattern to make these bad boys up. The pattern was a gift from reader Carla (she doesn’t have a blog yet, but there’s her Instagram!). I had to wait first because this pattern is wildly popular – it was sold out, and it appears to be sold out again, ha! – but I like to think it was worth the wait. This is such a fabulous little pattern, it’s very easy, but it sure doesn’t look it!

I cut the size XS, keeping the length also on the XS. The length should really look more like a mini, but on my short lil’ legs it’s *almost* appropriate for work (I say almost, but not quite :P). This pattern was seriously fast to make – I breezed through it in a couple of hours.

The engineering on this pattern is SO COOL. It actually looks like I’m wearing a floaty little circle skirt…

… but they are indeed culottes! With a crotch seam and everything!

One thing I will mention that was not written in the instructions is that you reeeeeally need to let this sucker hang for 24 hours before you hem. Since the skirt is a circle (or half circle, or whatever, I can never tell with these things!), the bias along the hem leads for some crazy settling. I had to cut quite a bit off to get it even, and still it’s not exactly perfect. Better, but not perfect.

I think the fabric is what really makes these, though. Isn’t it lovely? THAT was a gift from Kristi, a giftcard to Mood, which I immediately used to buy me some of that Thakoon cotton everyone is raving over. And, you know, after handling this fabric during the making (and wearing!) of my culottes, I gotta say… the rave reviews are there for a reason. This stuff is AWESOME. It is the silkiest, softest cotton (my mom was shocked when I told her it was just 100% cotton… and she’s a seamstress, too! She knows her fabrics!), but it’s not slinky to handle at all. It presses well and while it’s lightweight/sheer-ish, it’s opaque enough to not need a lining. I kind of wish I’d bought several yards of the stuff. I may anyway, when I get my next Mood allowance.

Srsly, I wish I could cut a little swatch to send to each of you! It is THAT amazing!

I didn’t bother to match the stripes on the CF or CB seams, but I don’t think it’s really noticeable? The folds in the circle skirt do a good job of hiding that, ha.

Anyway, I looove my new culottes! I cannot wait to try these out while riding my bike. Gonna feel like a floaty cycling goddess, y’all. Again, thank you SO SO SO MUCH, Carla and Kristi, for making my culotte dreamz come true~~

Now, on a totally unrelated note, let’s have a cat story!!

(I know, the side of my house looks SUPER white trash, bear with me here…)
On Friday, I hear this awful/scared mewing from outside the house. I looked out the back door and there was a tiny kitten on the porch! He ran when he saw me. All that night, I could hear him but I couldn’t figure out where he was hiding, until I realized there was a tiny hole in the crawl space under the house (this picture was taken after I pulled out all the bricks in the crawl space, fyi!).

I eventually caught him when I brought Amelia outside. He just ran straight to her! (Amelia, on the other hand, wants NOTHING to do with him. Bitch.) We brought him inside, gave him 3 baths (he was covered in fleas, poor thing!) and he seems pretty happy now. He gets really scared if you leave the room and he can’t see you, but I try to carry him around with me because I don’t want him interacting with Amelia until I know for sure whether or not he has any kitty-diseases. She’s vaccinated and on flea/tick/worm meds, but still. You never know!

So now I have this kitten. I have no idea how old he is – he seems really young, though. We’ve been calling him Theodore.

I wish I could keep him, but I can’t afford the bills & additional pet deposit that he would cost me – not to mention, Amelia is REALLY unhappy about sharing her space with another animal. Fortunately, I think my brother & sister-in-law are going to adopt him 🙂 She’s taking him to the vet right now to make sure everything checks out, and I may hang onto him for a week or so until they move into their new house. Fingers crossed that everything works out! He’s super sweet and cuddly.

Here we are trying to take a picture this morning. As you can see, Theodore wasn’t feelin’ it 😉

Tags: completed, culottes, kitten, Mood Fabrics, Thakoon