I made two pairs of the Malvern culottes. Second one I shortened. I'm wearing them a lot and love the look but don't like how low the crotch is. I love culottes for the skirt look without the thigh rub.
How can I adjust these to bring the crotch up or make them a skirt??
Oh what a great question! This one really got my brain ticking.
At first, I realised I actually didn’t know why the crotch on culottes is so much lower than regular pants and it’s something I have just taken for granted, assuming it had something to do with wanting them to look like a skirt.
I have this problem when I wear culottes too. (I usually wear thin cotton bike shorts under them to prevent the thigh rub, which is what I wear under dresses and skirts.) So, I felt like this topic needed a deep dive as I’m sure we’re not the only ones!
What are culottes?
Culottes are a type of garment that looks like a skirt but are actually pants. They are usually wide-legged and can be knee-length, mid-calf, or even full-length. Some look more like pants and some look more like skirts (like the Malvern culottes).
What the experts say about culotte design
I went through one of my old patternmaking books - Patternmaking for Fashion Design (4th Edition) by Helen Joseph-Armstrong - to see what it says about culottes. This is what I found:
Culottes were developed when women started riding bikes. It was seen as unfashionable (maybe even improper) for women to wear pants, so a new garment type needed to be developed… which were culottes!
Culottes hang away from the stomach and bum so have a wider crotch extension in comparison to traditional slacks or trousers. I also learned that “slacks” and “trousers” are different things and shouldn’t be used interchangeably.
Culottes have the largest crotch extension (in comparison to other pant styles) because “the pants is the greatest distance from the figure at crotch level.” (p 546)
In Armstrong’s book she suggests that culottes are drafted from a skirt block (normally an A-line) rather than a pants block.
Crotch depth for culottes is suggested as actual crotch depth (I will tell you how to find that below) plus at least 2cm (but often more).
What is crotch depth?
Crotch depth refers to the vertical distance from the waist to the crotch.
On a pattern, you can find this by measuring from the waist seam to the crotch seam.
The easiest way to find this distance on your body is to wrap something around your waist and sit on a chair. Measure the vertical distance from your waist to the chair.
Comparing crotch depth
In the diagram above I have overlapped the CENTRE FRONT waist on the Peppermint wide leg pants and the Malvern culottes to compare the difference in crotch depth. As you can see it’s significant - 15cm.
HOW TO RAISE THE CROTCH ON A CULOTTES PATTERN
I knew I’d need to make a toile so that I could check how a large change like this would feel on the body. I decided to lift the crotch by 11cm.
Here’s what you need to do to alter the crotch depth on a culottes pattern:
Step 1
Attach some paper to the crotch area of one of the FRONT pieces. Due to the asymmetric nature of the pattern there are two FRONT pieces. Extend the inner leg seam STITCH LINE by the desired amount.
Step 2
Draw a smooth curve to create a new crotch curve that transitions into the original crotch curve at the notch. A French curve will be helpful here if you have one.
Step 3
Add seam allowance to the new STITCH LINE. In this case it’s 1.2cm.
Step 4
Transfer the same shape to the other FRONT piece. The Malvern culottes are asymmetrical so there are two different FRONT pieces, if you are working with another pattern and the FRONT is cut as a pair then you don’t need to do this step.
Step 5
Repeat process on the BACK. The BACK curve will not be the same as the FRONT. Cut off excess paper.
the outcome
They feel good!
And they still look like a skirt so the design hasn’t been lost. I actually think I could bring them up another few centimetres to completely erase the thigh rub and they’d still look good.
Here you can see the toile on a dress form. Please note that the waistband overlaps more on the dress form than it should. I wanted to make them in my size so I could feel them on my body, but my dress form is a few sizes smaller than me.
And here is a pattern comparison so you can see how much closer it is to a regular pants pattern - now just a 4cm difference.
The second part to your question also got my brain whirring… a Malvern skirt? That sounds interesting too! In the next Q&A I’m going to give it a go, so stay tuned!
Happy patternhacking!
Emily
For more issues of the Q & A series, you can check out the archive here.
WHAT YOU’VE BEEN MAKING
Peppermint jumpsuit made by @eliza.sew
