Ninni Culottes - Red Ikat

Pattern/Technique: Ninni Culottes by Named Patterns in size 50

Modifications: Used the Zanzibach pocket insertion method (saved in Google Drive)

Materials: 2.5 yds of red cotton ikat (42” wide) purchased on Etsy

Cut 38” of 1 1/2” elastic and overlapped the ends by 1”

New skills: n/a

Lessons/Notes: I sewed a little too far when connecting the waistband ends so the slot for inserting the elastic was a bit narrow. I worked around this by folding the elastic in half before clipping on the bodkin to make a taper. I also used 1 1/2” elastic which was probably too wide for the waistband—it needed a bunch of finagling to get through the waistband—next time I’ll use 1 1/4”.

All these elastic shenanigans ended up being a blessing in disguise because I learned that the red dye from my fabric was transferring onto the white elastic despite pre-washing my fabric. I ended up deciding to not take these on my vacation to hot & humid Tulum, MX where I’d risk red stripes on my white shirts. I’ll run these through a couple washes to let any residual dye come out before wearing them.

What I'd do differently: n/a

Care: Machine wash cold, tumble dry low.

Birchbob Pants - Red Ikat

Pattern/Technique: Birchgrove Pants by Muna & Broad in size D. Bob Pants by Style Arc in size 22.

Modifications: Used the same mashed up pattern that I created when making my first set of BirchBob pants, with no mods.

Materials: 2.5 yds of red cotton ikat (42” wide) by Robert Kaufman

Cut 38” of 1 1/2” wide elastic and overlapped by 1”

New skills: n/a

Lessons/Notes: This cotton ikat seems to have a denser weave than the black ikat fabric I used for my first set of pants, which has resulted in a more durable pant. My first two wears of these were in Tulum, Mexico where the weather was around 30C with 85% humidity and I had no pilling in the crotch. (Success!)

I serged the bottom hem and then folded it under once. (NB: I eyeballed the fold width using the point in the pattern piece and ended up with a pretty spot on 1” hem—super handy!)

What I'd do differently: I still want to try making a set with pockets—because this was last minute pre-vacation sewing I skipped them, but having a place to hold my phone would be handy.

Care: Machine wash, tumble dry low.