Ninni Culottes

Pattern/Technique: Ninni elastic waiast culottes by Named

Modifications:

• Used Zanzibach tutorial for inseam pockets rather than the method suggested in the pattern (saved to Drive for posterity)

• Top-stitched the waistband at 1/2" and 1" from the top edge

• Fabric width wasn't long enough to cut the waistband in one piece, so I cut it in 2 pieces and added 3/8" seam allowance on one end to compensate. Positioned the seams at the sides of my hips so that I wouldn't have a seam in the middle of my stomach while bending/sitting. I graded the extra seam and basted it down so that it wouldn't get caught when threading the elastic. I also marked a small arrow on the waistband so that I'd feed it in the same direction that the seam is pointing.

Materials: Used 2.5 yds of Kaufman Essex Yarn-Dyed Homespun in Flame (12 inches left). Stitched with Aurifil 2255 50 wt, using 70/10 universal needle.

New skills: Inseam pockets, bartacks

Lessons: When making a top-stitched waistband, the top-stitching will stretch out the elastic slightly, so it's important to pull the elastic extra snug when sizing it. The waistband felt comfortable with a 32 3/4" of elastic at my natural waist, so I reduced the circumference to 30 3/4" to compensate for the stretching during topstitching. The finished garment feels good - not too tight. (NB: I should measure the final waistband circumference to see if my shrinkage estimate was accurate.)

Step 1 of the inseam pocket tutorial says to sew the pocket fabric to the pants, sewing 1mm from the ironed groove. Because it’s hard to see the groove from the inside of the garment, I pinned everything secure so that the pocket slit was closed, and flipped the garment over to the right side so I could use the groove as a guide (and offset the needle to 1 mm). I repeated this on the front and back (changing the offset from + to - as needed), and achieved a really clean result. See inline for process shots.

Adding bartacks is a useful way to reinforce fabric around inseam pockets, h/t to the tutorial above for providing a picture of bartack elements, which led me down this path. My sewing machine has a built in bartack feature, which made adding them very easy.  I positioned the bartacks toward the front of the pants to orient the pockets toward the front as well

I also added strips of interfacing at the pocket seams (as suggested by the tutorial) to reinforce them. I should keep this in mind for future projects because my inclination is to skip interfacing steps. (I did skip interfacing the waistband since I was making this in a woven fabric, not a knit as suggested by the pattern.)

I've always struggled with concave curves on my serger (specifically, the overlocking hanging off the edge of the seam) so I did some research and found this tutorial which suggests keeping the fabric feeding into the machine straight by scrunching the fabric to the left of the presser foot. It worked perfectly and I got my first good result while serging a crotch seam.

This was the first garment I cut on my newly raised cutting table (I put cinder blocks under all of the legs, raising the table by 8" for a total height of 37") and the added height is a game changer for my back. I still need to adjust for looking at pattern pieces from an angle while I cut them vs. leaning directly over top.

I took care to press all my side seams and keep them pointing the same direction while hemming - well worth it for a clean result.

What I'd do differently: Overall I'm happy with how these fit, though I can see some opportunities for improvements:

• There's a bit of extra fabric that bags out right above the bum

• There's a slight drop crotch effect, which could be an issue if I'm wearing these while walking on a hot day. I haven't done any research on optimal crotch depth, so this is definitely an area where I can learn more.

• Bigger pockets :)

Had a small oops at the back of the waistband while topstitching. I think what happened is that the elastic shifted (I used 1.25" woven elastic instead of the 1.375" called for in the pattern) so that it wasn't nestled in the top of the fold, and there was some extra fabric that bagged out between the 2nd row of top stitches and the seam where the waistband attaches to the pants. It's not too noticeable, but I should keep an eye out for this if I make these again.

I'd like to read more about topstitching, and where it's appropriate to add along seams. I really like the look of topstitching, but it seems to be the kind of thing that folks develop an intuition for when finishing a garment, rather than being explicitly mentioned in pattern instructions.

Care: Machine wash cold, delicate cycle. No bleach. Tumble dry low.

Big Brioche Turtleneck

I decided to make a big squishy sweater for winter, but it was too good at its job. After finishing the front and back pieces and beginning the arms, I tried it on for fit and realized it’s less of a sweater and more of a woolly cocoon x gravity blanket. As great as squishy brioche ribs are, they’ll relax and stretch with washing and I’ll start to drown in a sweater I’m already swimming in. Ultimately I’m going to frog this so I can use the yarn to make something I’m more excited about wearing.

Pattern: Big Brioche Turtleneck, size 54 in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes Superwash in Dove Heather

New skills: Flat-worked brioche, brioche increases & decreases

Lessons: On one of the edges of the pattern (I can’t actually remember which one) I got confused because the stitches on my needles didn’t seem to match the instructions. I eventually realized that the yarn over pulls the edge stitch in such a way that it appears there are 2 stitches on the needle, when in actuality it’s just 1 rotated stitch. Not sure if this shows up in other flat brioche patterns, but good to keep in mind regardless.

When counting brioche rows, the number of knit loops on one side of the fabric is actually only 1/2 of the total number of rows. This also means that a piece of brioche fabric 1 foot long will be twice as heavy as a piece of knit fabric the same length.

When choosing a size in brioche make sure to account for how much the finished object will stretch. I also encountered this on the Skipp Hat, which loosened a lot and lightly felted in its stretched form. I chose a size that would accommodate my hip measurement but the entire garment ended up being too big.

I tried a couple different styles of yarn changes: spit grafting and knitting with 2 strands of yarn held together for a few stitches. I think I actually prefer the latter on this project, which seems to integrate into the brioche ribbing more cleanly.

What I’d do differently: I’d definitely pick a different size if I made this again, but honestly I think I’ll steer away from oversized brioche sweaters in the future. I like the idea of an oversized sweater in theory, but the practicality of that style of garment (particularly in brioche) actually seems limited due to the weight and size/stretch. Even when I tried it on, the turtleneck was pulled down by the weight of the rest of the sweater.