This weekend is a big family wedding, the last of my 7 siblings to get married.  Family weddings are pretty much the best day ever.  You get to hang with your favourite people, drink, eat yummy food, and dance the night away.  Considering there are now going to be 32 of us in my immediate family, we have a pretty great party.

The wedding is on the Washington coast which tends to be cooler and most likely either raining or grey so the usual summer dress and sandals might not work.  Thankfully my brother and his soon to be bride said that the dress code is Northwest Casual so my thought immediately went to culottes, basically the perfect secret pants.

I don’t think I have worn culottes since the 90’s but after seeing so many pairs floating around the internet I thought now might be the time to give them a try.  Since I was sewing them for the wedding, I wanted to go with a proper waistband version, instead of an elastic waistband.  Since the Ninni Culottes by Named Patterns have an elastic waist those were out, for this event.  The Tania Culottes by Megan Nielsen were an option, but after looking at them further I preferred the pleated look and inseam pockets of the Winslow Culottes by Helen’s Closet.

First of all this pattern was really a pretty quick and easy sew but definitely has elements that are perfect for adventurous beginners, namely pleats and an invisible zipper.  Helen does a great job of walking you through the steps and even as an experienced sewist I like to reference the pattern to make sure I am not missing something in her construction.

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If you look hard enough at the back center seam you can see the white zipper pull showing.  I was too lazy to go get a matching invisible zipper so I worked with what I had.  Thankfully the only thing that shows is the zipper pull.

The fabric I used was some tencel twill I picked up while fabric shoppping in LA with Beth of Sew DIY and Katie of Threadbare Fabrics in March.  I only wished I had gotten more because I realized I have purchased this exact fabric from a shop in Vancouver for my Pagosa Pants sample and I paid much much more think 5x more.

Don’t get me started on my love of fabric shopping in LA, if you take the time to look through the crazy you can find some amazing fabrics.

When deciding how I wanted to style the culottes I embraced the NW Casual and went with a simple black v-neck tee that I tied in a knot.  This top is RTW but I have been toying with the idea of including a v neck option in my Montlake rerelease since I love a v neck tee.

Paired it with a simple necklace and some black sandals and I am wedding ready.

The best part is that everyone thinks I am wearing a skirt!

I definitely recommend this pattern to anyone who wants to give the culotte trend a try, and especially good for those that are looking for a little challenge.  Helen did a great job on the instructions and I was really happy with how everything came together.