Welcome to the Culottes Pattern Instructions. Here you’ll be able to find a step by step guide on how to draft your first pair of culottes. I have good news for you, trousers are normally a difficult pattern to master, but culottes are the easiest version out of them all! So get your pen and paper and let’s get started!!
The first step of this culottes pattern instructions is to look at what measurements are needed. Make sure to write them down on a piece of paper, and that the tape is not too tight around your body. It’s also important to understand that it’s okay not to be super precise, as you’ll be able to modify the pattern during the prototyping phase. One final thing, it is better to take the measurements wearing what you would normally wear under the garment.
Measure the circumference of the thinest part of your torso, below the rib cage. I’ll show you how to modify the pattern for high-waisted and low-waisted pants later on.
Measure the circumference of the widest part of your lower body. This is normally the hips but your widest part can sit lower. If you want more precision, you can always measure the front and back hip arches separately (from side to side).
Measure the vertical line from the waist to how long you want your trousers to be. Best results are when you measure until your ankle bone. They can be made longer or shorter later on.
The hip depth is measured from where you measured your waist to where you measured your hips, on the side of your body.
To take this measurement you have to sit on a flat surface and measure from your natural waist (or where you measured it) to the flat surface. Measure it on the side of your body.
Measure from the front to back waist, going in between the legs following the crotch shape. This measurement is optional to check the pattern before prototyping.
With that we have all the required measurements, but there’s a couple of optional ones that will be handy to check there is enough ease for mobility around the thighs, knees and ankles:
Step number one is to build the structure of our culotte foundation. We start at the top left and mark 0.
Finish drawing the rectangle
Divide the structure: From the line 0-1 half way to 1-2 plus 0.75cm. The front is on the right and the back is on the left.
Once the main structure is ready, let’s draw the main lines that will define the shape of the culottes.
Let’s start drawing the actual culottes. We’re going to start by shaping the crotch curve.
Back curve: Draw a curve from 13 that goes 4.5cm outside of 5, through 15 and to 0.
Front curve: Draw a curve from 14 that goes 3.75cm outside of 11, through 16 and to 3.
Next step is to draw the Waist. For that we’ll need to make some assumptions about darts.
Darts are our way to create rounder shapes in the pattern. Every body will need different measurements. The rules are:
As a standard dart measurement you can use:
As explained before, darts will depend on your body. This is the standard way of drawing them but use the ones that suit you best.
To position the darts, divide both front and back waistlines in 3 parts.
The culottes foundation is known for having a straight or an A-line leg line. To draft the legs just draw perpendicular lines from the main lines from the crotch points and the sides.
To finish the pattern, draw the final lines
Back: Draw a curve from 17 to 7.
Front: Draw a curve from 18 to 7.
And there you go, with this culottes pattern instructions you should have completed your first pants block! There are a couple of checks you can do to make sure the fit will be good enough:
If you prefer step by step instructions in a video format, check out the following video. Take into account that the correct numbers are ALWAYS the ones on this article and not the ones on the video, as it is difficult to correct errors once the video has been published.
Once you have this foundation, it’s time to play around and change the waist line, add a waistband, add volume, change the leg-line or add details.
If you want to know more about how to modify the foundations check the trousers 101 page or take a look at the free pattern instructions.
If you tried my method and liked it, think about getting my ebook on how to draft trousers.
In there you’ll find everything you need to know to draft any design you’ve ever dreamed of.
Head to my shop by clicking the image on the right and get it now!
