This playsuit was made in a hurry the night before we left for Australia because the holiday simply would not be the same without it. The first week of the summer holidays I spent doing work experience at a local fabric shop which was quite frankly like being in heaven. I'd take my projects and sew in between customers. As a thank you I had my pick of the remnant basket. I chose this 70cm long piece of marbled cotton and another cotton with little black flowers printed on a red background.
It was a real squeeze to fit it into 70cm but I did it! The pattern was drafted on the fly using my culotte pattern as a base. 5 cm was added to the waist so it would be okay for a playsuit. I got my hip measurement and added a few cm's of ease. 1/4 of this measurement was the width of the culotte waist and the bodice, so I could get it over my hips. The height of the bodice rectangle was from my armpit to waist. I then added elastic to the waist the length of my waist circumference to give it a bit of shape.
It was designed to have a V-neck but it gaped a lot so I stretched elastic over the area to create gathers instead. It ended up being really low cut so to protect my modesty I made a facing which could be safety pinned to the inside of my bra to make sure it stayed in place. It actually works really well! You can see a bit of the facing which popped out in the pic below. Oops!
I didn't have enough fabric left for scraps so used a purple ribbon I had in my stash instead. I cut it into 4 with a view to tying each of them up but they ended up too short. I double knotted them too loosely and so now they have to be tucked around my bra strap to stay in place.
It's funny that these culottes have much more of an A line shape than my
knit culotte playsuit because this fabric is stiffer. Next time when I have more fabric to play with I'll slash and spread to make them a bit more voluminous so they have more of a circle skirt kinda drape. I'll also add a bit more ease to my hip measurement because this playsuit takes a fair bit of wriggling to get on and off!
Thanks very much for reading and for Dad and Ed for taking fabby beach pics.
