McCall's 7445 in Gingham Stretch Cotton Twill

 Pinterest was the inspiration for these gingham culottes and I am so happy I took a look for an idea.  I really love the look of these and will be so fun for the dog days of summer.  Let me restate that as the dog days of summer mean the hot, sultry days of summer and as cute as these culottes are, the are not cool.  So my gingham culottes are perfect for the air conditioning while the hot summer is on the outside! I love this Theory Black and White Gingham Stretch Cotton Twill but I am so sorry it is sold out.  I just looked last week and it was available but I am sure many others fell in love with the gingham!  No worries, there is a nice selection of Mood Fabrics' Stretch Cotton Twill from floral to solid.  The pattern is McCall's 7445 which I have made before in a wool pinstripe and was on Mood Sewing Network in February.

    I wasn't sure what to make when the gingham arrived from Mood but a look around Pinterest gave me the perfect idea.  I had just enough fabric to match the gingham.  I did cut out the fabric one layer at a time, a necessity when working with gingham, plaid and stripes.  Here is a view of the side seams and the pockets.  Now for the pockets I did not cut out the side front (upper pocket piece) until I had the pocket bag completed.  Once the pocket bag was stitched to the pants, turned and topstitched, I then matched the gingham of the side front to the front and cut the piece.

       Do note these pants are very high waisted as you can see on this pair and my wool pair.  I am in the process of making a third pair from a stretch denim and lowering the waist by about 1/2" inch.   Here is the back view

      I think these gingham culottes will go with so many things but on photo shoot day it was 105 with the heat index and I only wanted a sleeveless top!

 On Pinterest, a white top was the most popular but boy, is the white hard to photograph on a sunny day! See Junior panting in the background, he is feeling the dog days of the summer!

    With the stretch fabric, I did take a bit more in on the side seams and inner leg seams (note are 1" seam allowances).  The length of the culottes are hard for me to judge the just right length, so I just measured my wool pair and went with that length.  I am 5'8" tall and I took an inch off the length. My thoughts with the pants are they are so cute and trendy and fun!

  Now in reality, I was thinking get me into the AC!

I have washed and dried these culottes and they came out perfect.  I really find I have to do the dryer with certain stretch cotton twills and this is one of them, it has a large amount of stretch.

Disclosure - I receive a monthly fabric allowance from Mood Fabrics to make a garment.  These garment are blogged at Mood Sewing Network first and then I will blog here about this garment.