Hi all! I've had the absolute pleasure of testing Joanne, the new 2-in-1 culottes and shorts pattern from French company Ready to Sew. When Raphaëlle kindly got in touch to ask if I'd like to be a part of the testing team, she had me at 'culottes', so the addition of an on-trend paper bag waistband came as a total bonus. I loved sewing the Ready to Sew Jane shirt, so I had high hopes, and I'm pleased to report that I wasn't disappointed. I think a lot of you are going to love Joanne as much as I do...

Ready to Sew Joanne culottes!

The two options for Joanne - culottes and shorts

If you follow me on here/Instagram, my love of culottes (particularly the B6178s) is pretty evident, so I obviously chose Joanne's culotte view for my test garment. Like the Jane Shirt, the PDF pattern is accompanied by a couple of cool click through features including tutorials and a playlist, which was totally my type of music so I stuck it on and got started.

SQUEEZE

I selected a size 40 based on my full hip measurement and the advice given by the pattern (my waist measurement falls into a 42, but the elastic waistband is pretty forgiving). The fabric requirements are given at 2m for the culottes (and only 1m for the shorts) but I had my heart absolutely set on using the 1.5m of mid-weight mustard cotton I picked up from the latest Hebden Bridge WI Rag Market. Needless to say I made it work, but when I say it was a squeeze I really mean it. I'll definitely be be sticking to the given yardage in future!

The make was a real breeze and I managed all the cutting and sewing in just half a day. The pattern design is really simple, but it has some fun detailing to make it an interesting sew, particularly the topstitching around the curved patch pocket edge. Personally I love topstitching, but if it's not your bag, don't let that put you off! It's a great opportunity to learn or practice the technique and the pattern provides a clickable link to a topstitching tutorial to help.

Paper bag waist detail

Creating the paper bag waistband was a totally new technique for me and I love it. It's definitely something I'd like to do again and a feature I might even consider exaggerating in future. Essentially you just stitch a couple of rows in the middle of your waistband that act as a casing, and thread a skinny length of elastic through - who'd have thought it would be so easy? The pattern also has the option of a classic waistband as an alternative to the paper bag style.

Back view

Overall, the Joanne is a beautiful pattern that's both easy to sew and easy to wear. The finished style of the culottes is relaxed yet cool, and I think I could wear them in pretty much any situation. The patch pockets and the seams in the back mean there's a bit of room to play around with prints and different fabrics too. 

The Joanne pattern is available to buy from Ready to Sew here.

It's a great pattern for summer and I'll definitely be making more use of it before I head off on my holidays to Tokyo in a couple of months! (Recommendations welcome!!) I'm going to try a pair of patterned shorts next!

Sunshine appropriate bottoms!

Which version of Joanne would you make? Shorts or culottes?