Who’s in the mood for some leather-look culotte realness?

Just what every day-to-day mostly-working-from-home wardrobe needs, right???

These are the Fibre Mood Bea Culottes from edition 12 of Fibre Mood magazine. As soon as I saw this lovely edition of Fibre Mood, it was these culottes that I was most drawn too. And, I couldn’t get the idea of a leather pair, like the sample ones in the magazine, out of my mind!

The Fibre Mood Bea has a rather interesting design in which it opens out at the pockets which enables you to get it on and off without a zipper. You may be familiar with this design from the popular Megan Nielsen Flint Pants, however, the Fibre Mood Bea uses it on both pockets, not just one side like in the Flint.

I am a little bit worried as to whether this design has the potential to cause some disasters – I’m imagining trying to get them off quickly to go to the bathroom and my phone slipping out the pocket as I do so. However, I haven’t worn them enough to confirm if this is a problem and the shape of the pockets is quite deep so it looks as though it is designed so that the pocket should still remain fully functional, despite doubling as a closure.

My Fibre Mood Bea Culottes

My Fibre Mood Bea culottes are a size 46, which was the size recommended based on my body measurements.

You can see from some of the pictures here that I have some bulging at the pockets, as well as drag lines across the butt, which are caused by the fact that the size 46 is a little too tight across that point of my body. I think that if the size was correct, the pocket bulging would stop.

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You’ve got to love drag lines – they’re like a flashing neon sign drawing attention to the fact that the area below is a bit too squeezy!

Next time, I will size up to a 48, especially since it’s pretty easy to play around with the back darts and pleats if you need to make adjustments.

So these Fibre Mood Bea Culottes are really a tale of this rather out-there fabric.

This leather-look fabric is actually a coated black denim from The Fabric Store. I first saw this fabric when I saw Allie Jackson make amazing Ginger Jeans out of them.

Leather look Gingers!!!

’nuff said!!

When I saw it in person during my visit to Australia in February this year (I can’t believe there was actually a point in 2020 when we could still travel freely), I couldn’t get the awesomeness of Allie’s jeans out of my mind.

I decided I wanted some of this fabric in my stash.

I was tempted to buy it in indigo, rather than black, since it is more my colour (NAVY FOREVER!!) but when something is leather-look, I can really only face the idea of black or brown. Coloured leather just seems wrong to me. Has there ever been an indigo cow? I think not. And yes, I know it is actually denim, not leather at all, but I also knew I didn’t want a mental image of an indigo cow each time I put the eventual garment on.

So I decided to step out of my usual colour palette and go with black. When I purchased this denim, I was thinking about jeans or even an out-there leather look jumpsuit if I was feeling brave (leather look Blanca flight suit anyone??)

Sewing the Fibre Mood Bea was simple and painfree. Apart from the fact that I wish I had sized up, I experienced no major issues with the pattern itself.

The one point where I wasn’t satisfied with my finished results is where the bottom of the pockets meet the side seam, I couldn’t get it to come together smoothly at the turning point there. This could also reflect the difficulty and thickness of my fabric. Also, was feeling lazy (when am I not!) and I did this only with the abbreviated instructions in the magazine. I didn’t check if the downloadable version of the instructions held your hand a bit more on this step. So many only advice is really take your time to try to do this step carefully and neatly because it is very visible if you don’t!

Coated denim capers

I’m not going to lie – this fabric is rather ridiculous.

Don’t be fooled by my attempt in these photos to look sleek and at ease. I can assure you there is nothing easy about wearing this fabric!

It is only a 10 oz denim but it definitely feels a lot of heavier and while my machine could get through, it did protest at a few points, like the buttonholes.

The fabric is also pretty unforgiving on the body. It feels very rigid and solid. If I take these off and step out of them, they would probably stand up on their own for a good little while.

I had actually been planning to hack the Fibre Mood Bea culottes to have an elastic back, by leaving out the back darts, similarly to how I did for these Deer and Doe Dressed Culottes, but it became immediately apparently that the heft of this plastic-like denim would not countenance such creativity!

The shiny coating also shows every single flaw as though under a miscroscope! These Fibre Mood Bea culottes have actually made me infinitely glad I did not attempt something like jeans or a jumpsuit in this fabric. I shudder at the mere thought of every little crease highlighted in coated denim technicolour!

The other thing which is strange and which, in all honestly, will probably prevent me from really wearing these Fibre Mood Culottes is that they are colossally loud to wear! With each step, my thighs rub together with the noise of two enormous sail clothes flapping in gusty wind.

Swish. Swish. Boom. Swish.

I’m too scared to try cycling with them. I’m imagining people looking desperately around trying to identify the source of the bizarre swishing vortex rapidly approaching.

So, yes, these Fibre Mood Bea Culottes may be a minimalist black but I can assure you there is nothing stealthy or subtle about them!

Wearing these culottes actually reminds me of when I was about 12 years old and my Uncle’s team was playing in the Grand Final of our state football league (I’m talking Aussie rules football, not the European or American varieties – not that most sewists will rarely care about such distinction for the purpose of the story!!). I was excited out of mind to go to the match with all my cousins and aunts and uncles.

The big day arrived and it was pouring with rain.

At which point my father insisted that the entire family had to wear big green garbage bags with holes cut out for our arms and heads to keep us dry.

And so we did. And that excitement instantly turned into that brand of horrifying humiliation that can only be felt by a 12 year old forced to wear a garbage bag in front of all the people she thought were cool!

Anyway, where was I going with this story – I’ve been distracted by my decades-old 12 year-old angst!

That’s right, wearing these Fibre Mood Bea Culottes reminds me of what it felt like wearing that garbage bag – physically, rather than psychologically. It literally feels as though I am wrapped in plastic.

Granted, the culottes do look much better than the bag!

And, no, I have no idea why no-one in our family apparently owned raincoats back in 1994.

Sooo, where does all of this leave me and these Fibre Mood Bea culottes?

Sometimes when you step outside of your sewing comfort zone, you get a result which takes you by surprise and makes you feel braver, brighter and better.

And sometimes, you end up with plastic pants!

I don’t know if I will ever wear these (mostly cuz of the sound), but they actually make me laugh at myself and smile.

I am very grateful to have made wide legged culottes with this fabric. Because if the fabric is this unforgiving in this context, imagine what it would have been like as a pair of skinny jeans or a jumpsuit. Imagine the swishing at both the legs and arms!

Also, I’ve discovered that the Fibre Mood Bea pattern itself is a pretty solid one and I hope to revisit it in a fabric which can actually lend itself to being worn! Something soft, drapey and which in no way resembles plastic!!!

If you want to see more of my sewing adventures, you can find me on Instagram here.