Culottes for Compact Heights

Recently, I have started to really get into "unflattering" clothes. It has been a slow progression from my younger days when I used clothing to make my body appear how I thought it should look, to now when I am more concerned with comfort and my own expression of style. 

Culottes for petites are one of those "unflattering" styles, but I love them! They can make you appear shorter, and hide any curves you might have, but they're so cool!  I have tried on a fair amount of culottes lately and have had no success in finding the right length for my short legs, they all either fit like regular pants, or pants that just look slightly too short, which is weird. So of course I made some, and I was pretty scared of this sewing pattern (McCalls: M7475). I have never made pants before, and zippers are my biggest enemy, so the zipper fly was terrifying. I also struggled with the yoke back. It was coming out a little lopsided, and I had to redo the top stitching a couple times.If I could go back and choose a different pattern, I would get one without a yoke. Despite all that, the pattern turned out to be pretty easy so it went a lot smoother then I expected. I had to make a few adjustments though (as is to be expected). They came out slightly too wide and waaay too long, so I cut the length about a foot shorter then the pattern indicated.

I hate having to take things to the tailor unless its for a special occasion, so if you're like me, but don't want to construct a whole pair, it can be really simple to DIY a shorter hem. If you have basic sewing skills, you can certainly just cut, flip up the bottom to the inside and sew (make sure to iron the hem first!), or if you want zero sewing, you can purchase some handy hem tape and instead of sewing, iron it on to the inside of the hem you flipped up. Basically you can pin the tape so that it is half on the folded part and half above it, iron it on, and the adhesive holds your hem up (check the instructions with your hem tape). I have only used hem tape once a long time ago, so I don't remember exactly what I used, but something like this should work: Hem Tape 

I am still on the lookout for some denim culottes or cropped flares. Unfortunately, I don't think I could make my own, as I have a pretty basic sewing machine that wouldn't be able to handle the density of multiple layers of denim. So if you know of any super cropped denim, let me know!