Monday, January 23, 2012

Sewing Undies

Now this was a fun project! I have always wanted to try sewing underwear. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on patterns, fabric, and elastic only to end up with homemade, ill-fitting undies. I ran across this free pattern on indigorchid's wonderful blog. The idea is to recycle old t-shirts to make underwear.

I had rescued a few old t-shirts from my daughter's trash can a couple of weeks ago because I never really throw anything away which is remotely related to fabric, sewing, etc. She agreed to be my guinea pig for this experiment.

sewing undies

I already had underwear elastic in my stash which came from a local, well-known underwear company. Someone gave it to me because, as I said before, I stash all things related to sewing. The first pair I made with foldover elastic at the waist sewn on with my coverstitch machine. Since I was experimenting with size on this one, I got the legs just a bit tight so I finished them with a self-fabric binding sewn on with the coverstitich.

sewing ladies underwear

sewing underwear elastic


I ran across this lightweight piece of knit at the local fabric store for almost nothing and tried a different type of elastic. This is picot edge elastic which I stitched onto the edge of the legs and waist with the coverstitch machine.

sewing panties

Birgitte at indigorchid recommends Sew Sassy Fabrics in Huntsville, Alabama as a source for elastic. Their prices are great and I received an order very quickly. Now I'm on the lookout for more t-shirts in need of a recycle!

sewing underwear elastic

Once you determine the correct size and the length to cut the elastic, these are extremely quick and easy to sew up and cost less than $1.00 each!



5 comments:

  1. What a great job on panties, they look perfect!

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  2. Wow! Those looks really professional. I'm very impressed.

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  3. Those undies look so fab! Better than some store bought brands! Good deal:)

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  4. What a great job, they look professional! I desperately want a coverstitch machine now... Well, I already wanted one, but I hadn't thought about using it for underwear with contrast thread, and that looks *so* good. Now I want that machine more!

    I'm thoroughly impressed!

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  5. Ihave been sewing since I was 6,Barbie clothes on a treadle machine. Now at65, I have had to stop with the wedding dresses and finery,they are not up to my level of perfection. I am impressed by others who are willing to rework the discarded clothing and make them "new" again. I also do this, though it is difficult when I have 25 tubs of new textiles on hand. I enjoy the challenge of old to new, and have prepared a class to teach at little cost. Merely to teach people how to do for themselves, save mo ey, and above all, save our planet. Congratulations.

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