Cheeky Panties (18983 Views)

view all steps

•  
  1
•  
  2
•  
  3
•  
  4
•  
  5
•  
  6
•  
  7
•  
  8
•  
  9
•  
  10
•  
  11
•  
  12
•  
  13

• 

  Step 1 of 13

  1) Fold fabric along grain of the knit and place the main pattern piece on fold as indicated; the arrow on the pattern indicates the direction of the crosswise stretch, which should be the greatest amount of stretch in your fabric. Your other pattern pieces can be laid out on a single thickness of fabric, and you may like to use a different, contrast-coloured knit fabric for your waistband piece.
  Pin pattern pieces firmly to your fabric before cutting around them, being careful not to distort the stretchy fabric as you move your scissors. Keep scissors as close to the table as possible, or, if you have a rotary cutter and cutting mat, this is a great time to use them as they disturb the fabric least while you cut.
  

• 

  Step 2 of 13

  Fold fabric to match centre back seams with right sides facing. If you are using a serger (overlocker), use a 1- 1.5 stitch length and set your diferential feed to 2.
  

  If you are using a sewing machine, you can use:

  · a treble-seaming stitch; if you choose this option, trim the seam allowances after stitching and then overedge them together with a zigzag to prevent them raveling.

  · a stretch overcast stitch: there’s no need to then overedge, but after sewing seam trim seam allowances close to overcast stitch line.

  · narrow zigzag stitch; sew seam twice for extra strength, and after trimming seam allowances use zigzag again to overedge them together and prevent raveling.
  

• 

  Step 3 of 13

  Serge or zig-zag overedge on rounded end of gusset as indicated on pattern piece. Place right sides of the front crotch and back crotch together, and place unserged/overedged edge of gusset piece on top of front crotch piece matching notches, then seam all three together. Don’t worry if the gusset piece is right side, wrong side, it's the gusset noone’s gonna see it. Once seamed, fold gusset piece back toward centre back seam, and baste sides of gusset to the legholes on each side. If you forgot to cut out a gusset piece altogether and cant be bothered going back and cutting one out now, don't worry too much about it, the panties are cotton so they should still be comfortable without one.

• 

  Step 4 of 13

  Take the waistband piece and match the short ends right sides together and seam with a 1cm allowance, you will now have a circle.

• 

  Step 5 of 13

  Fold the circle in on itself with right sides out.
  

• 

  Step 6 of 13

  Divide the waistband and top of the panties in quarters with pins, and match raw edges of the waistband to edge of the top of the panties with the waistband facing the right side of the panty fabric.
  

• 

  Step 7 of 13

  As the waistband piece is slightly shorter than the distance around the top of the panty, you will be stretching it slightly between the pins as you sew or serge them together. The waistband being slightly shorter like this is what helps your panties stay up! Attach all the way around, and then unfold- there's your waistband. At this point you may want to do some three-step zig-zag top-stitching from the outside of the panties for decoration and to catch the seam of the waistband.

• 

  Step 8 of 13

  Try the panties on. If you like the look of them as they are, or if you realized just now that you forgot to buy underwear elastic, to finish you can just serge the edges or zigzag the raw edge of the fabric (catching the sides of the gusset piece as you do so to attach firmly)- the picture shows how this looks. Certainly this option has the benefit of allowing the fabric to rest against your bottom/legs rather than squeezing into your flesh as elastic can, so you avoid the dreaded Visible Panty Line. However, your panties will have a less homemade look and will probably last longer if you do put some elastic around the legholes.

• 

  Step 9 of 13

  To proceed with elastic application, you will need to now measure the legholes yourself to determine how much elastic they need- trying them on will have stretched them out just slightly, and this is a good thing for comfort, plus it attenuates somewhat the horrid VPL-effect mentioned above. You need to cut two pieces of elastic to this length PLUS 1cm- you will overlap the ends of each piece together to form two circles of elastic. Make sure you haven’t twisted the elastic, and use a zigzag stitch to make the join.
  

• 

  Step 10 of 13

  Pin the elastic to the wrong side of the fabric in line with the edge of each leghole...

• 

  Step 11 of 13

  ...and attach all the way around with a narrow zigzag stitch.
  

• 

  Step 12 of 13

  Once elastic has been attached all the way around, fold over toward inside, and then, from the right side of the fabric, use a three-step zigzag stitch (stitch length 1.5, width 4) to sew over the now-encased elastic. Repeat on other leghole.

• 

  Step 13 of 13

  Your panties are done! I can't wait to see your creations, so make sure you take lots of pictures and show everybody your panties.... um, you know what I mean! :o)