Cheerful panties using leftover fabric

In order to fulfil my mission and to have my wardrobe consist for 100% of memade, second-hand or refashioned items, I cannot avoid making underwear/lingerie. I start simple with some cheerful basic panties made with leftover fabric and then hopefully work my way up to beautiful (lace) lingerie. Like fellow blogger Clio. Check this blog, for example. Super inspiring. (it’s in Dutch, just hit the translate option)

Lees de blog in het Nederlands, klik hier.

The project I’m sharing with you today is ideal for using up leftover fabrics, developing my lingerie skills, getting to know the new overlocker bernette 64 AIRLOCK and testing Mettler’s elastic thread Seraflex. Win win…

bernette 64 AIRLOCK

The overlocker with an air threader to automatically thread the loopers. It‘s never been so easy to get started. The b64 AIRLOCK has even more to offer: the freearm makes it easy to sew sleeves and cuffs.

Learn more

The materials

Over the years I’ve collected enough scraps of leftover fabric to make cheerful combinations. I mainly opted for jersey cotton fabrics. Especially for the crotch part of the undies. What I also needed was beautiful elastic and of course some cute bows, I ordered these online. As thread I used Mettler Seraflex, especially for stretch fabrics and regular thread (stretch/zigzag stitch). On the overlock machine I just alternated standard lock thread (white) and Seraflock thread (Pink, by Mettler). The latter is a soft and supple overlock thread with elastic properties and ideal for sewing stretch fabrics. I also used this overlock thread in my previous blog about the Odette shoulder pad t-shirt.

My creative brain went completely wild when I came up with the leftover fabric combinations. After I determined the first combination, my mind wandered to the next combination. I was totally inspired by it.

The same thing happened a few times while making the panties, so here’s a complete collection of ‘LIESL Undies’.

The pattern

Last year I tried sewing swimwear and made two bikinis. I copied the pattern of the bikini bottom from an existing bikini. This was my plan again. From my panties drawer I chose the most comfortable panties and traced the front and back pieces on pattern paper. You can of course also take an existing pattern. There are also free downloads.

Would you like to read how to put together such a simple panties. Read it in this blog (again, it’s in Dutch)

After making and fitting a test version, I started cutting the different combinations. The backs of all panties are made of one piece, the front of a maximum of 3 pieces. Too many seams might irritate.

Nice details

The advantage of a front that consists of three parts is that you can also use very small scraps, use multiple fabrics and add nice details.

Finish with elastic

When diving into my own panties drawer, I noticed that these types of panties are finished in different ways. I discuss three options here.

By far the easiest way is if the elastic is stitched on with a zigzag stitch. With panties 1, 4 and 5 I did this when finishing the legs.

A second option is to stitch the elastic on top of the panties as before, but then with the decorative side facing up. If you finish it like this with a zigzag stitch and then fold the elastic inwards, you can topstitch it with elastic thread or a stretch/zigzag stitch along the side. I used this method with panties 3 at the legs and panties 5 at the waist.

First with a zigzag stitch

Fold over and topstitch with a (slight) zigzag or stretch stitch

Topstitching with stretch thread. Also put the stretch thread on the bobbin.

The last option I applied was with bias elastic that you can fold around the seam. One side I stitched with a zigzag stitch and after folding it over I stitched it with a straight stitch and the Seraflex thread.

Last step is to put on a little bow (or two) and there you have it a cheerful LIESL collection of panties using leftover fabrics. A nice step towards my ideal wardrobe.

Love,

Marlies

@madebyLIESL