Tuesday 8 March 2011

Fancy Pants!

I actually did very little sewing specifically in preparation for MMMar '11, but had been working on some bits and bobs that are proving very useful for this challenge, namely: more pants (knickers, panties, undies etc, call them what you will)!

At work, we sometimes (but sadly not very often) receive pieces of sample fabric to work with, and recently we were sent lots of bits of amazing quality printed stretch/jersey fabric. We've been using it to make various garments, but I've made sure a few of the smaller pieces that won't make a full garment come my way to become new undies. (Using my How-To Construct Undies method, of course!)

Most of these fabrics have a really lovely silky quality to them. Pattern-wise, I used a tweaked version of the initial pattern I developed back in January last year from my most comfy shop-bought pair. The elastics I used are a mixture of bits and bobs I've bought from a variety of sellers on ebay. It's tricky buying pants elastic on ebay I've found. It's really difficult to judge the quality of stuff via the pictures, and it's rarely turned up in real life being as I'd expected it to. For example, the black with gold stripe stuff used in the pants pictured above, I had very low expectations for. I had bought when there was very little to chose from (ebay stock goes in waves like that I've found) but really wanted to get cracking with pant-making. It turned out to be really lovely and excellent quality.

One of the things I like the most about sewing is figuring out how to make something, be it pants, trousers, T-shirts or whatever, and once you have made the successfully, you no longer need to buy them ever again! I love that sense of accomplishment and, well, independence I guess. There's a sense of self-sufficiency in relying on the high street and mass-production less and less with each type of garment I figure out how to make for myself. I actually haven't bought any new pants since I worked out how to make them, so that over a year now. I know I am unusually lucky to have access to free good quality jersey from which to make them, which is why I'm stocking up now in case the well runs dry!

12 comments:

Kestrel said...

I'm so impressed with your underwear making - they look great and it must be nice to have something you know will fit perfectly and be really comfortable.

I bet you never would have thought you'd be photographing your pants to put online tho! :)

Vintage Girl said...

Cute, that's fun. I struggle with fit for my panties. Maybe I should try sewing my own as you have done. Love the colors of the fabric. It would be fun to have a matching bra.

Anonymous said...

So cute!

Heather said...

Those are ridiculously cute! My all time favourite pair of panties are the ones I made ages ago out of a Olympics Team Canada t-shirt (http://sewingonpins.blogspot.com/2010/07/pantified-tees.html).

Of course, I almost choked when I saw a guy walking out of the grocery store wearing the exact same shirt the day I did the panty test drive...

Ruby Star said...

super cute undies you have their zo. nice work.

jen said...

those look so awesome, way better than anything i've seen in a store lately! someday, hopefully soon, i will give your tutorial a try.

Carolyn said...

You are so clever with making undies!

Gabrielle said...

That's really impressive - if I was ever going to try to make undies I'd want to try to make this kind!

melissa said...

Nice pants! I absolutely love making underwear now, it's really addictive.

Oh, and the BEST source for pants elastic in the UK (hands down) is the Sewing Chest - corsetmaking.co.uk They've got all the fun picot and satin edges elastics plus a bunch of FOE, too.

Unknown said...

i love them! Im also very impressed.

S jak Sylwia i Szycie said...

Super pants!!!

Cecili said...

Those panties are perfect, you could sell them at once! I love them!

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