Free Pattern Friday: Noelle Underwear for Women

Welcome to my monthly 'Free Pattern Friday' feature, where I road test a free sewing pattern or tutorial: sometimes a children's one, sometimes an adult's one. I try to publish these posts every first Friday of the month, timed to provide inspiration for those who plan to get their sew on over the weekend. I firmly believe that, if you pick your projects carefully, sewing doesn't have to be a crazy-expensive way to clothe yourself and your family. Thanks to all the amazing pattern designers who have offered up their hard work for us to enjoy for free.

Ok, so elephant in the room: yes, I am posting pics of myself in my pants on my blog. Now we've got that out the way. So I've fallen down a Pinterest underwear inspiration rabbit hole recently, in advance of trying to make myself some nice sets of undies that actually fit and feel supportive. If you're interested, you can see my board here. Although Pinterest has made it virtually impossible to tell which pins I've added and which they've suggested. ANYWAY. A lot of the undies I've been pinning are what can only be described as Big Pants. Now, I'm usually a committed hipster undies wearer, but I thought it'd be fun to experiment with a different style. Enter: the Noelle pattern by undies designer Madalynne. 

I first discovered this pattern when searching for free patterns to suggest to the Patrons of my podcast, Check Your Thread, when I was planning an online undies sew-together session. Thanks, as always, to all designers, including Madalynne, who offer some of their hard work up to the sewing community for free. Onward...

(image source: Madalynne)

Pattern type:

What I would describe as Big Pants, the website would describe as 'feminine, everyday high waisted underwear'. The waist and leg holes are meant to be finished with picot elastic. 

Sizing info:

The pattern isn't the most size inclusive, covering natural waist 23" - 41" and hip sizes 33" - 50", which is divided into sizing XS - 3XL. I made the size M, as per my measurements which I felt was the correct choice. That said, the stretchiness of your fabric will effect the fit greatly. 

Fabric info:

This pattern seems to have been designed mainly for stretch lace with a power mesh/net lining. However, the list of suitable outer fabrics does include jersey or any fabric with a 4-15% spandex content resulting in a 30%-40% stretch. I prefer cotton jersey with Lycra content for undies, so I used a scrap of such a fabric that has a little less stretch than perhaps would be ideal, but ultimately was fine for this project. I chose not to line these undies because honestly who lines undies?

Findings:

The biggest surprise for me, aside from that I quite like wearing Big Pants, is that this pattern doesn't include any instructions! From what I understand, this pattern appears in Madalynne's book, 'Sew Lingerie: Make Size-Inclusive Bras, Panties, Swimwear & More; Everything You Need to Know', which, I assume, tells you how to make them. The instructions can also be accessed in the form of a Creativebug online class, which currently costs $9.95. Aside from those definitely not-free options, you're on your own. 

That said, if you've ever made undies before, you will be able to figure out the construction easily enough. The head-scratching occurs, or at least it did for me, with trying to work out how long to cut the elastic. In the end, I did some maths to work out the percentage difference between the leg holes and waistline, and the lengths of elastic required on my own free undies pattern, and then measured the leg holes and waistline of the Noelle pattern to which I applied the same percentage difference. This worked out well for the leg holes, but I feel the elastic at the waist should have been a tiny bit tighter.  

There's a bit of faff involved in actually obtaining the pattern pieces: you go through the online shop to access a download that is actually just a page from which to then access a document that includes the pattern pieces and some info on supplies and cutting. The pattern consists of a front piece and back piece, with a shaded area on the front piece to show the shape from which to cut the crotch lining piece. Rather than tracing that crotch lining piece off the front piece, I just printed out the lower part of the front piece twice.  

The pattern pieces came together easily, using only my regular sewing machine because I couldn't be arsed to rethread my overlocker for what I was hoping would be, at best, a wearable toile. My fabric wasn't the greatest quality, but they've definitely come out wearable. That said, because I was using fold over elastic, rather than the suggested picot elastic, the crotch has turned out a bit wide. If I were using FOE again, I'd narrow the crotch area. 

I also found them to be too high, particularly at the back. Even with my highest waist jeans, they peek out over the top! For future pairs, I'd skim off about 2cm from the waist edge, but leave the waist elastic the same length or even tighten it a bit as that came out a smidge loose. 

Would I make this again?

With the adjustments stated above, I can DEFINITELY see myself using this pattern again with some nicer fabric. I'll even bother to thread up my overlocker to make the seams on the inside neater. I'd also like to play around with creating seam lines and panels with different fabrics. This pattern is a great canvas for all sorts of potential undies making.