Lingerie Blog

Guest Author SJ teaches us how to make our own fun panties - complete with sewing tips and photos. Thanks SJ!

---

I don’t know how things are where you reside, but in the UK, THONGS seem to be very popular just now. Everywhere you look, you see women proudly displaying their lingerie above the waistband of their jeans. The implication of this rising trend for the women of the UK is that retailers and manufacturers of high-end lingerie have got this idea that women only want to buy thongs. Consequently, if you see a bra you like, and want to buy matching boy-shorts or french knickers to go with it… forget about it. Only a thong is available.I make no bones of the fact that I am not a thong woman. Hideous memories of schooldays with badly-fitting underwear riding up my rump have seen to that. I’ll wear briefs and boy-shorts only, but I’ll tell you something, boy, are they hard to find! Your sole option is to take yourself down to your mama’s department store, where you will find multi-packs of easy-care cotton panties, which more often than not come printed with a picture of a cartoon dog or a floral pattern. (Thank goodness you can find them here on intimateguide! - ed.) Eventually, I grew tired of disheartening shopping trips. For one thing, my feet got tired, and for another, I don’t like shopping so much anyway.

The solution? I made my own knickers!

This is really a simple project. You don’t need to be an accomplished seamstress to do it. All you need is some stretch jersey fabric, a sewing machine, and about an hour of free time.

Step one: COPY 

Find a pair of knickers in your lingerie drawer which are a shape you would like to replicate. The easiest shapes are briefs and boy-shorts.

Step two: TRACE 

Trace around the front and back outline of these panties onto stretch fabric using tailor’s chalk or a pencil.

Step three: CUT 

Cut the shapes out of the fabric, but make sure to leave extra fabric around the outside – about a half inch. You need this extra fabric so that you can sew the panties up.

Step four: PIN 

Lay your fabric shapes with the right sides together, and pin them where you’ll need to sew – at the crotch, and down the sides.

Step five: SEW 

Sew down the short part of the sides and at the crotch.

Press the seams open if you have an iron nearby – it isn’t necessary, but makes the finished garment look far better!

Step six: LINE 

Add a gusset (lining). Use cotton jersey fabric for this part, not a synthetic fabric. Cut out a rectangle, then fold about half a centimetre inwards on each side, and press flat. Pin this to the crotch section of your new panties, so that the folded edges are hidden underneath, and sew it on. This is the trickiest part of the whole operation! You can see your panties taking shape now!

Step seven: Accessorize!

You could almost wear your new panties as they are, but there’s one last thing to do – adding lace or ribbon. I cut a bit of a corner here by not hemming the raw edges. Here’s what I do instead. Pin your trim (stretch lace is best, for obvious reasons) where you want it on the panties. Then use the zig-zag stitch on your sewing machine to attach the lace to your panties. The zig-zag stitch allows the fabric to stretch when you’re wearing it, and also helps keep the raw edges of the fabric from fraying.

You can add decorative bows at this point too, if you like, by folding and stitching some ribbon.

Et voila!

Pair #1

Pair #2

Are you in-touch enough to write about what to wear under there for Intimate Guide? Let us know at rachel @ intimateguide.com