Panties

Panties are not actually all that difficult to make, if you have a bit of experience sewing. A serger is preferable but you can make them with just a regular zigzag sewing machine too. They're not expensive either; there's not much material required. You need about a quarter to a third of a yard of a knit fabric (nearly any kind will do) which will easily make 3 or 4 pairs, plus a couple yards of lingerie elastic per pair. If you make thongs, you can probably do 10.

Step 1: Pattern

Take a pair of panties you own that fits how you like, and make a pattern from them. Lay them out on a piece of paper and draw around the edges, making sure to stretch the elastic just enough that the fabric lies flat. I find this is easiest to do by pinning half of each piece to an ironing board with a piece of paper underneath. See the pictures for more detail.

You'll end up with two or three pieces: front, back, and crotch (often the crotch piece is cut in one with the back or front). Make sure the side and crotch seams are the same length on each piece so they'll match up properly when sewn.

I made two patterns, one with side seams and one without; the side seams one turned out better so all the pix, except for those on this page, are of that one.

Comments

[usbmod]

yeah tha'd be nice

[Goodhart]

ack ! Am I that old and out of the loop? Don't they have a half year of Home Ecc in schools anymore for the guys?

[Thundermoon99]

in my school its rumord there is but i dont think there is the closest we have that i know of is culinary arts but if it does exist in my school it is not required

[Goodhart]

Well, when I had home Ecc it was in the 9th grade IIRC, and that would have been in .... 1972 or 1973 .

[Bad Maxx]

For the guys?? Erm yeah perhaps you are out of the loop.. I know most teenagers (more so it seems the girls than boys!) have no clue how to cook anything that doesn't go in the microwave and no desire to learn how! I'm not sure what state you are in, but most schools no longer have Home Economics. It is really a disservice to both boy and girls. Just what it is imagined this will do for nutrition for not only themselves but their unfortunate children is beyond me. I had it in 8th grade and again in High School, and darned glad I did as I do the cooking for the most part in this household. (Unfortunately I'm "too picky" to eat what would be passed off as a home cooked meal around here if I did not.)

[etw]

when i was in my senior year I wanted to do home economics, but I was not allowed to 'coz i was a guy' (this was mid 70-s. It did not really matter coz I learned cooking from my mother, just by watching how. I can cook pretty well now. Better than most of my (usually younger) girlfriends. When I met a lovely girl who also could cook pretty good, I married her right away ;-)

[Bad Maxx]

Sorry it took me a month+ to reply but read your last post and had to say: Right On! Marrying a lovely girl, let alone one that can cook!?! That sounds like the path I should have followed!

[Goodhart]

I enjoyed Home Ecc. as much as I did Shop class (and didn't break as much in Home Ecc either LOL )

[Ieatbabiez]

We don't even have Home Ecc in our school...Or wood shop...Or metal shop....

[ktalex]

ur school must be poorn.

[Bad Maxx]

I live in a definitely not poor school district! And have the same thing to say as leatbabiez, (although I'm far from school age!) the school here has none of the life-skills classes Home Ecc, Woodshop, Metal Shop all gone.. We had all of these and optional small engine class, as well as electronics class. Now they have a huge indoor/outdoor pool at the middle school and three gymnasiums at the senior high but none of the aforementioned classes.

[Ieatbabiez]

My school is extremely poor...But we're the 3rd ranked school in our state :P

[Saturn V]

My school doesn't have wood or metal shop, probably because they don't trust a bunch of teenagers with a blowtorch.

[Goodhart]

Reaaly ? In middle school metal shop I was building a radiation cloud chamber.....those were the days

[ktalex]

wow i just noticed i almost typed porn.. Damn im actually surprised of the maturity here thats nice. :) Being mature FTW

[Goodhart]

Well that is a bummer.

[maxpower49]

in my school we have a full year of home ec that you have to take in 8 th grade and we still have wood shop but no metal working but you can take a extra thing with metal working or allot of other stuff but that is only in 11th and 12th grade

[Goodhart]

That's good. I had 1/2 year of wood shop after 1/2 year of Home Ecc. and metal shop came in one of the subsequent years.

[maxpower49]

i have had a year of wood shop and a year on home ec this year i'm taking a year of heave equipment at boces

[Clayton H.]

At my school we have home ecc. 4 years of woodshop and a metalshop that is used for the graffics class.

[D.L.H.]

No cooking is not mandtiory at all at my school i wsih they still had wood and metal shop oh we also do not have sewing. But congrats on the nice designs Rachel.

[=!snap!=]

Not any more, when you get to highschool most schools have stuff were you can take astuff like that though

[Goodhart]

That saddens me....

[kissiltur]

I'd put money on not, although I don't know enough about the US school system yet to be sure (my boys aren't old enough to be in school yet). I know the home ec stuff in Britain has been trimmed drastically, though, along with metalwork, woodwork, or indeed anything which isn't on the core curriculum.

[Goodhart]

That's just plain sad, really. I had had 1/2 year of cooking and sewing, etc. I am GLAD I have those skills, they have made life so much easier....

[kissiltur]

Yes, me too. It was a regular part of the school year for me in middle school - I had options for it at grammar school (what my high school was called) which I didn't take, but knowing how to use a sewing machine has been an invaluable skill. If Instructables had been around in the 90s I would have posted something about the superhero costumes I made. Not doing that stuff is very sad. There's a whole discussion to be had about the direction that education has taken both in the US and the UK, but probably not here.

[Saturn V]

apperently the schoolboards just want us to know about science, math, english, and history we'll never use. Cooking, sewing, woodworking, and metalworking are a few valuable skills. Much more useul than Ancient Rome or diagramming sentences.

[_soapy_]

That's a broad generalisation, and it does people a disservice.

Many people will need to use cooking skills, others will need to use maths, others still will use neither, and a few will be Heston Blumenthal. (If you don't know, he does mad cooking with science and maths - think deep fat frying a frozen chicken to get a sunday roast, or using a pure essence as flavouring)

The disservice is the "one size fits all" 'comprehensive' education system, where competition isn't allowed, and everyone has to come first, and all must do the same things and thinking.

Bring back the two tier system - polytechnics and universities. Then add a third tier for the useless stuff like "American studies" and other 'fries with that' degree courses.

[Goodhart]

Yes, sadly the One size fits all actually fits the fewest number of people "best". If I'd been given more Geo-trig while in high school and less algebra, I would have graduated with math honors. When the teacher couldn't explain quadratic equations to me, I was pretty much at a loss. . .

[Foxxglove]

Lovely tutorial. I have a load of scraps from old t-shirts (that got used for other DIY projects) that are now calling to me.

[jokerprincess]

Love it, and just to say that home ec' should be manditory like gym. Males and females do not always learn how to take care of themselves from parents. I think things would go smoother with a home ec class for middle and high school students.

[WillTheRescue]

Couple this with some screen-printing 'ibles and you've got endless creativity :)

[AlvinMaker]

I saw when you first posted this & i thought I'd never need it. but now I want to make some nintendo panties for my girlfriend, So thank you for the wonderfully well put together ible. & by the way, you look very good :)

[Forkable]

This is great! I can extend laundry time even more. Love the instructable! except for one small microscopic concern- I hate the word "panties"! AHHH!

[shop dweller]

It's a word that somehow "feels" a little personal. How about "knickers" instead?

[Madrigorne]

Just use your built in mental autocorrect to exchange the word panties for underpants - and then you'll be okay. There, there...

[SirBrittanicvs]

I could say this delicately, but that wouldn't be as funny... I've wanted to make a pair of leopard skin man-panties for a while now. What would you suggest I do to give the crotch more room to effectively contain my thunder?

[DrCoolSanta]

Buy some cheap underwear and open it up. Cut all the stitches. Use these peices as references for your undie.

[Goodhart]

I'm with jessy on this....it just seems like time is never on my side though (and I would have to get the wife to remove all her stuff from the sewing machine so we could use it again).

[Madrigorne]

...or you could run to your local thrift store/goodwill/StVdeP and pick up an inexpensive used sewing machine of your very own...