Last Saturday I wound up unexpectedly home alone with my children all evening. Of course I was going to sew (I’m a single-minded obsessive after all) but, rather unexpectedly, they wanted to join in. First Tyo, then Syo, and they both wanted to make… Underwear!
Tyo, who just completed her first sewing unit in Practical & Applied Arts at Xmas, got her heart fixated on black lace boy shorts. I had some fabric I figured would be perfect—a hefty stretch lace with decent recovery, that I made a great pair of leggings from last year sometime (and didn’t blog, apparently). After a lot of googling I convinced her that not only did I know what boy shorts are, but that the Rosy Ladyshorts were, in fact, a boyshort pattern, and she agreed to make a slightly modified version—modified by adding to the bottom edge so that when she sewed on the stretch lace edging she could line its outer edge up with the fabric, and trim the excess away later. Considering she’s never sewn anything stretch before, never mind applied elastic by feel, I think she did awesome.
The crappy part is that since she has a pair of this fabric, I can’t make myself one, and it was a really great idea!!!!
Syo wanted an aqua pair to match two of her bras, and we managed to find a lace in stash that was almost exactly the right colour. And fabric, but that’s less astonishing. Unfortunately not a stretch lace, which took some explaining, but we used it for the side fronts of my hacked Watson pattern. Now for some reason I feel a wee bit weird about showing you photos of my preteen’s underwear so I’m just showing you the fabrics.
So imagine this pair but made of not-see-through aqua knit with the lace at the side rather than centre front. I wound up doing most of the construction as it was a bit more complex than was probably a good idea, but Syo cut it all out on her own.
The convenient part about all of this is both children pretty much wear my same size right now in horizontal measurements, so there was little to no adjusting of size. Although that may also be saddening. /sigh.
And me? Well, I made up this very smart pair of Ladyshorts in a camo mesh and got all excited…
And, for you camo haters out there, you have a win. This pair was a total fail. The lace was perfect but the mesh has way too much stretch in one direction, little recovery, and absolutely none in the other, and they were BAGGY! And no amount of taking them in would fix it. UGH. I feel like the Rosy Ladyshorts, more than any other underwear pattern I’ve made, really depend on the fabric having just the right amount of stretch and recovery. When I nail it, they’re amazing, but when they don’t work, the fail is epic. Ah, well. It’s not like I don’t have lots of other underwear in my drawer…
I really want a black lace pair like Tyo’s, dammit.
Tanit-Isis Sews 
What a great evening you guys had! I have the Ladyshorts patterns around somewhere too, but have never tried them. Hmm, they might have to go back in the queue because you guys made some great (looking – in the last case) pairs here. Sorry yours didn’t work out, but at least the offspring got some successful makes in. 🙂 Can you get more of that black lace fabric?
Sadly, no, it’s long gone. I have enough left to make more pairs of underwear—but unless I put our names on them it would get very confusing… 😉
Ahaha that’s a good point – didn’t think about two identical pairs for two different people!
Sounds like a great evening in to me! Shame about your camo pair – they look cute!
I know, right? Ah, well, at least the kids got good pairs. 🙂
Just asked my kid if she’d like to do this with me and she said: No way. I’m not into that stuff. Sob.
No taste, no taste! 😉
Hooray! I learnt loads watching my mum and grandma sew when I was small. Hopefully your kids will stick with sewing too.
Is that the naughty step by your daughter?
In hind sight, I’m surprised at how much I did pick up just from watching (my mom never tried to teach me to sew, and we never sewed together, but I definitely observed a lot.) I guess even if they don’t get into it, I do want them to have the basic skills, to build on if the urge ever actually strikes.
That’s a custom stool from when she was little—it’s seen better days and is missing a letter or two, but it’s still handy as our kitchen has high cupboards and my kids are both shorties. 😉
Something to look forward too…my daughter is18 months and DOES NOT make a good sewing buddy unless she’s asleep 🙂
Great job girls!! 🙂 I tried the ladyshorts, but mine came out WAAAAY narrower (possibly half of yours above) in the *ahem* area. They were also way too “cheeky” for me. Did you have to tweak them to make them work, or are they perhaps not for me?
Well, I added 1″ on to the entire leg area so that Tyo could line her 1″ lace up with the outer edge, but since the original pattern included something like 1/4″ seam allowance for the overlap, I probably widened the crotch by 2x that amount so maybe 1/2″—which is a fair bit. They are still a bit cheeky (which is how Tyo likes them), probably more so on her than on me. 😉 I do find it hit or miss—the fabric has to be just right. Whereas I have made my Watson briefs up in every fabric I’ve grabbed and not had a problem. 🙂
What if you used a different color elastic for your pair? Damn near everything goes with black. =D
I’ve never gotten the ladyshorts to work for me, but I really wish I could! I freaking love the boyshort style in RTW. =/
I suppose I could do black with white elastic… Unfortunately those are the only colours of stretch lace I have been able to find! 😉