How To Sew Underwear On Your Home Sewing Machine
Have you ever wanted to sew your own underwear? Do you want to know how to sew underwear on your home sewing machine? Sewing underwear at home is simple and satisfying. You don’t need a lot of fabric or specialty equipment to get started either.
Fabric Needed To Sew Underwear
To make regular panties, you will need knit fabric. Ideally you want to use natural and breathable fabric like cotton or a cotton blend.
Don’t feel restricted to cotton only as there are many variations of natural fibers with sufficient stretch and recoverability. Your gusset, however, should be all cotton.
Stretch lace is also a wonderful option to make underwear. For tap pants or female boxer shorts, you can use any woven fabric that suits your fancy.
Have a bunch of t-shirts lying around? Cut them up and you’ll have an endless supply of fabric for panties. The oft washed plain white t-shirts can be used for the gusset.
Elastic For Sewing Underwear
To finish off the waistband and legs, you will need underwear elastic or picot elastic. Picot elastic is a narrow elastic that has a plain edge and a decorative one. This decorative edge is visible once the panty is complete.
The purpose of elastic is to keep the panty snug to your body. Without it, you run the risk of the panty stretching out and possibly pooling in places it shouldn’t.
Fold Over Elastic (FOE)
Another option for finishing off the waist and legs is to use fold over elastic or FOE. FOE can be sewn to the finished panty in one or two passes.
If you opt to sew the FOE in one pass, be very careful that the edge of the panty meets the inner fold and is completely encased. As a beginner, you should sew the FOE in two passes to minimize the need to rip out stitches when you inevitably miss the edge of the panty. You’ve been warned. 🙂
Fabric Bands
Fabric bands can also be used to finish the waistband and legs. You will need to use strips of fabric that have good stretch and recovery like cotton Lycra or rib knit. You can use the same fabric to create bindings instead if you want a thinner waistband and legs.
Type Of Sewing Machine Needed To Sew Underwear At Home
Domestic Sewing Machine
Did you know that you do not need any specialty sewing machines or equipment to sew underwear at home? All you need is a basic sewing machine with utility stitches.
You will need the straight and lightning to sew the main seams and the zig zag stitch to finish the edges.
Serger (Optional)
Ready to wear panties are sewn on a serger. A serger is not required to sew underwear at home but if you have one, the process is much faster.
Coverstitch (Optional)
The elastics, bindings and bands are added to ready wear panties with a coverstitch machine. The effect is you apply whatever medium is being used to finish the waistband and leg openings while hemming it in one step.
Underwear Patterns And Where To Get Them
Free Patterns
To help you dip your toes into underwear making, some pattern companies have a free panty pattern available on their website.
Evie La Luve has the high waisted Maxine that looks beautiful plain or embellished with lace.
My all time favorite free pattern is the Noelle from Madalynne Intimates. The Noelle is also a high waisted panty that works well with stretch mesh, stretch velvet, plain jersey or any combination that your fertile mind can come up with.
Purchased Patterns
Many pattern companies are creating panty patterns that are perfect for today’s sewists. Whether you are looking for a printed or PDF pattern, the panty pattern that fits your measurements are readily available.
Simplicity has several printed patterns designed by Madalynne Intimates that includes both a bra/bralette and panty. Their most recent pattern was expanded to 4XL to include those of us with more curvaceous bodies.
Madalynne Intimates sells the patterns on her website along with the most delicious fabrics and notions to make you some fabulous knickers!
Made for Mermaids has a line of panties in their Lounge & Lace collection that offers briefs, mid and low rise, cheekies and thongs.
Copy Your Favorite Pair Of Panties
If you have a favorite pair of panties that fits well, why not make a copy of it? Don’t feel that you need to completely destroy the panty if it is still wearable.
Inspect the panty to see where the main seams are. You are looking for side seams, crotch seams and the gusset. Check if it is finished with picot elastic, FOE or bands?
If the panty is not wearable, bust out the seam ripper and take it apart. Be careful to retain the original seam lines and don’t lose the gusset. You will need all these pieces to create your own pattern.
Lay either the full or deconstructed panty on a large flat sheet of paper. You can trace around the front, back and gusset laid out flat or you can fold the pieces in two and draw them on the fold to create a symmetrical pattern piece.
You will need to include a seam allowance around all pattern pieces. Once finished you now have a reusable pattern to make multiple panties.
Draft Your Own Panty Block
As a beginner sewist, the thought of drafting a panty block is probably not even a blip on your horizon. One day soon however, you should consider drafting your own panty block.
The drafting process is fairly simple and only requires a few measurements, a large sheet of paper, ruler, pencil and minimal math. We will tackle drafting a panty block in another post.
Needle And Thread
A good polyester thread is all you need to sew underwear. My modern machine uses Gutterman thread but Coats and Clark work well too.
Don’t overthink when it comes to thread. Buy thread that works with your budget and sewing machine.
You will need stretch needles to sew underwear. Depending on your machine and fabric type, you may need to use microtex needles. These needles are designed to sew a variety of knit fabrics and lace.
Conclusion
Now that you know the basics of what is needed for sewing underwear, go forth and make you some fancy knickers. Do your research on panty patterns. Find one or several that you would like to make. Experiment with making your own pattern.
Don’t worry about making a mistake or messing up your first pair. You can always rip out the errors or ignore them. No one should be looking at or judging your underpants anyway. Happy sewing!
