If anybody is interested in making their own underwear, can I suggest the book ‘Bare Essentials: Underwear – Construction and Pattern Cutting for Lingerie Design’. It’s really straightforward and simple to use.
It’s a great little book that teaches you about stretch fabrics and elastics, guides you through construction, pattern manipulation and pattern cutting. The author has also written a book on bra construction which I have but have yet to try out but hopefully I have some free time soon to start trying that out.
There are a couple of patterns in the back of the book and it explains how you can alter them to make knickers like these stretch lace boy shorts. (The patterns in the back of the book range from an extra small to an extra large which are a US sized 0 to 18 and UK sized 4 to 22.) And the book is separated into Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced chapters; so there’s something for everyone.
I think I managed to make these within an hour or so! They’re super quick and comfy. I picked up the stretch lace on eBay a few years ago for a couple of pounds I think. After I bought it, I had no idea what to make with it, but it’s perfect for knickers!
Close up of the lace:
Looks like a great book for my students! Regarding lace, you can get great stuff online from http://www.gypsylace.co.uk. They have all over stretch lace as well as stretch lace trims measuring upwards of 10cm deep, perfect for knickers.
You enabler you! I have had the “BRA” book in my amazon basket for ages while I dithered about buying it… since your review, I have purchased both! I recently tried the Burdastyle download Tanga stretch lace knickers and it did not work for me (but the pattern was free so I can’t complain!). I will be interested to see if the pattern you used works better for me than the Tanga one from Burdastyle did. Thanks for your review!