The Acacia Underwear Pattern

 

Covid, oh, Covid, what  hast thou done to me?

My sewing for the past months has been totally  influenced by the Covid monster. It has provided lots of time to sew and no where to wear many of the lovelies  I have made. It's been an evolution. It started with me attacking my queue of garment dreams and I got a lot of those done. They are still waiting for their public moments. It has continued to evolve to searching out new designers and garments and putting those in the queue. However, my desire to make those garments is often fueled by a future event, a trip, a milestone. None of that is happening with this virus and my interest wanes. But  Covid keeps opening it's opportunistic window. The latest is my return to utilitarian sewing. See my recent post here on mending a more technical garment. I have more mending accomplished and will share with you the more interesting achievements as they come along. There aren't many as you know most mending is pretty mundane. I am intrigued by visible mending, however, and have a cashmere sweater awaiting that. 

I've always wanted to make my own undies, not bras, corsets or lingerie, just nice, comfie, well fitting underpants. It's a holdover comfort thing from my childhood. My grandmother made all my undies as a child until she passed away. They were always of fine all cotton batiste,  mostly cut on the bias. They were lovely. She would send me back home with a stack at the end of every summer. 

So Covid has rung the bell and called in the teacher and I am learning to make my own undies. 

The pattern I used is the Acacia Underwear pattern from Megan Nielsen. It is a free download if you sign up for their newsletter. It will click over to zero dollars when you check out your cart. You can see on the pattern that I added a little bit to the top front and side front.  I was actually between sizes and I also prefer my bikinis a little higher cut on the tummy but more on that in a bit. After making the first pair I made the adjustments and committed the pattern  to oaktag. It is only the three pieces, front, back and crotch gusset. A suggestion: For me I found it easier to mark the center of each piece, the crotch gusset top and bottom, the back, top and bottom, and the front, top and bottom. I also marked the center of the sides. You can see this in the pink ink on the pattern. I just always do this on any pattern. It is a habit and the way I match pieces together even if they have other markings. 

For fabric, this is a scrap keeper's dream. I have three pair to show you and one is an ITY knit, another is a Modal/spandex combo and the third is a cotton/poly knit. With this pattern you cut two crotch gussets, one for the outer side and one for the inner. I like 100% cotton for the inner gusset and use rejected tee shirts for that piece. 

Don't we all have tee shirts with dreadful logos on them tucked away somewhere? My husband does and he gave me a bunch of never worn white ones. This piece is so small that a couple of tee shirts can make a lot of gussets. 

When it came to construction, I went in all sorts of directions, with each of the three having differences. 

First, what inspired me to get going on undies was the Vlog by Tom Kat Stitchery. In it Whitney (last name?) shows 3 different ways to make this pattern from Nielsen. One uses picot edging. another uses foldover elastic and the third, her preference and now mine, uses fabric bands.  I learned a lot from her and highly suggest watching this video. She knows her undies. I did watch other vlogs but hers was definitely the most knowledgeable and she's got a very good teaching style.  All of her  panties were made on the serger and the first had edges of picot trim. Hers were perfect. Mine were not. See the pink pair above. I questioned why she did not insert the leg elastic in the flat. I watched a video that did and decided that was the way to go. It really wasn't and I should have listened to Whitney. I ended up with lumps and bumps.  I used the serger and it actually made for a bumpier seam than the triple zigzag on my sewing machine. My skin has become very sensitive lately to anything rubbing or irritating it inside my garments or shoes. I have even worn undies inside out it has bothered me so much. So the next two pair I made on the sewing machine. It just took a little longer, but not much. Another deviation from Whitney that I will stick with is using a triple zigzag to topstitch my bands  rather than a plain zigzag which I am sure is also nice. Just my preference. 

This first pair has a picot edge, easy to install, but you can see I needed a bit more practice with my undie sewing. Next..........

This pair came out much better.  This is the cotton/poly blend, a lot like a nice tee shirt fabric. To trim the edges I used a 2 1/2 inch folded band for the waist and a 1 1/8 in folded bands for the legs. I folded them in half  pressed them, and then attached with 1/4 inch seams, RST. I then turned the bands inside and topstitched with the triple zigzag and went slowly. One thing, priceless, that I learned from Linda Lee on her vlog,  is to line up the edge of the fold on the leg band with whatever is a 1/4 inch away from your needle.  This is on the LEFT of the presser foot. When we sew a seam, we always put the RST, line up the cut edges under the presser foot and line up with something on the right side to get a perfect seam, might be a mark on the machine, a piece of tape, whatever.  As you stitch, watch the folded edge of your band on the left.  Line it up with something on the left that will put your needle exactly 1/4 inch away from that fold. Duh!!!! The band is what shows, not the seam allowances and this allows it to be sewn perfectly. It really makes a difference as you see above. 

These white pants side seams and crotch were sewn  on the machine with  a line of straight stitch and then a line of triple zigzag next to it (side seams and crotch gusset). No bumps at all and the stitching laid down very smoothly. I was happy. My skin was happy.  The seams had plenty of stretch. The fit with this higher waistband made me happy as well. No need to adjust the pattern at all. I may make my next pair with an even deeper waistband.

For my third pair I used a poly ITY knit. It really is prettier than the photo shows having sort of a velvety finish. It has the same construction as the white pair except for the legs. On this pair I simply turned and topstitched the legs with a triple Zigzag. I recently bought a bunch of undies and pulled them out to see how they were made. That's all they were on the legs. It will be interesting to wear these and see how the comfort/fit works out. It looks like they will cup my bum but if they don't I may like them anyway.  I also figured if I didn't like them this way it would be pretty easy to add on the leg bands. 

Update: This pair is so very comfortable. I cut the leg edges 3/8 inch wide after inspecting my retail panties. These snugged right up and are not moving at all. I will use this technique again, easy peasy. 

This was a really fun ride. I am definitely making more and soon. I now have a bucket under my cutting table just for "undie" scraps. You need so very little to make a pair. I know of some who automatically make a pair when they finish a garment and have enough fabric left over. Great habit to get into and it eats up those odd scraps. Just watch your grainlines. 

The third method Whitney used in her video was foldover elastic. Evidently it is pretty popular for undies but I just don't care for the look so won't be making those. I did order a bunch of elastic lace from Sew Sassy Lingerie and it came in today. I will play with that too. 

I also learned on this video to "sew in the bowl" something Whitney emphasizes often.  I've learned how to eye my needle from the edge of the binding/band/hem fold instead of the seam edge. Most of all, I learned how to make myself some undies. Covid has turned me to more utilitarian sewing lately. Now I am studying up on Visible Mending. 

****************************

LOVE my new Pendleton boots, quite practical for our New England weather! They have labels on the back heel and nice wool lining too! ...Bunny