Friday, March 31, 2017
Pants Self Sufficiency
Pants Self Sufficiency
Before I could crack on with any of my proposed nippy weather sewing projects, I needed to take care of my foundations! I didnt have quite enough pairs in rotation, and regularly ended up wearing my least favourite pairs. Also, if I were to achieve a goal of mine (pants self-sufficiency) I had to make some more pairs so I could finally get rid of my final three pairs of shop-bought pants. I now only own self-made pants!
Pattern:
It may not surprise you to learn that these, and all the other pairs I own, were made using my free downloadable pants/undies/knickers pattern. What can I say?! Its exactly what I want from a knickers pattern: low-rise with good bum coverage. This pattern has been downloaded over 34,000 times now! I chose to release the pattern as a free one rather to be paid for because I really want to encourage sewers to try making their own undies, and I know that a download doesnt equate a use, but Im really happy with that amount of initial interest at least.
If you visit my Free Sewing Patterns page you will see that I have included an easy way to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee via paypal. Out of interest, do you want to know how many people out of that 34,000 have done that so far? 31! Obviously, I didnt release either of the free patterns in the pursuit to make money, but I do really appreciate it when a user of the pattern decides to acknowledge the time that went into producing them by fuelling me with caffeine!
Fabric and Elastic:
I have made MANY pairs of pants from this pattern now, and by now Ive got a pretty good idea of what type of knit I feel will work best. I like a medium-weight cotton jersey with a decent elastane content, the type that is suitable for form fitting T-shirts. So I raided my knit-fabric-scraps bin for suitable pieces left over from previous projects. Plus, all the elastic was from my stash, so I had no immediate outlay for this little lot.
The cream coloured floral pair aside, they were all made using FOE (fold over elastic) that came from a variety of sources (mostly eBay). Right now, my blogs sponsor The Village Haberdashery, has a lovely range of FOE in stock, including the awesome neon orange that I used on the cream floral pair pictured above. If you would like some tips on how to use FOE, check out the blog post I wrote for The Daily Stitch which published this week.
The only other type of elastic I used this time round was some of the gorgeous cotton elastic from my other sponsor, Textile Garden. Its the delicate lilac and duck-egg scalloped stuff that you can see in the picture below. I wrote more about her cotton elastic selection in this blog post around this time last year.
Thoughts:
Ive been aiming to eliminate all the shop-bought pants from my undies drawer for years and it feels fantastic to have finally made the leap! Maybe one day Ill get to a similar position with bras, then Marks & Spencer really will have seen the last of me.... Oh wait, theres still tights. Anyways, these pants are fun and comfy, just what I was hoping for. If youd like to see examples of how other people have used my free patterns, check out this Pinterest board. And if youve used either of the free patterns and you feel like sharing the results, Id love to see so pleassseeeeee send me a pic or a link.
Available link for download
