Kids underwear pattern and sewing tutorial

If you're looking for a way to save some pennies on kid's clothes, underwear is a great place to start! I don't know about boy's underwear, but girl's underwear runs about $10 for 6 pairs around here - and I think that paying over $1.50 for a piece of fabric smaller than my wallet is way too much! When A decided to start learning how to use the potty, we went through about 10 pairs a day, and living on a part - time income just doesn't leave any extra money to buy that many underwear from the store. Plus, when A was potty learning, she was just barely 2 and I couldn't find any underwear at the store that would fit her. She's rather petite, so even the expensive 2t character undies that always run small fell off of her tiny frame. The only solution was to DIY it!

Supplies for this project:
Paper
Pencil
Old pair of underwear for pattern (optional)
Soft measuring tape
Scissors/rotary cutter
Ruler/straight edge
Knit fabric (any comfy stretchy fabric - old tshirts work great!)
Soft fold-over elastic (FOE)
Coordinating thread (optional, I use white for underwear)

To start, I had to make a pattern to fit A.  I went through a lot of rough drafts and failed pairs of underwear before I got a good baseline for a pattern, and I'm going to help you skip all of that frustration and just get right to pattern making! These pictures will be for A's current size of about 3t-ish, but I'll provide instructions for you to make your own - even up to your own size if you want!

To start with, if you have a pair of underwear that fits your child right now that you don't mind cutting up, you can use that as a starter pattern. That's easy, right? For those of you in my situation where your child is small or you don't want to buy any at the store, you'll need your child's waist, thigh, and rise measurement. Use a soft measuring tape. If you don't have one, Walmart carries them, and they're usually less than $1. For A, these are the numbers I'm working with:
Waist - 19"
Thigh - 12"
Rise - 11"

For those of you who are new to sewing, the rise is the measurement from just below the belly button, where you want the underwear to sit, between the legs to the same spot on the back.  Make sure to measure up high enough to cover the bum crack!

With those measurements, it's time to start your pattern! Start with a piece of paper at least as tall as your child's rise and as wide as about half their waist measurement. I like to have some wiggle room, so my paper is quite a bit larger, but for those of you with smaller kids you could use a standard sheet of 8x11 printer paper.

Start by making a rectangle that is as tall as your rise measurement, and as wide as half of your waist measurement. It should look something like this. 

The curve on the right will be your leg hole marking eventually.

Once you have that, fold it in half hotdog style so it's skinny. Now you'll mark out your leg holes.

Folding it in half will ensure it's even on both sides.  No one likes lopsided underwear!

Now, you'll want to measure out your curve to make sure it fits the thigh measurement you took earlier, or slightly bigger.  Don't go more than about 3/4 inch bigger or the leg holes will be too loose. I like to measure using my soft measuring tape standing up on it's edge and curving it gradually around. If you have a compass or a round bowl that fits the curve you want, use it to trace!  I just draw it out until I'm satisfied with what I have.

One thing to be aware of here is the crotch width.  For a toddler (up to about 4t size), you want the crotch to be about 3 inches wide.  Be sure to measure at the widest part of your half circle and get it to just 1.5 inches from the circle to the folded edge of your pattern, so the crotch width will be correct.  For children up to about 8, add 1.5-2 inches.  It's best to measure your child and see what would be most comfortable for them, or use a pair of store-bought underwear as a pattern for size reference.

Here's where you should measure your crotch width.

Now, if you are the type of person to cut before you're finished measuring, you might have a different color of paper to finish out this tutorial.  But not me.  Nope...

Sooo... That wasn't me.

Anyways, although I did mess up on my first pattern draft, it provided a good example of how NOT to do it, alongside how to ACTUALLY do it.  If your crotch is measuring too wide, but your thigh measurement is correct, it's hard to see how you could narrow the crotch without lengthening the thigh.  That's where my mess up comes in... You see the top and bottom parts of the pattern, where the underwear will sit across the tummy and bum?  Make those areas a little taller, and make your half circle with a bigger degree of curve.  Like so:

Fiddle with the shape until it is to your satisfaction. When you're drawing your thigh opening, be sure to decide which is the front and back of your undies - the front should cut in more, to curve around the thigh and cut out bulk, and the back should be wider and a little straight, to cover the bum and prevent wedgies.  Like this:

You'll also want to be sure that the sides are the same width, so they're easier to sew together.

Next you'll want a little pattern for the lining on the crotch.  This is as easy as laying your underwear pattern on a scrap of paper and tracing it, like so.

You can just ballpark how high you want it to come front to back.  I find about 3-4 inches from the front and back to be sufficient.

Congratulations!  You have a pattern!  Now you can make some underwear to test it.  I like to use old tshirts or scraps to make underwear - it saves just that little bit more money. For these, I'm using some purchased fabric I got a looooong time ago and haven't used much. It's gotta go sometime, right?

Start by folding your pattern in half again, hotdog style, to ensure both sides will be even.  Fold your fabric the same way, making sure the stretch will go across the width of the underwear, not up and down.


Now, I know what some of you are thinking - why bother making a whole pattern if you're only using half of it? The answer is simple - I like to reuse scraps whenever possible, and sometimes a scrap will not accommodate the full length of the pattern.  In that case, I'd use the top and bottom folded out to cut my pattern pieces, and sew them together at the crotch.  Versatility!

Sorry for the blur.  I forgot to take a picture before I started cutting, but here's how it will look before you cut the legs out!

Also cut out one piece of your liner. You can use anything for this - a piece of the same fabric you're using for the underwear, a random scrap, or something absorbent.  I like to use bamboo or hemp knit fabric because it's super absorbent, so if your little one has a leak on the way to the bathroom, you usually don't have to change their pants - the liner catches it all! You can purchase it from cloth diaper supply stores online. If you can't get that, you can use several layers of a plain cotton knit, or a layer of old washcloth covered by a layer of softer knit for comfort. (I have bamboo and hemp on hand because I made my daughter's cloth diapers - more on that in a later post :) )

Once you have your pattern cut out, you'll need your elastic. Measure your waist and thigh opening and subtract 1/2 inch - that's how long you want your elastic.  If you want some growing room, don't subtract the inch from the thighs, just leave them the same length.  Always do the waist elastic slightly smaller than the waist measurement, or else the underwear will fall down constantly.

Waist elastic, slightly smaller.

The first actual sewing step is sewing in your liner.  Line it up on your underwear (on the inside!) and pin it in place.

Sew it on.  I like to use a simple zigzag stitch to catch the edge and really secure it down.

Don't worry about sewing the leg edges - Those will be covered by your fold over elastic. You might have some extra liner fabric sticking over the edges of your pattern - just trim them down a bit if you want to.

Now pin your elastic on.  You can pin as much or as little as you like, just be sure to stretch your elastic to fit the knit.  I just use one pin for each end.

 Now sew your elastic on!  If your machine has a stretch stitch function, you can use that.  A 3-step zig-zag is another option, or a plain straight stitch on the longest length your machine can do.  I did a straight stitch for this one, because my fold over elastic is so narrow.

Repeat for all the elastic.  Once that is done, you're ready to complete your underwear! Fold it in half at the crotch, right sides together, and match your elastic on each side.  You can use a plain zig-zag stitch for this - I have a serger, so that's what I use.
 

Ta-da!  Underwear.  Now try them on your little one and make any alterations necessary. Once you have the pattern and the basic idea down, this is a very simple and quick pattern to produce.  I can do a pair in about 20 minutes, if I don't have toddler interruptions. And they're so cute!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  Please let me know how I can improve in the comments!
Until next time!

Crunchy Mama

Welcome!

Hi! Welcome to my blog, Crunchy Mama + Geeky Papa. Allow me to introduce myself - I'm Stephanie, aka the aforementioned Crunchy Mama! I've been married for 5 years (this September!) to Macade, aka Geeky Papa. We've got one little girl - well call her A - and a baby on the way. Geeky Papa and I are both into video games and other geeky things, we strive to eat a real food diet, and we practice gentle parenting. I sew and cook (my two favorite things!), and we strive to be "green" by cloth diapering and reducing our waste wherever we can.

In this blog, you'll find posts about all manner of things - sewing tutorials, recipes and cooking tips, shared articles about gentle parenting, cloth diapering, and babywearing, and other similar things. And occasionally a post from Geeky Papa about all things geeky! I hope you enjoy yourself while you're here, please check back often for updates and new posts!