Making a panty - sewing together

Sewing the panty is not very difficult. With some experience you will make it up in one to two hours.

For topstitching a multiple zigzag is used. Don’t make it too short, as this will curl the edge.

Attach the narrow lace with a zigzag stitch to the scalloped edge of the lace, pulling the elastic very lightly (you could also measure it: take 10% off the actual seamline). This will make sure the lace remains in place and no gaps appear when wearing it.

Sew the lace to the center front part using a small zigzag again, the stitch should not be too short.

Turn and topstitch with a multiple stitch zigzag. The front part is now ready.

Attach crotch part and lining to front with a zigzag stitch. Right sides of lycra of front and crotch part together, right side of crotch lining to wrong side of front part.

Trim seam allowance, turn and stitch with (multiple) zigzag.

Now attach back part to crotch, right sides of lycra together, don’t attach lining.
Open the seam and lay the lining over it. Trim the top of the seam allowance of the back part.

Topstitch over the seam with the widest possible multiple zigzag stitch. This is something I figured out for myself, in this way you have a minimum of bulk in the seam. (Another way is cutting the back part and crotch in one piece of fabric, you then just use the multiple zigzag stitch, no seam at all, my fabric was not long enough any more to do that).

The center looks likes this now.

Sew front and back together at the sides with a zigzag, topstitch with a multiple zigzag.

Add the lingerie elastic

For that measure your seamlines and take off 20%. In this panty you combine the lengths of the back part and the crotch piece. Cut the elastic with approx 2,5cm/1 inch extra on both sides (I use pins to mark beginning, end and seamlines, and in the picture a fade-away pen to mark the point half way the back part).

Pin the elastic with the softer side up. Stretch the fabric when pinning. You need a lot of pins and in the end it looks like this.

Stitch it with a small zigzag on the fabric, making sure that when you turn the elastic, the edge remains visible. I use a transparent foot for sewing, because I then can see very clearly where I stitch. Remove the pins while sewing.

And here I always do what all my teachers said you should not do: I stretch the elastic so that it lays flat when attaching it. My first teacher wanted me to use many pins and sew over them, which always resulted in ripping out parts of the stitching, because the lycra had come together in the wrong way. And a lot of broken needles!

By now I have made many panties for myself and my daughter and I stretch the elastic BUT NOT THE LYCRA FABRIC. Capital because if you do that, it will “bubble”. But why not stretch the elastic? It must stretch to your body, mustn’t it?

Trim the fabric, turn and topstitch with a multiple zigzag.

Finished.

Please let me know whether you find this helpful or whether I could do anything to improve the tutorial.

Making a panty - Cutting lace

As I made my bras last week, I forgot to take the pattern of one panty with me and cut this out just now. As I mentioned in a post at the beginning of this week, I'm considering writing a tutorial about making a bra, but that must wait a little longer. So I start with a panty (strange word, as we call a panty what in English is called stockings I believe, what in English is called panty, we call slip, very confusing).

Before explaining how I make a panty (or perhaps later on a bra), let me say that I learned these techniques from 3 different teachers in courses or workshops and from information from books and the internet. So I'm not a professional sewing teacher, and not saying that my description is the only right way to do it. There can be better ways perhaps, this is only how I do it.

For panties you need the following:

• lycra
• lace (optional)
• small piece of cotton (for crotch lining)
• edge elastic
• narrow lingerie elastic (only when you use scalloped edge of lace on the side of your leg)

Cutting lace is always taking some time, because I want my bra's and panties to by symmetrical. Usually I cut all pieces for 1 bra and 2 panties at the same time to make sure I'm not falling short of fabric. All my pattern pieces have 1 cm seam allowance and seamlines clearly marked, certainly for the parts that must be cut from lace.

Step 1:
Lay the paper pattern piece on the lace. In this case the edge of the lace will be on the leg side, so it gets no seam allowance. I use the lowest part of the scallop as guideline.

In the picture, the corner with the red arrow will be the point where the lace will join the back part. I like it to be a low point of the scallop, so match the seamline exactly there.

Step 2
Remove the paper, and use the first part of your lace as guide for cutting the second part. Make sure you lay wrong sides together.







This is a detail of the 2 layers. The embroidery of the lace matches. The extra print on the fabric has no symmetry.











An example of the 2 layer, exactly matched.

















Example of all pieces for the panty, except crotch lining.