Make Your Own Knickers Tutorial

Hello folks! In case you feel like living on the edge and making your own knickers for the ride, here is a simple (I hope!) tutorial on how to do it. You will only need basic sewing skills. I used a sewing machine on part, but you could do it all by hand if you wanted to. Also, bear with me, I've never written a sewing tutorial in my life and probably don't even know the real names for most things.

Find a pair of tweed pants that fit you well from the knee up. If they are too long, no worries. We're cutting these babies down!

Step 1:
Put the pants on and measure. You'll want them to come just below your knee. Cut them at least one inch longer than you want them to be. Save the portion that you cut off, you'll need them later.


Step 2:
If your pants have a lining you may choose to remove it from the bottom (cut off) portion. It makes it a bit harder to sew later on. I took it out of mine.


Step 3:
Turn the top portion of the pants/knickers inside out and pin the edges of each leg for a hem as shown in the picture. Do not pin the leg holes clothes. That's not going to work. You'll need to put your legs through them when you are done sewing. :) As you can see, I pushed my lining up, so as not to sew it into the seam we are making because it's a royal pain in the butt if your material has as much stretch as mine did.

Here is a close up.

Step 4:
Sew around each leg hole with a sewing machine or by hand. (keeping the pants inside out) Take the pins out as you go.


Step 5:
Flip the pants back right side out. Put them on. Gather the sides of each leg so that they are tight to your leg and pin. I take the front crease and wrap it around to the side, like the first step of French Rolling your jeans. ;) Be careful not to stick yourself! After you are finished pinning take off the pants, very carefully.




Step 6:
Sew the pinned area straight up and down, either by hand or on a sewing machine. Take out the pins as you go.

Step 6A:
If you use a sewing machine for step 6 like I did, there is a little tab-like bit since you can't sew exactly on the edge of the seam. I sewed this down because it bothered me. If you aren't quite as anal retentive, feel free to skip this step.



Step 7:
Go back to the bottom part of the pants that you cut off. Keep everything right side out and tuck them into the knickers so that just the bottom hem is sticking out and pin. (I don't know why I took this picture on top of another pair of tweed pants. As if this tutorial isn't confusing enough!)


Step 8:
Sew by hand or on a machine taking the pins out as you go. You can then turn them inside out and cut off the extra material from the leg of the pants.

Step 9: Add buttons to the outside of the knickers by the "French Roll" fold if you like.

If you have any questions (I mean, how could you, this was so simple and technical!) please feel free to leave them in the comments.