High waisted knickers are probably my favourite lingerie style. I know that might be a slightly controversial opinion, especially for someone of my age and demographic, and maybe its hundreds of hours spend watching Bridget Jones' Diary as a teenager, but I love a big pair of knickers. Here is how I make a simple pair of full briefs.
Level: Intermediate
What You Need
Stretch fabric e.g. jersey
Cotton jersey for gusset lining
4-10mm plush back elastic
Sewing pins or clips
Iron
Scissors or a rotary cutter
Ruler or tape measure
A4 paper
Printer
Cut out the pattern pieces
Lay your pattern pieces of the fabric. The arrows should align with the direction that has the most stretch. Carefully cut around the pattern pieces, ideally using a rotary blade for increased accuracy.
Sew the back and side seams
Starting with the centre back seam, place right sides of the fabric together and stitch using an overlock stitch or a zigzag. You could also use a straight stitch, but this will limit the amount of vertical stretch the garment will have.
Repeat this step to join the front and back panels at the side seams.
Bag out the gusset
The gusset on this pattern is bagged out meaning the seam edges are hidden between the gusset layers.
Start by placing the back edge of the gusset outer to the front gusset seam with right sides together, pin in place.
Then place place the right side of the gusset lining to the wrong side of the front gusset seam and pin. Sew this seam with an overlock or straight stitch.
Next flip the gusset over and place the front edge of the gusset outer to the front gusset edge and pin in place.
Then place the right side of the gusset lining to the wrong side of the front gusset seam and pin in place. This should look like there is a single twist in the gusset outer and lining, but this is necessary as when finished it will be straightened out and the seams trapped in between the layers. Sew the seam with preferred stitch.
Attach the elastic to the legs and waist
Attach the elastic using the two-step zigzag technique. You can visit our post on elastic here for more in depth instructions.
If you prefer elastic binding, remove the 0.6cm seam allowance before attaching.
For this design I used the cotton jersey I dyed using flowers. You can read about how I created the patterns here.
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