Little mans boxer briefs

 

    My little man asked for some more boxers the other day, so i asked if he would like me to make him some boxer briefs.  So he ran to find a donor pair from his drawer that where getting a little small.  so we set to work  carefully cutting them apart along the seam lines.  So I found the easiest way to trace around the fabric “pattern pieces” is to put down a piece of cardboard, large enough to for your largest pattern pieces.  On top of the cardboard I put down a piece of paper (i use Kraft paper, used for wrapping packages and come in a roll like wrapping paper) and carefully pin the pieces out flat and trace around them with a pencil.  Now I use my snazzy rulers and make clean lines, because we want them a little bigger I add an extra 1/4 inch or so around all the edges.

 

 

 

For the front of the crotch I made the lies less curvy and we opted not to add the “pee pocket” (the hole between the layers in the front … you know what it’s for … we just call it the pee pocket) So it’s just a single layer of fabric, which simplifies things a bit. For this project we are upcycle some old t-shirt we have kicking around that are in good shape. 

 

 

 

 

So with our new paper pattern we cut out 2 leg pieces,  1 bum, and 1 crotch piece.  Now because of the nature of the area, you want to keep the seems as flat as possible, so instead of the standard seam I placed them one on top of the other an used a surger type stitch or any other fancy or plane stitch.  First  I stitched the crotch to the bum, and each of the leg seams. 

 

 

 

 

Next I put the legs onto the center pieces, again using the serger stitch on my machine making a flat seam.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s what they look like with both legs attached

 

 

 

 

 

Next they needed a waistband, for this pair we use a pieces of non-roll elastic.  I stitched the ends together to make a loop and then pinned it to the top of the undies, making sure to stretch it out as you feed it through the machine.  I used an elastic stitch that is on my machine but a plain zig zag work just as well.

 

 

  

So here’s the two pairs I’ve made so far.  the only thing left is to finish the leg openings.  The red pair has just a plain piece of 1 inch elastic.

 

For fun I use some of the finished edges from the bottom of one of the t-shirts, again trying to keep the seams flat. don’t forget to stitch the ends together

 

 

 

 

And voila little boxer briefs!