Butterick 6031: Panty Tutorial!

Panties, at long last! Here's a step by step tutorial for making the undies from Butterick 6031, my lingerie pattern. (See the slip steps in these posts.)

Before we start, perhaps you're wondering, "why the heck would I make my own panties?" Let me tell you, the reasons are numerous. After you make one pair of these, you can tweak the pattern to your personal preferences. I designed these to be my perfect undies: boyshort-esque, with adequate butt coverage, flat lace trim, and a higher-than-usual rise (though not Bettie Page high). The design came from my frustration at finding lingerie I liked the fit of. Second was my frustration at the cost of lingerie. $23 for a pair of panties that rides up all day? No, thank you. Once you get the technique down, you can make a pair of these in about 20 minutes and the cost of supplies is incredibly economical.

Convinced? Okay! Let's get started. First, make sure you have a stretch needle in your machine. 

You'll have three pattern pieces cut out: the front, the back, and the lining. You'll also need a length of wide stretch lace trim.

With right sides together, sew the front to the back at the crotch seam: set your machine to a narrow zigzag (about 1 mm wide by 2.5 mm long) and stitch with a 5/8" seam allowance. Then stitch again with a 1/2" seam allowance. Trim next to your second line of stitching. Finger press the seam allowance toward the panty back.

Get out your lining. Place the lining over the crotch seam, on the wrong side of the panties. Pin in place.

Baste the lining to the panties with a narrow zigzag (1 mm wide, 5 mm long). Use a scant 1/4" seam allowance.

Now get out your stretch lace. On the upper edge of the panty front, place the lace on the right side so that it's overlapping the edge of the panties by 1/4". Pin in place. The lace should not stretch at all as you're pinning or sewing it.

Stitch in place close to the lower edge of the lace with a square zigzag (2.5 mm x 2.5 mm).

Repeat with the upper edge of the panty back.

Now open out the panties and repeat the lace pinning/stitching process with the leg openings. Here's how it will look pinned.

You have lace on all the edges, and the side seams are still open.

With right sides together, pin the side seams together.

Stitch in a double-stitched seam with a narrow zigzag, and then trim away the seam allowance.

Finally, place a bow at center front (at the bottom of the lace) and hand stitch in place.

That's it! Pretty easy, huh? After you've worn them for a day, you'll have an idea of changes you want to make: you can have them cut higher or lower on leg openings, have a higher or lower rise, etc. If you want a retro high-waisted look, you can also use super-wide lace just at the waist opening.

Hope you enjoy! Now go forth and make panties.

Slip Kits Are 20% Off!

Hi all! I have a bunch of slip kits in stock and ready to ship. All the steps for the slip sew-along are posted, so I thought I'd have a little sale. I still have kits in black, red, and yellow, in both regular and plus sizes. Please visit my Etsy shop for details. The kits include everything you need to make my vintage-inspired slip pattern, Butterick 6031.

Use the code YAYSLIPKITS to get your 20% off! And check out the slip sew-along posts here:

Slip Sew-Along #1: Inside the Kit, Plus Other Supplies
Slip Sew-Along #2: Pre-treating Your Fabric
Slip Sew-Along #3: Picking a Size and Making Adjustments
Slip Sew-Along #4: Bust Adjustments
Slip Sew-Along #5: Cutting and Marking
Slip Sew-Along #6: Sewing the Bra Top
Slip Sew-Along #7: Sewing the Front and Back
Slip Sew-Along #8: Sewing the Lace Hem
Slip Sew-Along #9: Introducing Gertie's Sewing Show!
Slip Sew-Along #10: Sew On Your Bow

Slip Sew-Along #10: Sew Your Bow!

Hey sew-alongers! I am writing from Arizona, where I'm helping out my parents for a bit. (They are a mess: Dad has broken ribs, Mom has a broken wrist.) I don't have my sew-along materials with me, but luckily there's only one step left: sew on your bow!

It's pretty self-expanatory: just position the bow at the center front seam at the bottom of the neckline lace and sew on by hand securely.

You have a finished slip now! I'll do a tutorial on the panties next week, when I'm back home.

Mom and I set up her sewing machines last night. Don't worry, she can still sew with a broken wrist!

Previous Sew-Along Posts:

Slip Sew-Along #1: Inside the Kit, Plus Other Supplies
Slip Sew-Along #2: Pre-treating Your Fabric
Slip Sew-Along #3: Picking a Size and Making Adjustments
Slip Sew-Along #4: Bust Adjustments
Slip Sew-Along #5: Cutting and Marking
Slip Sew-Along #6: Sewing the Bra Top
Slip Sew-Along #7: Sewing the Front and Back
Slip Sew-Along #8: Sewing the Lace Hem
Slip Sew-Along #9: Introducing Gertie's Sewing Show!

Slip Sew-Along #9: Introducing Gertie's Sewing Show!

Cool news, readers. I've been working on a new series of videos that I'm calling Gertie's Sewing Show. The motto? "Non-stop excitement for the sewing nerd!" I've integrated episode 1 with our slip sew-along. We've filmed ten episodes so far, so there's lots more excitement to come.

Special thanks to Elna, and my amazing group of friends who helped make this happen. More to come! Subscribe to my YouTube channel to make sure you don't miss any episodes.



Previous sew-along posts:

Slip Sew-Along #1: Inside the Kit, Plus Other Supplies
Slip Sew-Along #2: Pre-treating Your Fabric
Slip Sew-Along #3: Picking a Size and Making Adjustments
Slip Sew-Along #4: Bust Adjustments
Slip Sew-Along #5: Cutting and Marking
Slip Sew-Along #6: Sewing the Bra Top
Slip Sew-Along #7: Sewing the Front and Back
Slip Sew-Along #8: Sewing the Lace Hem

Slip Sew-Along #8: Sewing the Lace at the Hem

Hello, sew-alongers! I’ve decided we’re going to skip the straps for now, and move on to the lace at the hem. But don’t worry; I’ll have a video for the straps to show you soon.

Okay, let’s get going. You need a long length of your wide stretch lace, the same stuff you used at the neckline and under the bra.

First, trim off the excess from one of the floral motifs on your lace. You want it to have a nice smooth edge around one of the flowers.

We’re going to start pinning the lace at the circle mark above the slit on the left side hem. Don’t have a circle mark? Me neither. No big deal, I consulted the pattern and you need a mark about 4.25” above the top of the cut-out wedge for the slit. Make a tiny dot there.

Pin the top of the flower motif in place so that it just covers your dot mark.

Now, pin it down the left side of the slit so that the edge of the lace is flush with the raw edge of the fabric on the slit.

When you get to the corner, fold in the excess to form a miter.

Keep pinning the lace around the bottom of the slip. 

Your lace edge is still flush with the bottom of the fabric. Go all the way around the slip until you get to the other side of the slit. Form a second miter.

Pin the lace up the right side of the slit. Temporarily remove the left side of the lace from the slit and place the end of the right side lace underneath it. Cut it off at the top, and then hide it underneath the floral motif that you trimmed down in the beginning of these instructions.

Get out a hand sewing needle and some thread. Slip stitch the fold of the miters in place, only catching the lace, not the slip underneath it.

Unpin the corners and trim away the excess from behind your slip stitching.

Pin the corners back in place. Now we’re ready to zigzag the lace all the way around the hem.

Put your machine on a square 2.5 x 2.5 zigzag stitch. Begin stitching across the top of the overlapped lace (at the top of the slit). Then stitch down the outer edge of the lace down the left side of the slit. If your lace is scalloped (like mine is) follow the scallops of the lace as you stitch as best you can. Hold the fabric slightly taut, but do not stretch it.

(Hey, check out my fancy new machine! More on that to come!)

Pivot at the top of the miters, and continue zigzagging along the upper edge of the lace.

When you get back to your starting point, backstitch and cut your threads.

Now we cut away the excess fabric. Start from behind the slit. Slash the fabric from behind the lace and cut it away next to the zigzag stitching. See how your slit forms an overlap?

Cut away the fabric all the way around, trimming closely to the zigzag.

And you’re done with the lace hem!

Straps and finishing next, and then we’ll move on to panties!

Slip Sew-Along #1: Inside the Kit, Plus Other Supplies
Slip Sew-Along #2: Pre-treating Your Fabric
Slip Sew-Along #3: Picking a Size and Making Adjustments
Slip Sew-Along #4: Bust Adjustments
Slip Sew-Along #5: Cutting and Marking
Slip Sew-Along #6: Sewing the Bra Top
Slip Sew-Along #7: Sewing the Front and Back

Slip Sew-Along #7: Sewing the Front and Back

And we're back! Sorry for the pause; I was having some technical difficulties. I lost some files and had to start my slip from the beginning. The bright side is that now you can see the slip in a different color! This is the lavender slip kit (also available in plus/tall size).

Okay, so the last thing we did was to put the bra together.

Now, get out your slip front. It's the piece that has the wedge-shaped cutout on the left thigh. Cut a length of lace to match the upper edge of the piece. Lay the lace on the piece so that the edge of the lace matches the raw edge of the fabric. If one side of your lace is more scalloped than the other, you'll want the scallops pointing down.

Pin the lace in place and stitch along the lower edge. Use a "square zigzag" (about 2.5 long by 2.5 wide) and follow the scallops with your stitching. The easiest way to do this is to hold the fabric taut from in front of and behind the presser foot, and steer the fabric as you go.

Using a small pair of scissors, cut away the fabric from behind the lace.

Now get out your bra piece again.

With right sides up, lay the slip front over the bra piece so that they overlap by 1/4". Pin in place. Zigzag in place:

Now your lace is stitched at the top and the bottom.

It looks like this on the inside:

Now get out the slip back piece, elastic guide #6, and your picot-edge elastic (that's the elastic with the small scallops on one side). Cut the elastic to your size, as indicated on piece #6.

Lay the slip back out with the right side facing up. Place the elastic at the top of the piece, with the scallops facing down (the wrong side of the elastic is facing up). Pin in place at either end of the back piece. The elastic will be smaller than the back piece.

Using your square zigzag, stitch the elastic to the slip back, close to the scalloped edge. Stretch the elastic to fit as you sew. (It's easiest to use both hands and stretch from the front and the back of the presser foot.)

Next, flip the elastic to the wrong side of the slip back. From the inside, stitch again, positioning your presser foot so that the center of the foot is along the bottom edge of the elastic.

One side of the zigzag will fall to the left of the elastic, and the other to the right of it. Stretch as you sew.

The scalloped edge of the picot elastic will show on the right side.

Now it's time to sew the side seams! With right sides together, pin the slip front to the slip back.

When matching up the pieces, use your notches as a guide. However, the most important thing is that the pieces match at the top at the seam allowance. Do not match the raw edges together at the top.

Stitch with a wobble stitch (about 1 mm long and 2.5 long) at 5/8". Stitch again just to the inside of that stitching line, in the seam allowance. Trim close to your second line of stitching.

Now your front is sewn to your back!

Next we'll move on to the straps!

Previous sew-along posts:

Slip Sew-Along #1: Inside the Kit, Plus Other Supplies
Slip Sew-Along #2: Pre-treating Your Fabric
Slip Sew-Along #3: Picking a Size and Making Adjustments
Slip Sew-Along #4: Bust Adjustments
Slip Sew-Along #5: Cutting and Marking
Slip Sew-Along #6: Sewing the Bra Top