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| The kids tie-dye T-shirts at every single Girl Scout camp, and I (secretly) never think they come out cute, but it turns out that cutting it down into underwear actually makes the tie-dye look a lot nicer. |
I don't know. Why do I do anything?
Well, the fit is better, for one. The prints are cuter, and just what the kid likes. I don't have to worry about some other little kid in a sweatshop laboring 14 hours a day making them; I'm in my 40s, and I only sew when I feel like it. I can use up my stash fabric sewing these, so that's pretty cool.
Also, I hate shopping, but I like to sew. Case closed!
For this project, I bought the Kids' Scrundlewear pattern from Stitch Upon a Time. It might not have been the best economical decision, because my kid is in the top size for this pattern, but I liked it the best of all of the digital patterns that I browsed and I think I'll get my eight dollars' worth from it.
Actually, I think I already did!
I have a ridiculous stash of T-shirts for crafting. Most are T-shirts that the kids have outgrown or that are damaged beyond repair, some are shirts that were given to me specifically for crafting with, and few are ones that I thrifted because they fit somebody's passionate obsession and surely will come in handy for something.
Such as this adult-sized My Little Pony T-shirt that I bought for a dollar several months ago:
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| Excuse the awful lighting in all of these photos. It is never not raining, and it is, to the children's great sadness, seemingly never going to snow. |
Yep, all seven of the kid's new pairs of underwear are sewn from T-shirts. I mixed and matched the waist- and leg-bands from other shirts, and came up with some really cute combinations, I think:
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| Both kids love sharks, and the younger kid wore this shirt, a gift from her grandparents, until she could no longer squeeze into it. Now she can wear it again! |
One thing that I'm pretty proud of is my ability to sew with knits, no starch or stabilizer necessary. If a piece gets fiddly I will starch it, but all of these came together quite quickly and easily:
The Scrundlewear pattern also doesn't call for any elastic, which is nice because I then didn't have to buy a single other thing to make all this underwear. And I could have made the kid twenty pairs, what with all the T-shirts in my stash, but I started to get bored with sewing multiples of the same thing and decided that I'd see how she does with seven pairs for now:
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| I like the pairs with the T-shirt graphics the best, but the kid's favorites are these striped pairs. |
The kid reports that they're super comfy, they wash well, and although I was worried that she'd think them too bulky, since T-shirt fabric is thicker than underwear fabric, she hasn't complained and so I'm certainly not going to bring it up!
Next up: I bought this adult underwear pattern, and so now it's time to attempt to sew something that will meet the approval of the REALLY picky kid...
P.S. I sew LOTS of things, usually pretty weird. Want to see it all? Follow along on my Craft Knife Facebook page!
3 comments:
Hi, I just made some adult Scrundies out of an old tshirt. I had to size up as the fabric is all cotton and not stretchy. I made the bands from the same shirt. So there is very little “give”. Do you use a stretchy fabric for your bands? I made the briefs style. With stretch fabric suggested by pattern I should wear a Small. But I printed a Large and used that for the tshirt fabric. Thank you.
What I've discovered as I've continued sewing for growing kids is that fabrics that worked for straight little noodles don't work as well for those of us who have curves. So although I sewed a TON of T-shirt panties for my younger kids, and they happily wore them, I now think that T-shirt fabric doesn't have quite the right stretch to make comfortable adult panties, at least not for me.
That being said, for the kids' T-shirt panties I did just use additional T-shirt fabric for the bands. I'd be very curious to know how you're liking your own T-shirt Scrundies! Sizing up to deal with the different level of stretch is super clever, and I think I"m willing to be persuaded that maybe I *could* sew myself some undies from T-shirts...
My T-shirt Scrundies are close fitting, but I am slender so they will do. I made a second pair using 1/4 inch elastic enclosed. The gusset is a little narrow, so have made a slightly wider pattern piece for that area. We'll see how it all goes. I don't think I have the elastic type and measurements down yet. It seemed to lose its stretch when being sewn through. Also, I later tried using a walking foot for the first time. What an improvement in ease of handling the T-shirt fabric. I didn't take it out until the final topstitch on the legs. Oh, well. I'll keep experimenting. Oh, the first pair I made were in size "S" and were, of course, too small, but I needed to get a reference point and practice the sewing technique. I used a raggedy shirt for that experiment. Then I printed out a size "L" and that is about right with the old T-shirts. I don't have any suitable stretch fabric for the bands. Think it would help.
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