MN2402 Acacia Underwear

It feels weird to write this for the purpose of sharing it online, but:

I made underwear!

Now that the most awkward part of this post is out in the open, we can get on with things.

Most of my sewing experience is with quilting cottons. I can hold my own with other woven materials, even silky fabrics thanks to assorted princess costumes, but I’ve done very little sewing with stretch or knit fabrics — which is ironic, when you think about all of the knitting I do. About two years ago I sewed a beginner-level shirt; beyond that, my attempts have been limited to altering a few old t-shirts.

With my recent foray into making clothing, I wanted to expand my knit garment sewing skills. It seemed best to start small — literally.

I still have some red-orange fabric leftover from making that shirt in 2016. I have black one-inch (2.5 cm) fold over elastic. And I have the Acacia low-rise bikini underwear pattern, MN2402, by Megan Nielsen.

According to the pattern, my measurements call for making a size Medium. If you’ve never made underwear before, let me warn you that the flat pattern pieces look enormous! I pulled out a few pairs of my ready-to-wear panties to confirm the size; a quick check of the waistband and rise, with seam allowances in mind, proved that those giant pieces were correct.

The pattern instructions were clear and simple. I zigzagged my way through the project — no serger here — and was excited to try on the underwear.

The briefs were too ... brief! I checked my measurements again, then pulled out my ready-to-wear underwear and found the culprit. Acacia has fuller coverage than the pairs I originally checked the pattern against. Although they’re all labeled as the same size, my fuller coverage ready-to-wear panties are larger than the other styles. And I don’t mean they simply use more fabric, as one would expect from the definition of “more coverage.” The openings for the waist and legs are also larger with the fuller cut. As big as I thought those pattern pieces were, they were about to get bigger!

I made the next pair as size Large. They fit perfectly and, yes, this pair is the same size as my ready-to-wear fuller coverage bikini underwear.

One thing I really like about the Acacia pattern is that there are instructions for using regular elastic, lingerie elastic, and fold over elastic. As a beginner, it’s nice to have those options spelled out because I don’t have a preference yet and don’t know the best way to attach any of them.

I made both of these pairs with fold over elastic. I like it at the waistband but, as expected, it’s a bit bulky at the legs. With the next pair, I plan to use regular 1/4-inch (0.6 cm) elastic for the legs. I just picked up a narrower fold over elastic and I’m on the lookout for lingerie elastic at my local shops for future sewing experiments.

I can hardly believe I wrote about underwear once, and I’m already planning to do it again!

If you have any tips for sewing with stretch or knit fabrics, I would love to read about them in the comments.