Toddler underwear

My youngest just turned two and we have started potty training her. My eldest was already potty trained at one-and-a-half because we started when she was half a year old. It took a whole year, but we lived very small at that time (all ground floor and open spaces) and it was easy to put her on they potty and keep her there. Now we have two floors plus multiple kids running around and I didn't find the energy and peace to start that early (with every kid we seem to start a bit later), but we are on our way now. Although she is two already, store bought underwear just doesn't fit well. She has a very narrow waist (47 cm)and huge belly so the smallest store bought underwear is gaping everywhere (or doesn't even stay up).

In my quest to sew other things than dresses, I decided to sew her underwear. I took a diaper cover (that was wide on her bum but fitted well on her legs) and started from there. I started this project when I just received the ordered framilon and I used the framilon elastic for the legs and regular elastic at the waist.

The first (the yellow with flowers) fitted quite well, but I lowered the front pattern piece to accommodate that huge belly. I finished three pieces of underwear the same day (one of them is not pictured in this post) and in the evening, while watching tv, I cut 13 more. I used all kind of knit scraps I had, so if you follow my blog you will see many familiar fabrics.

If you know me, than you know that cutting 13 sewing projects is very ambitious for me. I quickly loose interest, I often change my mind, but I was really planning to sew these up quickly. I could have bought an existing pattern, but I just wanted to drafts it myself. I thought it would be a nice challenge to make perfect fitting underwear for her. I even didn't look on the web before I cut all those pieces. I had consulted my Ottobres, but there they didn't start in such small sizes.

Then coincidentally, I came across an existing toddler underwear pattern and surfed the web a bit on this topic. It turns out that pdf patterns do support very small sizes (with hindsight very logical, many mothers will face the size problem). Looking at pdf patterns, I realized that using knit binding would be better (and cheaper) than the framilon. I got discouraged, because I liked the ones I saw on the web more than the ones I had cut, and my 13 unsewn pieces remained on the shelf.

This week I collected all my resolve and just finished them. For a moment I considered re-cutting the pieces, compensating for the knit biding, but I decided against it (I needed to finish quickly before I lost my resolve). I sewed up the first, it fitted and just kept going until they were all done.

On the overall pictures (which I made with my phone so the quality is a bit less) you can see 12 of them, the thirteenth was already in the laundry bin, because we are not there yet with the potty training. Two days later the smaller group where the ones that where still clean.

The orange binding is from the Lillestoff package that I won and that fabric is perfect for this project. It doesn't have the standard rib texture that I am used to in bindings, but both stretch and recovery are even better than the usual Lillestoff fabric. The orange color matched many of the prints, but to create a bit more variation I decided to use some other colors as well. Those are regular knits.

I considered providing the pattern I used, but decided against it. Although I am very happy with them now, I feel that I have to redraw the pattern slightly because of the knit binding, but I am not in the mood. I also drafted them to be one layer everywhere, so no extra fabric at the bottom, which is not how you should make them. So if you want to make your own underwear just take a look here or here for pattern reviews.

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).