Bloomin' Panties

If you really want to impress, you'll need some matching panties (okay, okay - bloomers!) for your pillowcase dress.

I thought this would be super hard, but it wasn't.

I took the simplest pair of her shorts I could find and folded them in half to trace a pattern. Unfortunately, I had no idea last year how big my kid would grow, and I'm pretty sure these won't fit. Plus they're knit material and meant to stretch. So I added a bunch of space all around.



Then I forgot about the extra space I'd need at the top when I folded over the elastic casing and added some... that's the scrap of paper pinned up there. Did I mention I'm using the flat sheet that matches that pillowcase? I am. I'm also using the hemmed edge of the sheet at the bottom of the panties/bloomers/shorts. Fold the sheet over so you have two layers, and place the long edge of your traced pattern on the folded edge of the sheet. This will be the side of the bloomers and you won't need a seam there. Remember to cut a seam allowance. I almost forgot this. I also traced around the pattern with one of the kid's discarded pencil crayons so I'd know where the seam allowance started when I took the paper off. Cut two of these pieces.

Then, open up your two pieces and lay them flat together. Looks like this:

Don't forget to pin them together.


Then, sew together the two curved sides. This is the rise of your bloomers. Despite what I thought was over-estimating my kid's size, I could have given them an even bigger rise. I'm not sure if this should be at the top or a bigger curved part. Anyone with more experience know the answer?

Now that you've got the rise together, open up your bloomers and re-lay them out so that they look like shorts, with the seam in the front and back. Pin together the legs...


Hold them flat like this...


And sew straight across. When you're done, you can turn your creation right side out to get a look at it:

Shorts! I've got a hemmed edge at the bottom already because I used the hemmed edge of the sheet. But turn them inside out again, because you're not done.

Now you've got to sew the elastic casing. Fold over the top rough edge of your shorts about a quarter inch and iron it flat. Then fold it over again an inch or so (or less if you're confident) and iron again. Or don't iron, but it's easier if you iron. Then, I figured feeding the elastic all the way through would be a pain in the ass, so I tucked it up in there like this:

All the way around. And pinned it there. I didn't cut it off and left the rest of the elastic to dangle while I sewed the casing shut. I had previously measured the kid's waist (about 20 inches I think?). So once the casing was sewn I fixed the end of the elastic inside and pulled my long end to the appropriate waist measurement. I cut it a bit long on purpose:

So I can let it out later. You could also use a button and the elastic with the holes in it to achieve and adjustable waist if you wanted to be really fancy. I just sewed the elastic in and tucked the excess in beside it. Clear as mud, right? More experienced (or brave) sewers could also sew the elastic right onto the fabric, but that scares me.

You *could* be done here and you'd just have a pair of shorts:

Because you used the hemmed edge of the the sheet for the bottoms of the legs:


But if you didn't use the hemmed edge of the sheet, or you want elastic legs like me, you can sew casings with elastics inside just like the waist and get proper panties ("bloomers").


And that's it! Here's the finished outfit (unless I decide to try a hat, too)


On the live model:


Question for more experienced sewers... I realize I probably made a bunch of rookie mistakes, or gave myself unnecessary work. But what could I have done differently to make the crotch more reinforced? And how can I improve the rise - make it taller, or deeper? Or both?