I am a bit obsessed at the moment with making knickers, ever since I realised how easy they are to make!

It only takes a fat quarter of fabric and less than a meter of knicker elastic. First of all you need to make a pattern, I used an old pair of knickers that I took apart, I have included some measurements on my pattern pieces so that you can work out a pattern for yourself.The back for a medium size pair of knickers D – C (across the top) is 60cm F – E (Top to bottom) is 24cm

The front C – D (across the top) is 50cm G – E (top to bottom) is 30cm E (at the crotch) is 9cm

You need to place the pattern pieces at an angle across the fabric (against the gradient) so that it is slightly stretchy, any medium weight cotton fabric will be good, or even silk!

You will also need a gusset piece, for this a piece of t-shirt fabric is good.

Place right sides facing with edges E together and place gusset with a slight overlap, sew across

then fold the overlap under and sew across again

Pin the other end of the gusset in place but do not sew, using a zig zag stitch machine all the way around the edges of the knickers,

Sewing the elastic on is a little bit tricky, you have to pull it towards you as you sew to give it tension. The elastic is sewn on with a zig zag stitch (use the same colour thread as the elastic for a neater finish) it is sewn on to the right side of the fabric with the frill at the top sitting slightly over the edge. As you pull the elastic help the fabric to feed by holding it at the back of the machine.

Do the top and bottom edges, then do the leg edges. When that is done place the sides together and stitch.

I added a little bow at the front to finish off

And here is another couple of pair’s that I made this time I made the bows using a piece of ribbon