Undies for all the family - Free patterns

I don't usually post my handmade undies, but I have recently used two excellent free patterns and I had to share the love. 

Joost de Cock boxer briefs line drawing

The first pattern was for men's boxers. This is a really comfortable and well thought out pattern by Joost de Cock. Not only is it free, but the pattern is custom made to your guy's measurements so it fits perfectly. There are several other patterns too. Joost's custom pattern website is amazing and must have been an incredible amount of work. If you like it do consider donating to buy him a coffee or two and say thanks!

I started with a pair of boxers for my husband. I created a profile for him on Joost's website and put in the necessary measurements. The resulting pattern was very quick to tape together and it took only about five minutes to whizz up the seams on the overlocker. Before adding the elastic and finishing the hems, I decided to have a play with my coverstitch machine. I was experimenting so don't look too closely!

As soon as I showed these to my husband, he excitedly put them on. The fit was perfect and much prancing and strutting ensued (him, not me). I will spare you any pictures of that and show you the boxers with an assortment of fruit to give an idea of fit (sorry!). These have a double line of two-needle coverstitching on the seams.

Spurred on by my success I decided to have a go at making more boxers for my teen and pre-teen sons. I wasn't sure that the custom pattern would go small enough for their slim sizes, but it did. As before I used cotton lycra with two way stretch. This time I used slightly different coverstitching.

Again the fit was perfect. I was really pleased about this as I have been making boxers for my sons for years (they refuse to wear anything else) and grading up my simple, self drafted pattern as they grew. It had just about got to the stage where the fit was no longer quite right and a new approach was needed, so this came just in time.

The only part I altered here was to curve the tip of the front dart slightly so it wasn't quite so pointy. However, I have just noticed while writing this that Joost coverstitches this seam as well right up to the waistband, which would smooth off this area.

Here is the back:

So there we are, perfectly fitting boxers for all the men and boys - fantastic!

But wait, there's more! Not content with being the only member of the household without a sporty pair of blue underwear, I whizzed myself up a pair of knickers using the free Noelle pattern by Madalynne. These are very high waisted so I took 3cm off the top. I also sized down one size from that indicated by my measurements. The result - perfectly fitting and super-comfortable. I love these.

Let the undies party commence!

Cravat for Matt

Ahoy Masterchef fans! I know this is slightly out of date but I just came across some photos of my entry for the 'Make a cravat for Matt' Aussie Masterchef competition last year. This was to be a cravat for the ever colourful Masterchef judge Matt Preston, who always wears a cravat (necktie thingy). Here he is:

So, I thought I would enter. The cravat had to be made from Handee Ultra paper towel as they were sponsoring the competition. I decided to make a huge flower and dye it with food colouring.

I dyed the tie part with watered down food colouring and decorated it with Masterchef logos, which I had photoshopped on to a background in the same pink colour. I dyed the flower with darker pink colouring and used more concentrated dye on the tips  to define them. I then sewed a knife, fork and spoon from the paper towel and dyed them green to make the 'leaf'. It was good fun to do and I really liked the way it turned out. I was hoping that there wouldn't be too many people interested in creating something elaborate for the competition and I might be in with a chance of winning. This was sadly not to be - there were loads of entries and some were absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed looking at the website to see the new ones that were being added all the time. It seems that there are a lot more people out there who sew and craft than I thought. This makes me happy as I worried for years that we were a dying breed and eventually the fabric shops would all close down, as many did in Perth. But now, the trend seems to be reversing and there some lovely fabric shops around. Yay!