Chopping up outgrown babygros to make big girl’s pants was a practical solution (good quality printed jersey is very hard to find and usually expensive) and a cathartic farewell to babyhood and nappies. Plus it was a perfect project for this season’s Kid’s Clothes Week Upcycling challenge.
From this:
To this:
I also got a bit carried away and made matching vest and knickers sets for both girls.
But how thrifty is making knickers out of old clothes? Well the self-drafted pattern and repurposed fabric were free, but the elastic worked out at about 10p a pair. In cost of materials I just about beat Primark/George/Tesco prices but if I factor in a cost for my time: 1 pair of knickers = about 15 minutes, even if I paid myself minimum wage I can’t compete with 7 pairs for £3. This leads me to two questions.
1) Why would I bother making knickers for my children?
2) How can Primark/George/Tesco/etc possibly produce knickers so cheaply?
If like me, you’ve got at least three answers for question 1 and none (or none that you like) for question 2, I’ve drawn up a pattern for the pants/knickers which you can download. The pattern is sized to fit approx 2-3yrs and is for low leg, medium-high rise knickers/pants.
You can download the pattern here: Knicker pattern
After cutting out the pattern pieces I assembled as follows:
Made by Toya 
Ahh you’re amazing!! I would make them to upcycle the babygrows that would otherwise have gone to waste. Shame I only have a couple that could be upcycled. I gave my daughter’s old ones away 😦 Where do you get your elastic from?
Simply Fabrics – in Brixton. I love my local fabric shop. I gave most of them away too – but kept a few with prints I really liked.
Hmm I’m not sure about travelling an hour and a half for it but I do love the colours!
I know – that yellow is my favourite
Beth has taken every word out of my mouth. Yep, you are amazing. Love what you did. Yes I want to do that too, but don’t have many babygrows left. And WHERE DID YOU GET THAT ELASTIC FROM?
Simply Fabrics – You’re going to have to plan a trip to Brixton.
I certainly will. I’ve never seen elastic like that in the shops before. But then again I’ve never looked.
I have many answers to question 1 and sadly only this answer to question 2: http://www.aftenposten.no/webtv/SWEATSHOP-ep-1—How-many-will-die-here-every-year-7800843.html?mostSeen=true
go and watch these videos where some norwegian fashion bloggers visit sweatshops in Cambodia. makes you wanna cry and stop buying RTW…
I was thinking of this video and many others like it when I made that comment, but do not feel nearly eloquent/knowledgable enough to tackle that subject in a post, particularly shoehorning it in to a post about something as trivial as knickers.
Love this post! I never thought in reuse my daughter’s baby clothes for make her some nickers, I gave them all away…But I’m going to download your pattern and make some. Great idea.
Reblogged this on Witch Crafts and commented:
I’ve found that onesies are hard to resell because they’re often a bit stained at the neckline. They always ended up in our rag stash. This is such a good reuse idea.
I have tried to upcycle outgrown shirts of my daughter into briefs, but I skipped the elastic. I might try your pattern too. here’s mine in case you’re curious to see:
http://houseofestrela.blogspot.pt/2015/01/refashioned-girl-briefs-take-1.html
They are very cute – especially with the contrast waistband.
Wow, that’s amazing! ♡
🙌 they look awesome have you seen any good patterns for ladies knickers I’m thinking reuse old t-shirts to make knickers
Thanks- I know Megan Nielsen patterns have a free knickers pattern (although I haven’t tried it myself). My current favourite pattern is the knickers that come with the Watson bra (cloth habit) although I add an inch in height.