Last month, I showed you the
uncensored awesomeness of my husband rocking the boxer shorts I made for him as part of Shorts on the Line. Instead of reviewing a store bought pattern, I made my own from an existing pair of boxers.
I decided for this project that I would try my hand at making a pattern from an existing pair of my husband's boxers. They're his favorites and they don't make this fit anymore. Plus, it would kill two birds with one stone because I'd make a pair for him, but then I could steal them too!
Tools needed:
Pencil (and eraser)
Ruler
Straight pins
Large pieces of paper (sturdy is good)
Well loved boxer shorts
For those of you that have never sewn a pair of pants with a fly from a pattern before, this may be a difficult thing to do, since you want to under stand how a fly is assembled. Then again, if you wanted, you could just make a pair for yourself and nix the fly all together since you wouldn't need a functioning fly.
Start with a well pressed pair of shorts. You will need to make a tracing of each piece of the shorts then extend each side to allow for seam allowances, hems and the waist band. Pin your shorts directly to your paper. I like to do this to get the most exact tracing possible. Pin along each edge and in the middle too. Do not try to pin the elastic waist band out straight or it will scruntch up your paper. Some pattern pieces may require you to trace one edge, then unpin and roll the shorts to lay the other seamed edge flat. The back pattern piece of my shorts needed this done in order to extend the piece through the crotch as you can see below.
Boxer short have french seams on their insides so they lay nice and flat. Measure the width of an inside seam and multiple it by two. This will be your the seam allowance you will need to add to your traced pattern pieces. Measure the hem height and double that for the amount to add to the bottom edge of your pattern pieces. Boxer short waist elastics are 1 1/4" wide, so you will need to add 3" to the top of your traced pattern. (1 1/4" x 2, plus 1/2")
Trace your back and front pattern pieces then use a straight edge or quilting ruler to extend each seam the correct amounts.
Fold your boxers so you can pin the curved fly piece flat to your paper. Trace the curve of the fly and measure the width so that you can draw the straight side of it once you un-pin your shorts.
Extend that tracing by your seam allowance measurement on the left, bottom and right sides and by your waistband measurement on the top. To create the second fly piece, use your ruler to draw a rectangle that is twice as wide as the first piece and 3/8" longer. Mark a dotted line down the center of the pattern piece so that you can cut it out on the fold of fabric.
Cut out your four paper pattern pieces and pin them to your fabric to cut. You need 2 fronts, 2 backs and 1 of each fly pattern pieces. I choose to use Alexander Henry's Los Novios fabric. It is a quilt weight cotton fabric with a nice hand. Pick a fabric that feels nice since it will be against bare tush. You will need about 1.5 yards of fabric to make a men's size large boxer shorts.
