This was my last hurrah in the repurpose, reuse, refashion month – I took 3 t-shirts and made 4 pairs of undies.

While having an idle wander around the internet I came across this free pattern from indigorchid and thought I’d give it a go. I started with this t-shirt which Bridgette had thrown out and I’d retrieved and, given that it was 100% cotton and just big enough, I thought it would make a perfect candidate for testing the undies pattern.

and here are the resultant undies. I used picot elastic from my mother’s stash and they are very comfy, so I immediately set about making more.

Number two undies came from the leftovers from my ruched dress. Here you can see I was testing one of the pattern pieces on the sleeve.

For these undies I modified the indigorchid pattern and wanted to test it. Instead of having a side seam, I have inserted a panel. I did this because the t-shirt for my next refashion was too small to fit the whole width of the pattern. I also decided to test the elasticator in my new overlocker, but I really need to turn the elastic over and finish it off nicely.

Versions three and four came from the same t-shirt. This was a Paul Franke t-shirt that I bought for 50c in an op shop for the daughter of a friend who was a real fan. For some reason I didn’t hand the t-shirt over, and the moment passed. In fact, said daughter is now in her 20s, so this t-shirt kicked around in my house for years while I considered what to do with it. I couldn’t bear to throw it out because the cotton knit was really soft and of very high quality, and it was made in England – how often do you see that? 

Unfortunately, the over printing was slightly age inappropriate for me – this is the front

and this is the back.

I felt that the t-shirt was ripe for a refashion and it screamed undies at me. The back became one pair

and the front another. In the end I didn’t use my modified pattern, and included a bit of the sleeves in the front and back. If you look carefully at the right hand side of the photo above you can see this.

I used fold over elastic that I had bought in Singapore and these undies are the most comfortable that I own. I just hope I don’t fall over or get rushed to hospital when I’m wearing them 😉

My review of the indigorchid pattern:

This pattern is free on the indigorchid website and consists of three pattern pieces. I really like the shape and size of these undies. I was a bit concerned that they would be cut too low for me, but they are perfect and pass the “wedgie” test when I wear them on a vigorous power walk.

If they were cut too low it would be simple to make the sides a little deeper. The leg size is just right and cover me well.

I didn’t inflict a photo of me wearing them on you all, but Mark did offer to take photos. Be grateful that I declined!