Doctor T Designs

This post has probably been more than a year in the making, and at another time would have been scattered over several posts. But I’m trying to get as much from my draft queue posted by the end of the year as I can, so today we are getting one epic blog post all about sewing men’s underwear. If you plan to stick around for such a thing you may need cookies; consider yourself warned.

I have found that once you start sewing your own underwear, you start hearing about all the issues other people have with their underwear too. And then you starting thinking you can fix those things, because you have the skills and the technology (aka, patterns) to do so. So it was that I found myself trying to fix my boyfriend’s underwear problem, and went down the rabbit hole of men’s underwear sewing.

There both are and aren’t a lot of men’s underwear patterns on the market. I say there are, because I was able to find several different versions and a few different styles from a handful of brands, but I would also say there aren’t because there certainly aren’t as many patterns for men’s styles underwear as there are for women’s style underwear, and many of the designs are quite similar. Jalie has several options, as does Pin-up Girls patterns, plus a few other indie brands that I found. I decided to stick with Jalie (since I already had a few patterns in my stash) and Pin-up Girls, because I though it had interesting design lines and feature options were fairly unique in this pattern and was worth buying for this experiment. The fact that I had access to several Bra Bee sew alongs for these patterns at the time I embarked on this quest, as well as a smattering of positive reviews on Pattern Review and it seemed like I was starting off with some solid options.

The main issue I needed to solve for this particular sewing endeavor was that most commercially available options with the correct fit in the waist and hip circumference were typically much too long in the vertical waist and leg lengths. So I was altering the patterns mostly in the vertical lengths, but not too much in the other dimensions.

For the Jalie 3242 pattern, there are several styles for both men and women, and it ranges from child sizes all the way up to adult.

I did alter the pattern slightly to add a front access opening, which is not part of the main pattern. But it’s pretty straightforward to do so. I also tested using my coverstitch for a lot of the finishing, but I didn’t love how it looked. It also got a thumbs down for being a bit scratchy with that kind of finish, and for being a bit tight where all of the seams come together. I think I could have gotten this pattern to work with a bit of consideration for how to add an additional gusset in the inner thigh area, but since I had the Pin-up Girls pattern, I decided to try my luck there instead.

The Pin-up Girls Men’s Underwear v.2 pattern comes with two styles: the Michael and the Lillebror. I tried one of each for an initial fit test and to try different finishings.

One thing that’s interesting about this pattern is that it comes with optional inner slings to add support to the front. I tried adding those in one version, but they also got a thumbs down for feeling weird. It is apparently a feature of a lot of European underwear designs, but it’s also apparently quite controversial; I think it’s an either you love them or you hate them kind of situation, but it seems there’s no in between. But since they got vetoed that’s one less thing to cut, sew, and finish for me, so I’m not complaining. And even though the pattern includes different pattern pieces for the left and right front openings, you really only need to cut one piece mirrored, so I’m down from seven pieces to three to make this. I consider that winning.

Here is my first sample of the Michael:

And of the Lillebror:

And here is what the internal slings look like:

I tried to get a sense of which of these styles was preferred, but there didn’t seem to be a strong preference, so I decided to focus on the Michael moving forward since the back seams provide a bit more shaping where I think it is probably more needed. Regardless of which of the PUG pattern variations was used, there is a bit more fabric between the leg openings, which seemed to be the major difference in terms of the comfort and fit. I will say that the Pin-up Girls patterns seem to be drafted for quite tall people, so I had to cut off quite a bit of length from the pattern, but I think it ultimately ended up being a decent fit. With the minor feedback and tweaks, I decided to push forward for a quasi-final version, where I lined only the frontmost opening piece with powernet, rather than having fully internal slings for added support.

This version was given the go ahead, so now I can turn to cranking these out. Now that I’ve made it a few times, it’s really fast! And unlike for me, where I want to try every pattern just to experiment, for my boyfriend I think I’ll be happy to stick to the two varieties of the Pin-up Girls patterns and just have fun with different fabrics.

Here are my official pattern reviews for the two patterns:

Pattern Review: Jalie 3242

Pattern Description: A multi-view underwear patterns with options for both men and women, from children’s sizes up to adult. Views A and B are Women’s/Girl’s bikini options, View C is a Women’s lace-waist string, View D is a Men’s/Boys’ low-waist briefs, View E is a Men’s/Boy’s low-waist trunks, and View F is a Men’s jockstrap. I made View E, the Men’s Trunks.

Pattern Sizing: This pattern includes Jalie’s sizes D-FF. This means the girl’s/women’s sizes range from 20” to 53” on the hips, and the boy’s/men’s sizes range from 20” to 51” on the hips. I used a combination of the W and X sizes as a starting point.

Were the instructions easy to follow?  Yes, the instructions were fairly straightforward.

Did it look like the photo/drawing when you were done with it?  Yes, overall it looked like the images, though I made a few modifications to allow for a front opening.

What did you particularly like/dislike about the pattern?  I really like that this pattern includes a lot of options in a lot of sizes. If you needed to sew for a whole family it’s a really economical pattern purchase. It’s also hard to find men’s undergarment patterns, so it’s nice to have a lot of options in one pattern. Unfortunately, this pattern was not deemed the most comfortable by the person I made these for because the way the legs and crotch are constructed are a bit tight and ride up. I’m guessing I would need to size up if I were to make this pattern again.

Fabric used: A mystery jersey knit (maybe a blend, but probably polyester). Since this was a fit sample I wasn’t too fussy about the fabric choice.

Pattern alterations or design changes you made:  I made a double layer of the front piece, and cut shaped openings to allow front access. Otherwise I made these straight from the pattern.

Would you sew this again?  Would you recommend it to others?  This pattern got vetoed as being a bit tight and uncomfortable. I was testing out a few different patterns, and the Pin-up Girls Men’s Underwear Michael and Lillebror patterns both received a thumbs up, so I’m just going to move forward with those instead. I may not sew it again, but I do think it’s a nice pattern with lots of options, so I would recommend it, though perhaps with the caveat to plan to do some fit testing and perhaps to size up, at least for View E.

Conclusion:  Overall this pattern didn’t really work out based on the size I picked from measurements, though I suspect it would have been ok if I had sized up a bit and made a few more fit samples to really tweak it for a more comfortable fit. One of the hard things about sewing for other people is having to interpret what they don’t like about a garment and how to adjust that. And since I found another pattern that was preferred to this one I have abandoned it after the first go. I may come back to this pattern to try some of the other views in the future, but for now I’ve moved on to using other patterns that had a more favorable first fitting.

Pattern Review: Pin-up Girls Men’s Underwear V.2

Pattern Description: Men’s underwear pattern in two styles with options for front openings and internal slings. From the designer: “The first Pin-up Girls Mens Underwear Pattern uses both classic American and modern European styling in its design. Lillebror features a solid fabric back with forward side seams and a shapely front, while Michael has the detailing in the back seam and a traditional front panel. Both views feature over-the-top access and an optional support sling – inspired from very expensive ready-to-wear. The leg length can be used as is or shortened to your own preferred length.”

Pattern Sizing: The pattern is available for waist sizes 30” – 44”. I used the size for the 32 inch waist.

Were the instructions easy to follow?  Yes, the instructions are pretty straightforward. I feel like the majority are about how to construct the internal slings, and the rest of the pattern goes together really quickly. I also think the pattern focuses on constructing the fully enclosed front, but switching to the view with the openings isn’t too hard as long as you remember to face the opening curves opposite directions so that the overall effect is the same as being fully enclosed.

Did it look like the photo/drawing when you were done with it?  Yes, it looked a lot like the line drawing.

What did you particularly like/dislike about the pattern?  I really like the multiple options for the views, openings, and slings. It helped to have a lot of styles to try to be able to work out the preferred pattern. I also like that there is an option for having the main seams be on the back or towards the front, as I feel like these help create more curvature through the upper thigh area, which is really helpful if you are sewing for someone with an athletic build. My only dislike is that the pattern includes a lot of left/right pieces when you really just need one piece cut mirrored. Perhaps I was just misinterpreting how things should go together, but essentially I traced off about 7 pattern pieces per view, and since my boyfriend wanted to ditch the slings I’m down to only really needing 3 pattern pieces per style.

Fabric used: The first fit versions were made from a mystery (probably poly) jersey fabric, but once the fit got a thumbs up I moved on to sewing with modal knit. I used power net for the internal slights and support lining.

Pattern alterations or design changes you made:  The person I was sewing for has complained that commercial undergarments are often too long (both in the leg inseam and the hip to waist lengths) when they fit correctly around the body, or they are too constricting when they fit the correct length. So I removed all of the length under the bottom shorten line, and used the top shorten line as a marker for elastic placement, which effectively also shortens the top. Once I adjusted the length, the fit was really good with no other modifications. In terms of the style, I haven’t made the option with the entirely enclosed front because the preference was for the access opening. I tried the internal slings in the first few fit versions, but those were vetoed as feeling a bit weird making everything unnecessarily complicated. In the second version I omitted the slings entirely and I lined just the front-most panel in power net for support, but kept the inner layer just the main fabric for comfort. I also use fold over elastic to finish the opening edge because it’s easier than doing a folded fabric finish, and I’m too lazy to be bothered making that sort of effort when the FOE looks cleaner anyway.

Would you sew this again?  Would you recommend it to others?  Yes, since this pattern has gotten the thumbs up, I’ll be sewing more of this pattern for my boyfriend. His not wanting the internal slings just makes it that much easier for me, and now that I’ve got the pattern worked out I can whip these up pretty quick. I think this is a great pattern and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to sew men’s undergarments.

Conclusion:  I think this is a fantastic pattern and has a surprising amount of options for having just two styles included. I also think it has a lot more shaping than many of the other men’s patterns I’ve looked at, which is really nice. I expect I’ll be sewing quite a few more of these in the future.

I’ve got some materials set aside to make some more of these, so don’t be surprised if they pop up on the blog. In the meantime, I’ve got other things to work on, so hopefully more posting soon!