How to Sew Girl's Undies from a Boy's Pattern {pattern hack!}

Let’s talk undies! Does your little girl love those ‘boy shorts’ underwear? My almost-6 year old does. And I really don’t mind her wearing them since they are actually more modest (and they look more comfortable) than the skimpier variety. I’ve been so excited to make her some new underwear, but no matter how many different ways I searched ‘boy short underwear for girls’ I could not find a single pattern. Am I crazy? And believe me, I wish I could ‘unsee’ some of the things my searches brought up, lol.

I finally gave up on my search and decided to alter my favorite little boy’s underwear pattern, the Undercover Bottoms Boxer Briefs from Fishsticks Designs. I’ve made about 10 from the pattern unaltered for my boys, and here they are for Cadie!

This is my ‘pattern hack’:

Making the size 6, I cut 1” off of the leg pattern piece. Then I followed the pattern, sewing the version with no opening in the front since it’s for a girl. There is also an version that looks just like boxer briefs, but I’ll leave that for the boys.

Since she also prefers low-waist elastic to a high-waist band, I skipped the fabric band that the pattern specifies. I cut a piece of elastic 1” smaller than her waist, zig zagged the ends together to make a loop, and marked it into quarters.

I also marked the top of the undies into quarters. Then I sewed the elastic to the top inside edge of the underwear, stretching the elastic to fit and using the quarter marks as a guide.

Last step, I folded the elastic edge under, moved to my coverstitch machine and stitched it down. Of course, you could also sew this with a double needle or zig zag stitch on your regular sewing machine.

I also chose to do a coverstitch hem on the legs instead of fabric bands. See my professional double needle hem tutorial if you want a very close substitute with a regular machine.

And judging from the laundry I keep picking up from her bedroom floor, these are her new go-to undies! That makes me happy.

So, what have you been sewing up this week? Did you make something with one of my free sewing tutorials or patterns? I would love to see! Tag me on Instagram @sewcanshe.

Happy Sewing,

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Disclosure: some of my posts contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of those links I may receive a small commission, so thank you for supporting SewCanShe when you shop! All of the opinions are my own and I only suggest products that I actually use. 🙂