Sew Over It Knicker Kit from White Tree Fabrics

Recently I was very pleased to be invited to join the Blog Team at WhiteTree Fabrics. I was asked to choose a project to have a go with, and as I'm still quite a beginner when it comes to sewing I decided to choose a kit. After much deliberation I chose the Sew Over It - Knicker Kit (£12.50), because I thought that it looked like quite a quick and simple project.

The kit contains everything that you need to make your own knickers - a pattern, fabric, elastic, cotton and full instructions. You do also need a sewing machine to sew up the kit. I've never made anything using a sewing pattern before so it was great to have something simple to start with.

I managed to cut out the pieces successfully - I wasn't sure what size to make so I went with Medium and they were just right (I'm a dress size 10-12 on the bottom). There is quite a bit of leeway though in the sizing I should think, as long as you measure the elastic correctly when you come to finish them.

Cutting out the pieces was the easy part! It took me a few read throughs of the instructions before I felt confident to begin sewing the pieces together, but I made sure that I wasn't disturbed and I took it slowly, and I was really pleased with myself when I was able to assemble the bits into something that resembled a massive pair of knickers! Sewing in the crotch lining was a little tricky and it took me a while to get my head around it as you needed to kind of twist it, but the instructions did make sense and if you had a little more experience in following a sewing pattern I don't think it would cause any trouble.

The next part called for a zig zag stitch on the sewing machine to go all the way around the edges. I struggled with this a little bit as my sewing machine kept rolling up the fabric, even when I managed to change the foot to the special zig zag foot. So at this point I called in reinforcement and asked my Mum, very experienced with a sewing machine, to come and give me a hand. She was much speedier and more confident than me and she managed it without any trouble.

The last step is to sew in the elastic, again with the zig zag stitch. The instructions were clear but it was helpful to have my Mum there to show me how to stretch the elastic and keep the fabric taut while guiding it through the machine. Although I would have managed by myself, I'm not sure that they would have turned out so well!

I'm very pleased with my frilly knickers! They fit well and they are very comfortable. It's a great little kit, very quick to make up if you know what you are doing, so probably best suited to someone with a little sewing experience. You could also reuse the pattern to make yourself a whole drawer full of knickers!

I received the knicker kit in exchange for this review.