Comox Trunks

Before 2017 comes to a close, here's the only other Christmas present that I made this year - undies for Ben!  Now, you know I love sewing undies for the kids and for myself, so Ben's been complaining for years that he doesn't have any.  Fortunately, Thread Theory filled a gap in the sewing community by introducing great men's patterns and a couple years ago they released the Comox Trunks.  They also created a sew-a-long with some extra tips and tricks, like how to remove the front "hole" if your partner doesn't use that "exit."

I did some secretive/not-so-secretive measuring of Ben and opted to sew a straight size 30.  It would have been nice to sew one version, seek feedback, and then make necessary alterations to subsequent pairs, but these were a surprise gift so I  had to take a leap of faith in hoping that these were going to fit okay.

Fortunately, the fit seems to be pretty good, although after wearing them for a couple days he did mention that he would prefer the inseam to be about an inch or so longer.  For the record, these are pretty short so that may be something to consider when making them for that special person in your life (or for yourself).

Most of the fabrics are Pickering International knits that I purchased from Fancy Tiger Crafts.  They're definitely not the most affordable knits, but I have loved every Pickering Knit that I've ever used and they're perfect for some undies.  The elastic is from a random Etsy store based out of China.  It's a bit of a crap shoot when buying elastics without being able to  handle them, but fortunately 3/4 of them were perfect for the project (one ended up too stiff to use and the rainbow elastic had some issues when I sewed it on).  I particularly love the black and white striped elastic and I wish I had bought a couple more yards of it.

As for the construction, I made the first version with the "exit" hole, but removed it for the following 3 pairs (which makes the undies even faster to construct).  Using what I learned from making the kid's undies, I also opted to add zig-zag stitching over every sewn seam.  This has made the kid's undies hold up really well over the years and I'm hoping that it'll work wonders for Ben's undies as well.  I also used this tutorial to hide the seams when inserting the bottom gusset and it makes for a more professional (and probably more comfortable) finish.

Now we'll all be wearing homemade undies in 2018!