Underpants!

The Caveman is now officially a potty animal! I couldn't be more thrilled to rid my home of percolating cloth diaper smell and celebrate the triumph of my little boy.  

On a bright Saturday morning a few weeks ago, the Caveman approached me in the early morning hours with an old pink pair of training panties once belonging to the Dreamer clutched in his fist. He begged to wear them and is still using the potty today! Success! 

There existed only one problem--nighttime underpants.  Now that he, the Caveman, was used to feeling like a big shot, he began to complain and outright refuse to wear a diaper by night; but a twelve hour sleeping episode is something that calls for some type of absorbancy reinforcement for a novice potty person, thus, "nighttime unders" were created! 

The Caveman is opposed to the pull-up style disposable and to his cloth diapers of old. This presented a problem for me because the cost of one pair of the ideal underwear creature--a pocket style waterproof elastic waist underpant on amazon.com, was exorbitant (in my opinion).  After consulting with some sewers, I decided to create my own pattern using that original pair of pink training panties as my guide. 

I created my pattern by tracing the panties onto a brown paper bag. I made the pieces a bit wider and longer to allow for seams. 

 

In all I created 2 pattern templates. A soaker and a side. 

I bought 1 yd cotton knit fabric, 1 yd PUL fabric, and boutique elastic all for the same EXACT price as one of those ideal underpants I mentioned. My purchases were enough to sew 6 pairs! 

For the soaker, I cut 2 pieces of knit and  1 piece of PUL 

I cut out 2 side pieces

Using a serger, I first attached the outer soaker piece to the PUL piece.  

I next sewed the sides onto one end of the soaker piece with the seam facing in

To attach the inside knit soaker piece and form the pocket I sewed the knit onto the seam from the attachment of the sides so that this seam would be inside the pocket of the finished pants. I folded down the knit one half inch from the top. 

 

Folded end

 I then sewed the other end sides onto the other side of the soaker and attached the knit pocket layer inside out. 

The last step was to attach the elastic. I measured by wrapping elastic around the Caveman's legs and waist and attached by stretching as I serged making certain to leave the folded down side of the soaker open at the waistband. We are thrilled with the results! Fully operational underwear that can accommodate our old cloth diaper inserts! 

Diaper insert pocket

Inside out