Grab a Make Away from The Makery

When The Makery - home of amazing craft workshops and lush habdash in the city of Bath - contacted me and asked if I would like to try one of their fab Make Away kits I jumped at the chance!

Packaged in cute take away style cartons - those lovely cardboard ones you see on American sitcoms not the utilitarian plastic boxes and foil trays we get over here, I hasten to add - The Makery Make-Aways cater for all ability levels and feature lovelies like bunting, sock monkeys and an adorable fox pillow. After announcing to the world (via Facebook) recently that I wanted to make my own knickers naturally I HAD to pick the lovely polka dot knickers kit!

Look! Red and white polka dots!
It's like they KNOW me...

The kit comes with everything you need to make a pair of basic knickers in one of three sizes - Small (approx size 8-10) Medium (12-14) and Large (16-18) including more than enough fabric, knicker elastic and full size paper pattern.


The instructions are really easy to follow and even tell you when to add optional extras like lace and ribbon trim and I managed to whip up my first pair of knickers in about an hour.


Anyone who has basic sewing machine knowledge will be able to make this kit up - the only tricky part was keeping the elastic stretched as I stitched it into place but even that was fairly simple as long as I kept it slow and steady.

wanna see my pants?

I finished off my red and white polka dot pair with a little ribbon bow - made from red and white narrow stitched ribbon from my Jane Means Ribbon stash.

I am utterly blown away by my handmade knickers. They may not be the neatest stitched item (I'm certain they wouldn't pass muster if Patrick and May were judging them!) but they fit beautifully and are very comfortable to wear too.

One you have made one pair I promise you will be hooked - I have already researched buying further knicker elastic and found it very cheap and easily available on Ebay.  I cannot wait to make some more in different colours and experiment with trimmings.

Sorry M&S - as much as I love your underwear I think you may have lost a customer!

Make Away Kits by The Makery cost £15 each and can be bought online or from their beautiful store, The Maker Emporium, in Bath.

*disclosure - The Makery sent me the Make your own Knickers Make Away kit to try but no other payment was received for this post. All words and pictures are my own.