Making Ultra-Cute Kids' Underwear

Kids are gross.  Seriously, think about it.  If your dog did some of the stuff your kids do, it would be kicked out the door to never set another paw in the house.  We expect more out of our dogs than out of our kids.  Thankfully, my dog, Darby, is a good, clean, even prissy boy who doesn't even get his paws muddy when it rains.  I LOVE my sweet boy!

Which brings me to potty training.  Little Love #5 does NOT like a dirty diaper.  As soon as she's messed it, she'll come up to you patting her bottom to let you know that she's a mess and needs to be changed.  If you don't jump up and change her immediately, she'll further press her point by reaching into her diaper and pulling out a handful to show you.  Sometimes it has corn in it.  Or raisins.

The other day she decided to forego the dirty diaper feeling completely.  She was in a disposable (I typically use cloth), so she just took it off and pooped on the floor.

So I've been thinking about potty training a LOT.  I've potty-trained all of my kids at 2 years old.  How many months after two has varied with each of them, and some have been easy-breezy, and my last one was horrible.  But even so, two years old has always worked for us.

#5 will be 2 in November.  I'll probably try to potty train her right away after that, which brings us to underwear.

Latex-free underwear is hard to come by.  And at $15+ a pop, it's simply not practical for a 2-year-old potty-trainer.  So I started looking around online for a pattern or tutorial to make underwear for her.  I then happened upon Little Fishies Undies by Fishsticks Designs.  I had never seen anything cuter than these!  So I purchased the pattern.

I'm not typically a pattern person.  I usually prefer to have a general idea of what I want to do--or a good tutorial--and then I just go with it.  But this is one of the simplest patterns ever, and the instructions are excellent.  It literally takes mere minutes to sew them up once everything is cut out and ready to go.  And I don't have a fancy serger or anything (though I really, really want one!).  I just used a zig zag stitch on my very basic machine.  I love how they turned out.

I tried them on her this morning, and they're great!  She looks adorable, and she had fun wearing them.  She keeps bringing them back to me, wanting me to put them back on her (and throwing a fit when I don't), so they must be comfy, too!

I plan to get a bunch more cut out today and then sew them up as I get the opportunity (nap times, bed time...).  They're thick enough to be great for potty training, thin enough to be great for everyday wear.  They feel nice and durable.  I used 100% cotton interlock.

And the best part is the pattern comes with sizes 2-12, so we're set for a long time!  Thank you Fishsticks Designs!!