Simplicity 9958 Review

Reviews

My son loves the boxers I make for him. I use Simplicity 9958, and I think the fact that I use a serger makes it much faster.

I serge all raw edges, and hem the bottom. I sew the entire front seam right sides together, but use basting stitches at the fly opening area. I press this seam flat, then open out the larger parts wrong side up so the fly pieces are on top. I press both fly pieces towards the garment's left. I cut off the excess fly pieces from the top to about 2" down. This reduces bulk at the waist where the elastic is applied.

I lay a piece of fusible thread between the fly outer edge and the front, and press lightly to hold. I fold the top fly layer back about 1/4" to 3/8". I press this lightly to hold and let it cool. I lay a length of fusible thread inside the narrow turned edge, press firmly, and let that cool.

From the right side of the narrower, turned-under fly layer, I topstitch near the folded edge. I return the garment assembly to its pressed position. I lay it out with wrong side up and pin whatever's still loose.

I start from the top on the inside by stitching the outer edge of the entire fly assembly onto the left front. The beginning stitching goes through the front piece and only one fly layer. I stitch all the way down, onto the other fly layer, and follow around the curve to the front seam. To continue this stitching, I turn towards the top and stitch next to the front seam until about even with the top of the curve. I make a 90-degree turn to stitch horizontally across the fly assembly towards the top of the curve, and backstitch there.

I stitch the back seam right sides together, then I sew the inseams right sides together.

I turn under the casing at the waist, pin, and stitch most of the casing down. I insert elastic, stitch the ends of the elastic together and trim. I finish by stitching the casing closed.

If I didn't have a serger, I would stitch a 3-step zigzag stitch along all the raw edges and steam press all seams to one side.