My dad's birthday is coming up soon and I want to sew him something original that is also a new sewing challenge for me. So I chose to sew him comfortable jersey underwear because I had not yet made men's underwear. I chose the Jacques pattern from Atelier Guillemette because the finishes are top-notch (especially the casing seam on the front, we'll come back to that later 😊 and I'll explain why it's important)! I invite you to discover my sewing experience of my first test boxer; and to make your own men's underwear, a quick and easy sew; even allowing you to recycle jersey scraps. Let's go!

Let's talk about the Jacques pattern 

The Jacques pattern is a classic men's boxer, fairly tight for discretion under pants. It is well designed because the front is sewn as a casing, meaning the seams of the front piece of the underwear are enclosed inside the fabric layers. They do not come into contact with the delicate skin; they do not irritate or scratch the gentlemen's "family jewels." This sewing technique is therefore very useful for comfort.

Jacques is available from S to XXL, which corresponds to a hip circumference between 80cm and 105cm. This measurement should be taken at the iliac bones (hips), which corresponds to the upper part of the boxer.

Jacques is available on the Atelier Guillemette website for €14.9 as a printed pattern and for €9.9 in PDF format. 

It is rated as beginner level 1/4 by Atelier Guillemette. So it could be the first piece to make in knit fabric if you have never tried it before. However, I recommend doing some tests to try sewing jersey before starting to sew Jacques because there are still some technical points. 

In the seamstress's basket 

To make Jacques, you will need: 

• about 70cm of soft cotton jersey  
• a soft elastic special for boxers
• some matching or contrasting threads depending on taste and desire 

In the shop, you will find super soft elastics specially designed for boxers in a beautiful range of colors and at a great quality/price ratio. You can play with colors by staying tone-on-tone, choosing contrasting colors, or even why not fluorescent?

While it is possible to sew Jacques entirely with a sewing machine, if you have a serger, now is the perfect time to use it for assembling Jacques; you'll save time and get better finishes. Don't forget to equip your sewing machine and/or serger with special jersey needles. You can also use a twin needle for hems or even do them with a coverstitch machine.

Finally, it's a great opportunity to use your jersey scraps and/or choose original patterns!

The technical stitches to sew Jacques 

Jacques, even though it is rated level 1 out of 4 in sewing difficulty, has quite a few technical stitches 😊. I also invite you to read or reread the article on knit fabrics if you have never sewn this material before starting. 

The technical stitches are:

• assembling the front with sheath sewing 
• hemming with the twin needle
• attaching the elastic with a zigzag stitch. For attaching the elastic, I lengthened the stitch and thickened it to make it more aesthetic. 

The sewing technique called sheath requires a specific placement of the pieces (often called the sausage or burrito technique 😊). I invite you to watch the video below at 2:43 to understand how to do it. You'll see with the video; it's much easier. 

There you go, I hope this article has inspired you to make underwear for all the gentlemen and young men around you. 

 Get your needles ready!