I bought handmade underpants on Etsy

Never Done: I bought handmade underpants on Etsy

I want to learn how to make underpants out of old t-shirts, so I went on Etsy to see if I could buy a pair to deconstruct and then reconstruct. I didn't actually find any t-shirt undies (although I've seen them before) but I did find some other really cute pairs that inspired me to make my own undies out of pretty floral fabric, which is, admittedly, not the same as upcycling an old t-shirt, but for those of us who have stacks of beautiful fabric which we've saving for just the perfect project, I think it's the moral equivalent of upcycling an old t-shirt. We already have it kicking around, and it's time to put it to good use.

And it just so happens that this week's mide (middah) is Frugality: Be careful with your money. And nice underwear is expensive! Not that I wear nice underwear. I wear Hanes cotton briefs. But I wish I wore nice underwear. I have one pair of nice underwear. They were sort of a joke, and sort of not a joke present for my mother, about four months before she died. About three or four years before she died (that's just a time marker -- this story had nothing to do with her being sick -- in fact it happened when she was perfectly well) she suddenly couldn't find three items. A blue nightie, some black undies, and her family bible -- the one with all the ancestors' names in it. She looked everywhere. She couldn't figure out what could have happened to them. She asked everyone. It turned into a joke she made at her own expense.

Then one year I drew her name in the annual Christmas gift exchange (I've written about this before -- we used to, at the end of every Passover seder, draw names for the Christmas gift exchange) and I decided to give her a new nightie, some new undies, and a new bible. When I was in Atlanta, I went into a lingerie store and bought her a really beautiful pair of Ed Hardy designer cotton briefs, and I also found her a beautiful Hebrew bible, and a lovely blue nightie. She wore the nightie, she liked the bible, and by the time she got the undies she had some medical stuff going on that made it impractical for her to wear them. After she died, and I was going through her clothes, I took the Ed Hardy gatkes, and they are now my special gatkes. And now I have this other pair, also special, which basically means I will hand wash, and I won't wear when I have my period.

But I want to learn how to make special undies for everyday use -- because really, shouldn't I always feel good about myself if, as my grandmother used to say, I should get hit by a bus -- or in less of a disaster scenario, shouldn't I get to enjoy a glimpse of pretty summer flowers on my panties? So I'm going to learn how to make them, and I still want to learn how to make them out of old t-shirts too. And if you want to help me figure out how to do it, please come on over. (We can even put a bird on it.)