Changing a pattern from elastic to Fold-over elastic

Have you ever bought or designed a pattern that requires elastic but then wanted to do make that pattern with fold over elastic? It’s super simple to do.

You don’t need a new pattern, you just need to take off the seam allowance. Seam allowances on briefs are usually 6mm. So all you need to do is take 6mm off the seam which the elastic goes on.

Altering a brief pattern from elastic to fold-over elastic

So, for a brief this looks like taking off the the 6mm on the waist and legs, you don’t even have to measure in 6mm from the edge, I usually find a highlighter and highlight the edge.Usually a width of a highlighter is 5 or 6mm, so draw around the waist and legs and then chop off the mark you’ve drawn (see the video and I show you). This means you end up with no seam allowance which is perfect for the fold-over elastic as that is an elastic which requires no seam allowance.

And that’s it. It’s a really simple pattern alteration to start with.

A brief transformed with fold-over elastic