My new 1945 underpants!

From Simplicity 1960 - box shorts from 1945

Since I was basically snowed in yesterday with two hyperactive chihuahuas,  I threw myself into my Forties boxers project whole hog.  They sewed up without a hitch -- ok, with a hitch, well, two, but nothing insurmountable.

You'll recall my pattern:

From Simplicity 1960 - box shorts from 1945

Eat your heart out, Calvin Klein.

From Simplicity 1960 - box shorts from 1945

From Simplicity 1960 - box shorts from 1945

I think I have more of a 1945 body than a 2010 one; who knew?

From Simplicity 1960 - box shorts from 1945

And yet they mainly remind me of this.

I made these boxers out of the remainder of an old cotton/poly sheet I'd made a shirt with last summer.  You know me and the vintage sheets...

Needless to say, these are no ordinary boxers.  For one thing, they have a two-piece waistband in back, one side of which feeds through the other and attaches on the side.

Buttoned more loosely, they're fuller in the seat.

From Simplicity 1960 - box shorts from 1945

Each side piece has three buttons each, plus three buttons in front, for a grand total of nine buttons.  That's a lot of buttons if you ask me, but I didn't think velcro was right for the period.  Or hot glue.

I'd like to do these boxers again in something all cotton and maybe striped.  Since the waistband is cut parallel to the selvage and the legs are cut perpendicular, stripes would be graphically very cool, like the ones on the pattern envelope. For those, I'd go full-out Forties drag with cigarette, wristwatch and loafers.

So what do you think?

Yes?  No?

Maybe, but only in black and white?


P.S. You can read my full pattern review, with a link to more photos, here.