I have a serger but normally revert to sewing a tight short zig-zag or a stretch stitch on my regular machine.

JM, I use a tight zig zag stitch for middle seam and make top seam to hide the string waist band. A wider zip zag stitch to attach the small elastic on the pouches sides. I wish I had purchased a more expensive sewing machine that had at least 7 feed dogs. The thin stretchy fabric tends to get caught under needle plate, setting tension and using new needles help, but not always. Testing a sample of fabric is really critical to prevent skipped stitches.

I point mostly up, probably given my size. I prefer wider fronts on thongs, bikinis, briefs so there is room there to point up. Not a huge fan of pouches so everything is held in place (usually up). Only time I am down is if I'm going commando.

Im glad this thread came up because ive always pointed down but used an app called bodyspace to track my fitness and i came across an influencer type, older gent, who modelled thongs and i noticed he always pointed up and wondered if i had be wearing them wrong all these years. Ive since tried up and down and cant figure out my preference. When recently using a french spa whilst on holiday i decided to after a couple of drinks and courage filled wear a couple of thongs in the spa and decided to point up day one, wearing a doreanse string thong in black and found it very comfortable. The next day i wore a hom plume string in grey and faced down and found my bulge was more noticeable and was actually conscious of it. The spa did have a few other people in it to be fair and night one was empty. When wearing daily I always point down as I naturally sit that way. So I guess I wonder if it makes a difference when wearing in publicly as to which direction you point because under clothes it’s hidden anyway.