Hi everyone! For my
second Minerva Crafts Blogger make I decided to bite the bullet and make some floral dungarees. There were a lot of firsts in this particular sewing project; mainly the sewing of flat-fell seams and figuring out how to attach a dungaree buckle! But, I made them because I wanted to try something new. Dungarees have not featured in my wardrobe since I was a toddler and I wanted to try out a new silhouette, which is more casual than my usual style.
I don't normally wear jeans or trousers because I just find skirts and dresses more comfortable, but I thought that using a stretch cotton could make my dungarees more comfortable to wear and it really does. That little bit of stretch makes a world of difference. I went with a floral, to make my dungarees more original, and so they fit in more with my style!
The fabric (being cotton) presses extremely well, which was really useful when doing the flat-felled seams. For flat-felled seams I'd recommend cutting your notches outside of the seam allowance, because they caught me out when I tried to fold them over. My top-stitching is decidedly iffy in places, but it's getting there! The floral print is fantastic at hiding the dodgy bits. You can hardly see the pockets!
The pattern I used was
Pauline Alice's Turia Dungarees. I interfaced the sides of the bib (which are on the bias) because after 1 line of top-stitching they were looking decidedly wavy. I hoped that the interfacing would straighten the sides of the bib out a bit, which it did. Next time, I would probably interface the whole bib, just to make it a bit more sturdy.
The trousers are designed to be slightly cropped, but I cut the length to that of the largest size. Next time I would add a couple more cm's. The back pockets are actually invisible! There are 5 pockets in the pattern, but I ended up doing 4, and leaving out the one on the front bib because I'd already done 4 and no-one would really be able to see it anyway!
Overall, I'm really pleased with them, and am glad that I decided to try a new silhouette. I will be getting a lot of wear out of them!
Thank you very much to Minerva Crafts for providing the fabric, and to Ed for taking pictures!
Lauren xx
